Book Reviews Dabove, Juan P. (2007) Nightmares of the Lettered City: Banditry and Literature in Latin America, 1816 – 1929, University of Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, PA), ix + 381 pp. $60.00 hbk, $27.95 pbk. Dabove provides a detailed analysis of some of the great works of nineteenth and early twentieth-century Latin American literature. Out of the sheer volume of literary works cited by Dabove, he selects a small sample to focus on: Facundo o civilizaci ´ on y barbarie (Argentina, 1845), El gaucho Mart´ ın Fierro (1872) Os sert ˜ oes (1902), Los de abajo (1915–1916), Do ˜ na B´ arbara (1929) , discussing these works in relation to how the meaning and statues of bandits and banditry in Latin America was constructed by post- Independence elites and how these constructions were put to use in elite endeavours to build nations in the region. Through the use of an eclectic mix of analytical approaches, most notably those developed in Hobsbawm’s Bandits (2001) and Foucault’s Discipline and Punish (1977) , he demonstrates how complex the deployment of the figure of the bandit has been, moving well beyond the simple reduction of banditry as the ultimate Other to the civilisation fostered by Latin America’s nineteenth-century literate urban elites. Indeed, one of the most fascinating elements within the book is Dabove’s illustration of the differential status that bandits and banditry have taken on in Latin American literature in the portrayal of Otherness and the bearing such varying depictions had on the nation-building activities of the urban elites. Because of the depth of the analysis and the breath of texts covered, the book requires prior knowledge of the main works that Dabove discusses. Because of the breadth of the works referred to, especially in the earlier chapters, the book also appears fragmentary in its approach, a characteristic that at times becomes confusing for the reader. There are also sections when Dabove seems to be deliberately obscure or over-complex when discussing some points. These shortcoming are overcome in the latter part of the book where he provides a very detailed and well-documented account of the differential deployment of the figure of the bandit; as an irreconcilable. Other to the lettered (literate and contractual) civilisation of the city; as an alternative civilisation that can be mobilised to critique the nature and consequences of the civilisation embodied by elite nation-building projects; and as the origin of the nation state itself which has monopolised and legitimised the violence formerly practised by bandits for its own purposes. This treatment demonstrates how the figure of the bandit acts simultaneously as a signifier of the chaos and disorder of previous ages and as the foundation of the lettered city itself.  2009 The Authors. Journal compilation  2009 Society for Latin American Studies Bulletin of Latin American Research Vol. 28, No. 4 587