Hammer and Tickle
The Story of Communism, a Political System Almost Laughed Out of Existence
by Ben Lewis (Pegasus)
The Marxism Lewis writes about is sort of a combination of Karl and Groucho. And while he has chapters like “Laughter under Lenin” and “Stalin and the Grim Grin,” he says “the 1960s was the golden age of Communist jokes.” While some of the humor —satire, cartoons, jokes, anekdoty — are political, many deal with everyday life, such as: “What is colder than the cold water in Romania? The hot water.”
Raising Jake
by Charlie Carillo (Kensington)
You can take the boy out of the city but you can’t take the city out of the boy. That’s the lesson we learn from author Carillo, a former New York Post reporter who grew up in Queens and now lives where they sing “God Save the Queen,” but hasn’t lost his New York voice. In his long-awaited second novel, divorced dad Sammy Sullivan is a veteran rewrite man on the desk of a New York tabloid. All at once, his son is expelled from his Upper West Side prep school and he is fired from the paper. Free from responsibility — and with the boy’s mom out of town — the two try to reconnect, spending a weekend in Sammy’s old Queens neighborhood.
We Saw Spain Die
Foreign Correspondents in the Spanish Civil War
by Paul Preston (Skyhorse)
Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, Martha Gellhorn, W.H. Auden, George Orwell, The roster of writers who flooded Spain to report on its bloody civil war is impressive. More than 1,000 foreign journalists went and Preston, a British historian, lets us know the lesser-knowns as well. A highlight: Times of London correspondent George Steer’s report from Guernica after the horrific fascist bombing of civilians there.
Essays
by Wallace Shawn (Haymarket)
Wallace Shawn is one of those New York Renaissance types — playwright, screenwriter, actor. He even has a recurring role on “Gossip Girl.” Now, the son of longtime New Yorker editor William Shawn has added author to his resume. In his thoughtful, self-deprecating work, he ruminates on art, politics, privilege and such New Yorkish subjects as the relationships between diner and restaurant staff in expensive establishments vs. inexpensive ones.
Major Farran’s Hat
by David Cesarani (Da Capo)
In May 1947, 16-year-old Jewish activist Alexander Rubowitz was abducted in broad daylight from the streets of Jerusalem. At the scene, a gray hat was found. The major of the title was a British WWII hero-turned-counterterrorism official and the discovery spawned an adventure worthy of James Bond. Cesarani dons his thriller cap to tell how Britain’s use of violent and extralegal activities helped hasten losing its mandate in Palestine.