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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
This novel centers on Annie Clement, union organizer. She was a brave woman, living in an exciting time. Mother Jones and Ella Bloor also make appearances, as the book takes us through the strike at the copper mines in Michigan in 1913.
The author doesn’t change the main shape of Annie Clement’s life, but she invents other characters, moves things around, and even gives Annie an illicit romance. However Eva, a younger and wholly fictional character, often seems more real, and her story has a better narrative form.
The villain is James McNaughton, the manager of the copper mine, and he was a real person, but he comes off as rather cardboard in this novel. He’s just so cold and selfish, and yet he doesn’t suffer the fate of most villains in melodramas. In one scene, all his household help leave him, and he burns himself in the kitchen, but this doesn’t seem nearly satisfying enough a retribution.
And the author can’t do anything about the sad events which ended the strike. It’s a dramatic, informative, troubling book, flawed as fiction but still worth reading.
The author doesn’t change the main shape of Annie Clement’s life, but she invents other characters, moves things around, and even gives Annie an illicit romance. However Eva, a younger and wholly fictional character, often seems more real, and her story has a better narrative form.
The villain is James McNaughton, the manager of the copper mine, and he was a real person, but he comes off as rather cardboard in this novel. He’s just so cold and selfish, and yet he doesn’t suffer the fate of most villains in melodramas. In one scene, all his household help leave him, and he burns himself in the kitchen, but this doesn’t seem nearly satisfying enough a retribution.
And the author can’t do anything about the sad events which ended the strike. It’s a dramatic, informative, troubling book, flawed as fiction but still worth reading.
I think this historical novel would be an excellent addition to a high school reading list. In the stone age, we read The Jungle, but this retelling of a Michigan miners strike includes the women who were instrumental in organizing the strike.
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
informative
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Interested to read some history of an area close to me. Loved the way the story was told. Will definitely read more by this author.
This book should be read by every Michigander - at a minimum. I grew up in the lower peninsula and lived in the Keeweenaw most recently. And while I learned some of the history there - I had no idea about the conditions to this clear degree.I knew of Sisu but didn’t comprehend its depth. And I felt the anger when I lived there but I didn’t realize the century of time it has festered.
We can learn a lot by reading. And even tho this is a work of fiction, it is based and grounded in actual events and people’s lives. I have learned a lot from this book. The struggles conveyed continue today and this book gives me a clear perspective of them.
We can learn a lot by reading. And even tho this is a work of fiction, it is based and grounded in actual events and people’s lives. I have learned a lot from this book. The struggles conveyed continue today and this book gives me a clear perspective of them.
I finally got through this one. My biggest problem was that the storytelling caused such a visceral reaction within me at points that I had to set this one down and come back to it. Parts of this book made me exceedingly angry, and the point that though the events of 1913 were over a century ago, the same tactics that business can use, the xenophobia, and plight of people just looking to work and exist with the rights and dignity that should be afforded to every human being show that there is still a long way to go.