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A review by book_concierge
The Cold Millions by Jess Walter
4.0
Digital audiobook performed by Edoardo Ballerini, Gary Farmer, Marin Ireland, Cassandra Campbell, MacLeod Andrews, Tim Gerard Reynolds, Mike Ortego, Rex Anderson, Charlie Thurston, and Frankie Corzo.
Set in the early twentieth century, this novel focuses on the two Dolan brothers: sixteen-year-old Rye and his older brother Gig. Rye just wants a steady job and a home. Gig is more idealistic, fighting along other men to form unions and demand fair wages and better working conditions. Together, they live by their wits – hopping freights and forming alliances with those they feel might be able to help them.
In addition to the two Dolan brothers, Walter populates the work with a wide variety of memorable characters, from Jules (a Native American from Coeur d’Alene) to Ursula the Great (a vaudeville singer who performs with a live cougar) to Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (a nineteen-year-old feminist) to Lemuel Brand (a wealthy mining magnate). There are plots and subplots, twists and turns, allies who are really enemies, double and triple crosses, good guys who are really bad guys (and vice versa).
Based on actual events in 1909 Spokane, Washington (the Free Speech Fight and the formation of the International Workers of the World), at the novel’s core is a class struggle that is reminiscent of what America is undergoing now just over a hundred years later.
The story is told from multiple characters’ points of view, and some scenes are related more than once, giving the reader additional insight as the point of view changes in the same scenario. Walter has the ability to really put the reader right into the heart of the scene; I practically heard the sound of the train on the tracks, smelled the odor of unwashed bodies, felt the chill of a cold jail cell.
Walter is a masterful storyteller and I was engaged and interested from beginning to end.
I listened to the audio which was masterfully performed by a cast of talented voice artists. This really brought the characters to life for me and made it easier to discern the changes in point of view. However, I think the complexity of the story might be better appreciated if read in text first.
Set in the early twentieth century, this novel focuses on the two Dolan brothers: sixteen-year-old Rye and his older brother Gig. Rye just wants a steady job and a home. Gig is more idealistic, fighting along other men to form unions and demand fair wages and better working conditions. Together, they live by their wits – hopping freights and forming alliances with those they feel might be able to help them.
In addition to the two Dolan brothers, Walter populates the work with a wide variety of memorable characters, from Jules (a Native American from Coeur d’Alene) to Ursula the Great (a vaudeville singer who performs with a live cougar) to Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (a nineteen-year-old feminist) to Lemuel Brand (a wealthy mining magnate). There are plots and subplots, twists and turns, allies who are really enemies, double and triple crosses, good guys who are really bad guys (and vice versa).
Based on actual events in 1909 Spokane, Washington (the Free Speech Fight and the formation of the International Workers of the World), at the novel’s core is a class struggle that is reminiscent of what America is undergoing now just over a hundred years later.
The story is told from multiple characters’ points of view, and some scenes are related more than once, giving the reader additional insight as the point of view changes in the same scenario. Walter has the ability to really put the reader right into the heart of the scene; I practically heard the sound of the train on the tracks, smelled the odor of unwashed bodies, felt the chill of a cold jail cell.
Walter is a masterful storyteller and I was engaged and interested from beginning to end.
I listened to the audio which was masterfully performed by a cast of talented voice artists. This really brought the characters to life for me and made it easier to discern the changes in point of view. However, I think the complexity of the story might be better appreciated if read in text first.