Limbo by Bernard Wolfe

https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/a-brotherhood-of-man

An American ex-pat prone to sarcastic musings discovers after long isolation
the effort a few well-written, misinterpreted words can have on the world.
--
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In article <t9euj5$h34$1@reader2.panix.com>,
James Nicoll <jdnicoll@panix.com> wrote:
>Limbo by Bernard Wolfe
>
>https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/a-brotherhood-of-man
>
>An American ex-pat prone to sarcastic musings discovers after long isolation
>the effort a few well-written, misinterpreted words can have on the world.

Crap nuggets. Effect, not effort.

Wolfe was Leon Trotsky's secretary for a while.
--
My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

On Tuesday, June 28, 2022 at 9:15:00 AM UTC-4, James Nicoll wrote:
> In article <t9euj5$h34$1...@reader2.panix.com>,
> James Nicoll <jdni...@panix.com> wrote:
> >Limbo by Bernard Wolfe
> >
> >https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/a-brotherhood-of-man
> >
> >An American ex-pat prone to sarcastic musings discovers after long isolation
> >the effort a few well-written, misinterpreted words can have on the world.
> Crap nuggets. Effect, not effort.
>
> Wolfe was Leon Trotsky's secretary for a while.

Secretary-cum-bodyguard. To quote Bertrand M. Patenaude's
_Trotsky: Downfall of a Revolutionary_:

"The Blue House [where Trotsky stayed in Mexico] was drafty and
without heat, and it could get chilly at night 7,500 feet up on the
plateau , with temperatures dipping into the forties. Seated at the
twenty-foot-long lemon yellow dining room table cluttered at one
end with typewriters, books, and papers, Wolfe preoccupied
himself nightly [in early 1937] by disassembling and then
reassembling the Luger he had been issued." (p. 122)

Eventually Trotsky noticed what was going on and his people
started looking for "a sturdier man to replace Wolfe".

Years later, Wolfe wrote _The Great Prince Died_ (1959), a novel
based on Trotsky's assassination.

On 6/28/2022 6:09 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
> Limbo by Bernard Wolfe
>
> https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/a-brotherhood-of-man
>
> An American ex-pat prone to sarcastic musings discovers after long isolation
> the effect a few well-written, misinterpreted words can have on the world.

Sounds like a SF book from 1952 is describing the current US political
arguments over the US Constitution.

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

Ahasuerus <ahasuerus@email.com> wrote:
>
> Years later, Wolfe wrote _The Great Prince Died_ (1959), a novel
> based on Trotsky's assassination.

I enjoyed Wolfe's memoir _Memoirs of a Not Altogether Shy Pornographer_,
the title of which hints on his other literary productions (and is an
allusion to the memoirs of a friend IIRC).