For Christmas, I ordered an mp3 player (Library of Classics) that was pre-loaded with 100 works of classic literature in an audio format. Each work is in the public domain and is read by amateurs, so the quality of the presentation is hit or miss. After sampling about a dozen more well-known offerings, I was left to select those with which I was less familiar. That is how I came across A Prisoner of Morro.

Upon learning the name of the author, Upton Sinclair, I said to myself, “wasn’t he the muck raking journalist of the early 20th century?” Same guy. Turns out Sinclair started off writing novels of which this was one. He made a good career move, because this work is simply awful. Set in the Spanish-American War, the story focuses on a young American naval cadet who accomplishes great feats during the naval blockade of Cuba. This is one of those stories where the hero undertakes the most death defying assignments, somehow avoiding he never ending hail of bullets which endlessly whizz by him as he single-handedly brings the Spanish military forces to its knees. I can’t think of a target audience naïve or silly enough to be entertained by this pap. ( )