Work Song

1919 was one of the benchmark years in the history of the United States. I felt that well before I read John dos Passos' 1919. Workers in the US were struggling against big money, big business, and to recover from the effects of World War One, as well as to fight off the symptoms of the Spanish Influenza pan-epidemic that was sweeping the world. In my home city of Seattle, more than 65,000 workers walked off their jobs in February of that year in one of the first General Strikes in US history, and two months later steel workers struck in and around Pittsburgh, and in other steel mill areas. Industries lashed back against strikers, unions such as the WFM, IWW, and AF of L, and any person, organization, or company that showed any sympathy to them. While WWI had meant growth in many areas of American industries, the end of the war meant that prices and demand suddenly hit the skids. Subsequently, many industries and companies tried to decrease wages, none more notoriously than the copper industry, which was dominated by Anaconda of Butte, Montana. "Work Song" continues Ivan Doig's series of Montana-related novels, and is a worthy addition to the series. Morris Morgan, who we met in Doig's Whistling Season, a Novel, has returned to Montana after years of self-imposed exile in Australia and Tasmania, but rather than returning to the setting of the previous book, he has fetched up in Butte, home of "The Richest Hill On Earth" and of the Anaconda Copper Company. Butte was not a "company town" per se, but was still almost totally dominated by Anaconda. Morgan arrives in Butte two years after the infamous Speculator Mine fire, and the lynching murder of Frank Little, an IWW labor organizer, and strangers in Butte are suspect. I traveled to Butte three years ago, and was fascinated the city's architecture and history. The skyline is still dominated by the headframes of the mines, "glory holes" still dot the area, and of course, the Berkeley Pit is just north of downtown. Having watched the 2002 documentary "An Injury To One", about Frank Little's murder and the environmntal concerns around Butte, and having read Fire and Brimstone: The North Butte Mining Disaster of 1917 made "Work Song" even more enjoyable, and made me want return to Butte and explore more. Except for one book, I've thoroughly enjoyed everything I've ever read by Ivan Doig, and even the one I didn't enjoy so much was well done.

Some stories are just stories. Some are tales. This is a yarn. And by that I mean a tale told well, with lots of connecting threads. Ivan Doig has a masterly hand when it comes to spinning stories about the West. You can feel the grittiness of a mining town, the vast blueness of the skies, the diversity of the people who made up the towns that sometimes came fast and went just as fast. This story takes place in Butte's early days, when those skilled in mining came from every conceivable place - Cornwall, Wales, Italy, Finland, Germany, Ireland - and each group gravitated to their own part of town. Enter Morris Morgan - the name he adopts for his time in Butte. He is a literary man, trying to lose himself in the miasma of humanity in rough-and-ready Montana (his story continues from an earlier book, in which he's milked the Chicago mob for some money, and really needs to become someone else, somewhere else). He lands in Butte sans luggage, which was sent somewhere else; and presents himself at a local boarding house with only satchel in hand. Initially suspicious, the landlady eventually accepts him into her home, populated by herself and two retired miners, and Morgan sets about getting gainful employment. His adventures bring him to both an undertaker in need of assistance and a library, into which he is lured by his love of books - and into the employment thereafter of the larger-than-life curator of the library, Sandy Sandison, a former rancher who seems to have absorbed the town library by brute force, but whose personal collection is beyond compare. He sees something in Morgan that he approves of, and so Morgan finds a home at the library. Butte, however, is not without its troubles; it is basically under the strong control of the Anaconda Mine, and Anaconda is constantly at odds with the union. Morgan follows the comings and goings at the mine with a journalist's eye, while at the same time attracting the unwelcome attention of a pair of thugs in the employ of the mine who think he is an agitator. The story revolves around the growing tensions between the miners and the owners, and Morgan becomes an integral part of the labor movement in ways he accepts reluctantly. This book sweeps you along with the power of a great writer. The allusions to Morgan's prior life only add spice to his existence in Butte, and weaves the yarn further along, fleshing out the characters and creating some of the most memorable and outrageous protagonists I've read in this genre of fiction. Morgan's employer, Sandy Sandison, and his equally redoubtable wife Dora, come across as a couple not to be trifled with; the two retired miners at Morgan's boarding house, Griff and Hoop, seem joined at the hip; the landlady herself, a widow named Grace, manages by sheer will not to be pushed around by the mine owners, who want her land; and a former student of Morgan's shows up, with her union-organizer fiance, full of liberal-woman verve and ready to take on anybody pol

I have been a fan of Ivan Doig for a number of years so I was thrilled when Vine afforded me the opportunity to review a pre-publication version of Doig's latest work. While "Work Song" sees the return of Morrie Morris and Rabrab from one of Doig's last books "The Whistling Season", it is not necessary to read "The Whistling Season" first as each work can easily stand on its own. In addition to the two returning characters, "Work Song" introduces a number of other interesting characters in a story centered centered around the struggle between the Anaconda Mining Company, the union and the IWW which is trying to make in-roads with the workers. As with all of his previous work, Doig adeptly draws the reader into the story and his unique style allows one to easily visualize Montana life in a bygone era; if I am ever fortunate enough to visit the state of Montana, Ivan Doig's rich descriptions will be a primary driving factor. It was with bittersweet pleasure that I finished this book in near record time -- I was torn between wanting to spend every free moment engrossed in the book and wanting to savor the experience. I just hope that Ivan Doig rewards us with his next treasure in fewer than a two years.

Morgan Morris, once a teacher in a one room school house in Marias Coulee, Montana,("The Whistling Season")moves on to the wild recesses of Butte, Montana, copper capital of the world. Post WWI Butte is scene of depravity and desire. Gambling halls, entire streets of prostitution, and speakeasies that scream attract the hard driving miners to their respites. Fighting the crooked companies through their unions take most of these workman's souls and these wild streets are their fortifications. Morrie is a man of words, the prairie poet, the intellectual who takes up residence in a quiet boarding house owned by Grace, working in the town's library. However, he cannot blind himself to the violence and foreshadowing of even more to come. Meeting a former student of his and her Union husband catapults Morris right into the flames that threaten to bring Butte burning to the ground. Ivan Doig is a poet. A writer that can evoke emotions, sights, tempers, images, and conversation with the magic of his pen. Incredible wordsmith, he transport you back into Butte's heyday with the smell of cabbage in one neighborhood and marinara sauce in another. He unites you with the clash of angered hungry men against the cold, ruthless greed of mine companies. Flowing with beautiful English, he shares an ugly story that demands your attention and understanding. In my reader's opinion, Ivan Doig is pure genius. If you long for a fantastic story that is written with eloquent, descriptive, thought-provoking prose, then treat yourself. The pages of perfection are there gifted by a man who was born to write.

Doig's genius is character development, particularly quirky characters. That statement might be the kiss-of-death for some readers, but only if they haven't been introduced to Doig. Getting to know the men, women, and perhaps especially the children, who populate his stories is as much fun as reading a fast-action thriller. In Work Song, Doig plucks a secondary character, the mysterious teacher Morrie Morgan, from an earlier novel and sends him on an adventure of his own with only a passing reference to his back story. Morgan, escaping an unseemly former life, has landed in Butte, Montana. In no time at all, he becomes entangled in the lives of his landlady, the local union organizer, a skinny little kid who can run like the wind, and the town's gruff and fearsome librarian. Doig's writing is masterful and I found myself transported to Butte with absolutely no effort on my part except to open the book and start to read.