Review of "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" by B Traven

An absolute ripping yarn about American hobo-adventurers in Mexico in the 1920s, written by a mysterious perhaps-German author about whom almost nothing is known. I've known about B Traven for years and have thought about reading this, but it was only when I picked up a free copy at a tube station book drop that I finally got round to it - partly as a way of avoiding reading a heavier non-fiction book that I was supposed to be doing.

It's in a spare, hard-boiled style, with little description and not much introspection, and yet it was absolutely compelling reading that carried me on. The characters are casual workers who become gold prospectors, set in a background of reforming post-revolutionary Mexico, with Indians and Mestizos and bandits. There's some nods in the direction of progressive politics - a paean to the railway workers' union, a brief speech in favour of Bolshevism and Communism by one of the characters - but there's some racism that would be unacceptable now too.