Jake Home
New York: Harcourt, Brace, (1943). 8vo. Cloth. 503 p. 1st ed. Hanna 2333. Rideout p. 299. Prestridge 125. Blake p. 274. Moderate cover wear; else very good. [62578]
Novel of Jake Home, a working class giant whose politics matched his shock of red hair. Rideout states that McKenney's portrayal of her idealized proletarian "succeeded in producing something close to unconscious caricature." The book was received with decidedly mixed reviews, the notice in "Commonweal" being a good example: "503 closely-printed pages of melodrama, romance, humor, violence, commie propaganda, proletarian corn, and a certain amount of really fine writing - in short, good and bad, but nearly always readable and interesting." According to David A. Shannon ["The Decline of American Communism"] "Earl Browder [General Secretary of the Communist Party, U.S.A.], who was revered in the book to the point of embarrassmant, thought it was "awful, simply awful."
Price: $22.50