Living Through Another Cuba

The Tent of the WickedRobert SwitzerNew York: Signet, 1956128 pagesWe begin in a despot's bedroom. Six soldiers enter, one throws the light switch, and the country's president is ordered out of bed. His mistress is a sound sleeper.This is the end of the Small Man's rule. He'd been expecting it. Where readers expecting it?In June 1949, on the occasion of the author's eighth short story for Esquire, the magazine reported that publishers had been urging Robert Switzer to write a novel. Did The Tent of the Wicked meet their expectations? Was it shopped around? Whatever happened, it didn't arrive for another seven years – and then only as a mass market paperback. That opening scene is also the first in his story 'The Small Man,' which had appeared in Esquire's March 1955 issue. Not identical, but pretty damn close, it runs from the beginning to the first line break: cliquez pour agrandir'The Small Man' is not a long story. This is the rest:The violent final scene is much the same as…