A review by cetian
Hammer & Tickle: A History of Communism Told Through Communist Jokes by Ben Lewis

3.0

Ben Lewis writes a very entertaining book. And an honest one, that almost seems to be influenced by Joe Sacco's way of reporting his own difficulties, faillures and successes in contacting sources, and writting about the process of investigating a lead, alternating it with the actual result. The book is a pleasant mix of personal accounts of how it was constructed, thought of, of the personal relationship with an artist from former GDR (East Germany) and what Lewis gathered and thinks about communist humour and communism. It's a nice reading and it's nice to know about the tension of Lewis ideas, (again it feels a little like Joe Sacco's execept that there is no journalistic carefull separation between opinion and fact). This is close to an essay, so Lewis' opinions are what the book is about, but it is quite unusual to "get them as opinions", and not as scientific evidence or intellectual reflexion - usually, in an essay, the author almost hides what he (obviously) thinks, making it the inevitably result of the (impersonal) intelect. The interesting structure of the book is this: a chronological walk through the history of communism, presented by its jokes, explained and contextualized, the different ages of communism separated in chapters, all of this alternated by commentary about how it was investigated, how his personal relationship with a (sucssessful) communist artist of nostalgia art was going on and his opinions on his own work. It's quite an interesting rhythm, informal and straightforward. The bibliography is very extensive, so for anyone interesting in developing the subject, Ben Lewis does provide references.