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The Hive

December 26, 2009
Book of the Day: The Hive, by Camilo José Cela
Grade: B+
First published: 1953
1-word review: Groupthink
6-word review: Normal folks aren't all that normal.

Franco's Spain has produced an excess of selfish, judgmental people among the lower middle-class. Cela tells their story as a series of interlocking vignettes. He revisits each of his numerous characters as needed throughout the novel, adding bit by bit to their collective story.

Francisco Franco was a Spanish dictator.


He ran his nation much as Idaho is run today. Spain was a single-party state, and its people were largely mindless automatons following whatever propaganda came their way. I shudder to think what Franco would have accomplished with Fox News.

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