Red Baker

Red Baker was a skilled steelworker who became jobless when the mill closed because of foreign competition as well as more efficient domestic competition. This book chronicles Red's personal downfall as well as those of several of his former co-workers. I personally don't see Red as quite the sympathetic character the some other reviewers do. Everyone who loses their job doesn't carry on in a out of control fashion as did Red; getting regularly drunk, cheating on his wife, being abusive to his son, engaging in brawls, taking amphetamines, participating in a robbery. Many other individuals who have lost their jobs have adjusted to the very real hardship and recognized they needed to do something constructive to improve the situation. Not easy. But, possible. Still a quick good read.

For those of us who remember the so-called Reagan revolution, RED BAKER will bring back unsettling memories of when unions were destroyed, jobs shipped overseas, and communities, with their deep roots and strong interpersonal connections, began to unravel. But RED BAKER is more than a novel about a particular time and place in America. It powerfully portrays the effect this era had on real people like Red Baker, his best friend Dog Donahue, and their families as they suffered the loss of jobs and eventually even their sense of self. And yet, RED BAKER is also a book of redemption, leaving the reader with a much-needed sense of hope. For as Red himself says, there may not be a story with a happy ending in Baltimore, but this comes as close to cutting it as any I have heard. It is a remarkable novel, a genuine classic, and one that could not be more timely.

This novel won the PEN West Best Novel of 1985 and is now is new in paperback. Ward, the author of seven novels, and is also a screenwriter who has worked on Hill Street Blues and Miami Vice. Red Baker is laid off from his 20-year job in the steel mills of Baltimore and loses it big time--drugs, booze and women (Crystal, a dancer at Lily's Bar). He and his friend Dog struggle to survive after the layoffs with horrible jobs and humiliation after humiliation. Red's wife Wanda and his teenage basketball star son, Ace, stick by him as much as they can, but it is difficult. Despairing, Dog and Red eventually succumb to the lure of crime, and Dog is killed. Now the man they robbed, Vinnie, is after Red. He is beat up and told he has a few weeks to return the money. Red thinks his only way out is to kill Vinnie, and he urges Wanda to take Ace and leave town. Wanda however, has a different idea. Red's family sticks by him, and helps hold him together. Ward has written a moving and compelling drama of blue-collar suffering and the desperate effort to survive. Armchair Interviews says: Although dark and heavy, the story has a redeeming end.

In the 1980s fortyish Red Baker was downsized as part of a sixty percent workforce reduction at Larmel Steel. He has few options as the industry laid off a large chunk of the lunch bucket brigade. His best friend Dog also fired blames the "Nips", but Red knows better. Still he fears telling his spouse and children even avoiding going home until he has no choice but to explain that his aspirations of the American dream have been shattered. Unable to cope with his inability to no longer take care of his family and considered non-trainable at his age, Red accepts menial jobs to bring in some income after unemployment checks end. However, he proves incapable of switching from a highly regarded skill of a steel worker to a car park attendant so he is fired. His esteem shatters further as his neighbors belittle him for not keeping a job; his wife Wanda, his son Ace, and Dog worry about him; even his mistress Crystal thinks he is losing it. Turning to alcohol and desperate, Red persuades Dog to do an act of stupidity. This is a reprint of an insightful 1980s character study in which a hard working honest man doing the right thing finds his beliefs castrated as he falls from despair to depression to amoral behavior. Red is a terrific protagonist who feels he played fair, but was unfairly treated by his firm and society. His relationship with his wife is falling apart, but that looks glowing compared to his son who cannot hide his animosity as his heroic father suddenly increasingly lets him down. Still poignant today, readers of deep social issues will appreciate Robert Ward's strong tale though the story line needs time to truly take off as the first segue introduces the audience to a stunned deer in the headlights Red. Readers will want to take the time to get to the meat of this terrific tale. Harriet Klausner

Highly evocative novel set in late 1970s/early 1980s de-industrializing Baltimore as seen through the eyes of permanently laid-off steelworker Red Baker. No prior knowledge of the milieu is required: A friend unfamiliar with the geographic and social specifics that Robert Ward describes attests to the fact that it conveys a feel for Baltimore's industrial decline, and the individual tragedies that accompanied its transition to a post-industrial economy.