A Swindle of Cowbirds

A 1966 novel by Guthrie MacInnes and his last. It was a thinly veiled hatchet job on ideologies and artists he knew, especially writers, idealists and V. M. Straka candidates (including Torsten Ekstrom and Amarante Durand). These details suggest that he ran in similar social circles as Straka.

Although it became an international best-seller, the literary establishment largely dismissed the book and its caricaturizations. When asked about the criticisms of the book by a reporter from the NY Times, MacInnes (in)famously commented “That’s quite all right. Today, whilst my critics are buying sarnies from an automat, I shall purchase another island in the South Pacific.” He died 3 years later.