After reorganizing my library as explained in my
previous post, I discovered that
The Underdogs, by Mariano Azuela, given to me by my dad around the time we went to Mexico together in 2016, when I was trying to read more Mexican books - was the oldest book I had from the Western hemisphere that was not from the US. I chose this as my first book to read post reorg.
The Underdogs originally ran as a serial in a newspaper, and you can tell. The chapters are very short, each about the same length, and the narrative thread isn't strong. It's almost more a series of anecdotes than a continuous story.
In any case, the book follows a rag-tag group of anti-Federal soldiers (and a couple soldaderas) during the Mexican Revolutions as they plunder villages, get drunk, loot valuables, and commit more than one sexual assault. And yet, these are the heroes of the book, which is not to say treats them entirely sympathetically. By the end, they truly don't know what they are fighting for. Every village has already been stripped bare and many among their group are dead.
