B. Traven

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Andrew John Kinney

I somehow stumbled onto the fact that that wonderful movie was based on a book written by the enigmatic B. Traven, and I decided to give the book a try. I'm glad I did. The book has a sufficient number of differences from the movie that the reader who knows the movie well will not be bored, and the additional stories and history found in the book are worthy additions to the tale told by the movie. 

B. Traven was apparently a German communist or anarchist who fled Bavaria for Mexico under sentence of death, but little is known for certain. If that story of his early life is true, it explains some of the book's digressions on the abuse of workers by capitalists, governments, and the church.

Some of the dialogue is dated, and Traven disguises actual obscenities and vulgar language with phonetic approximations, but in general, the plot gallops.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

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