Bill Campbell of Hudson, Wis., writes:
I've just started re-reading Upton Sinclair's Lanny Budd series — 11 fat novels written in the 1940s. I read them the first time 40 years ago and enjoyed them thoroughly. Lanny Budd was the child of an American arms manufacturer. He grew up in privileged circumstances in France, and (as I recall) was involved in every significant event in the world through the Great Depression and World War II.
I'm only halfway through the first one, "World's End," but so far it's just as satisfying the second time around. Sinclair was quite a radical socialist; it's fun to read his anti-capitalist take on the first world war — Bernie Sanders on steroids. And the plot is engaging: Naive rich kid learns how about love, art, music, finance, politics, international finance and war.
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