Well done study of the last few years of Trotsky's life (with flashbacks to his experiences before and during the Russian Revolution), and a close following of the conspiracy that ultimately succeeded in murdering him. The inner workings of Trotsky's household are fascinating to watch unfold, particularly in light of the repeated tragedies (such as the baffling deaths of his two sons by his second wife). Definitely recommended. ( )

I bought this book when it first came out and when I began reading it, for some reason it didn't grab me and I put it aside. Having just read it now, years later, I cannot imagine what the problem was. This is a brilliantly-written and thoroughly-researched study of the very last years of Trotsky's life, the years of his exile in Mexico leading up to his murder by a Soviet agent in 1940. Patenaude tells the story well, with few signs of bias. Only once does he judge Trotsky negatively, referring to him as "the man who helped create the first totalitarian state, which even now he championed as the world's most advanced country". Much of the story is quite familiar territory, and yet it was still deeply sad to read of the fates of all those involved in this story -- the assassin Ramon Mercader feted in Moscow as a hero, the attempted assassin (the painter David Siqueiros, who led an earlier, botched raid on Trotsky's compound) going on to a glorious career as an artist, and the betrayal by Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, once Trotsky's closest friends in the country and his protectors, who went on to become Stalinists, members of the Mexican Communist Party. The Trotsky Patenaude discovers is a difficult man and a terrible politician, but a loving husband and father as well. Highly recommended. ( )

The author gets lost in background minutia from time to time, but for someone like me who knew next to nothing about Trotsky before reading the novel Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver, and Hitch 22 by Christopher Hitchens some of the background is necessary.

Skip this book and try something else if you believe that the only good communist is a dead communist. Read it if you are interested in understanding some of the complexities and differences between the various factions that were born and then died in the 20th Century.

I like all four of the other reviews that precede mine, so I merely second their comments instead of repeating them. ( )

What I really wanted was a biography of Trotsky's life. This is not that book. Bertrand Patenaude's book is specifically about Trotsky's 4(ish) years in Mexico and his assassination.

Richly detailed (sometimes too much so), the reader is taken into the tumultuous life of Trotsky as he tries to fend off Stalin, NKVD, the GRU, among other things. While trying to keep his revolutionary ideas alive, and promising the Mexican government not to interfere with their politics in exchange for asylum, Trotsky's life is an uneasy one.

It is true that his paranoia about Stalin and his assassination attempts was not mere paranoia. It is also true that Trotsky was not an easy man to work for or with. His stubbornness led to a revolving door of staff members and the decay of many friendships, including artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo.

Books like Trotsky give me a richer understanding of how the world got from "there" to "here." In this case, from the October Revolution in 1917 (which I wrote a paper about) to Stalin, Kruschev and, eventually Gorbachev and "glasnost." The thing about Marxist/socialist theory is that it routinely seem to fail to take into consideration humanity's inherent greed for money and power. Some of us just weren't hugged enough when we were kids.

Nit: Just how many times does the reader need to be told that Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros were the major muralists of Mexico of that time? ( )

An excellent portait of "Old Man" Trotsky and his final days. Regardless of your politics its hard not to feel a great deal of sympathy for Trotsky - hounded remorselessly by the GPU, his entire family either captured, executed or driven to suicide - his world gets smaller and smaller until it consists almost exclusively of his Mexican household. Does he appreciate this shrinking of his world? Probably yes but he doesn't give up. Neither does he make things any easier for himself; In Mexico due to the grace and influence of Diego Rivera he not only quarrels with him, but starts an affair with Frida Kahloe which Rivera is almost certainly aware of. Friends and would be supporters are constantly alienated by his harsh criticism and intellectual rigour.

At this distance Trotsky's faith in the establishment of a Fourth International seems hopelessly naive - but perhaps thats just because he doesn't see, as we see, the eventual assassin, Mercader, getting closer and closer to him.

Paternaude has written an excellent book - the characters and their motives are well drawn, the narrative witty and pacy, with the foreboding of the inevitability of his assassination lurking just over the horizon. Truely a death foretold.
The author also has the capacity to surprise - at this distance the relative strength of the American Communist movement which was providing most of Trotsky's protection is surprising. So is the willingness of well meaning comrades to inform for the GPU. As is the fact that a painter like Sigueros could down his paints to lead an armed raid on the Trotsky compound. Different times

This book is highly recommended ( )