A review by ridgewaygirl
The Cold Millions by Jess Walter

5.0

Well, this was fantastic. There's nothing fancy here, Jess Walter has written a straight-forward historical novel about labor unrest in Spokane, Washington in the early twentieth century, and it's so well-constructed and wears its research so effortlessly, that it's pretty much a perfect novel. I mean, the subject matter sounds both worthy and boring, but it is not. Walter uses a pair of brothers who, after riding the rails and picking up work here and there, end up in Spokane, sleeping on their Italian landlady's porch because it's a little cheaper than renting a room, getting meals at the Salvation Army. Gig, the charismatic older brother, falls for an actress in a variety show and joins the board of the local IWW, a labor union. His sixteen-year-old brother, Rye, just wants regular meals and some stability. As the police come down hard on the strikers, both Gig and Rye's lives are permanently altered.

No plot synopsis can show just how compelling a story Walter has crafted, or how well he has woven in real people and events with his fictional characters. I was sorry to reach the end of this wonderful novel.