Work Song
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Work Song

3.62 of 5 stars 3.62  ·  rating details  ·  521 ratings  ·  206 reviews
An award-winning and beloved novelist of the American West spins the further adventures of a favorite character, in one of his richest historical settings yet.

"If America was a melting pot, Butte would be its boiling point," observes Morrie Morgan, the itinerant teacher, walking encyclopedia, and inveterate charmer last seen leaving a one-room schoolhouse in Ma...more
Hardcover, 288 pages
Published June 29th 2010 by Riverhead Hardcover (first published 2010)
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Julie
Julie rated it 3 of 5 stars
Recommended to Julie by: Indiebound.org
Have you read The Great Brain series, John Dennis Fitzgerald's collection of Western Americana, set in Utah in the late 1800s? The based-loosely-on-the author's-childhood stories are told by young John Fitzgerald and recount the adventures, mishaps, misdemeanors, and rebellions of his precocious older brother, Tom. If you haven't, you are in for a whale of a treat. Although meant for adolescents, adults will appreciate the sophisticated themes Fitzgerald offers up: an Irish Catholic family at cu...more
Jackie
Jackie rated it 4 of 5 stars
Mr. Doig is a true talent. I love what he does with words.

This little narrative of the "further adventures" of Morrie (The Whistling Season) had me from the second sentence: "The depot agent, an individual so slow I thought I might have to draw a line on the floor to see him move..."

Morrie is such a fun character - as were the other ones populating this book. The pictures remain vivid in my mind. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book - and it i...more
Mary Lou
Mary Lou rated it 3 of 5 stars
Shelves: 2010, lo-bookgroup
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Jim Leffert
This sequel to Doig's wonderful novel, The Whistling Season, is a tasty morsel, a lagniappe rather than a substantial offering. Incongruously, Doig turns a tumultuous chapter in American history--the struggle between workingmen (miners) and big corporations (a mining company, in this instance) into the foundation for a charming, fanciful, semi-comedic romantic tale. Although the period is a bit earlier and the metal is silver, not copper, I highly recommend Big Trouble by J. Anthony Lukas for a ...more
Bookmarks Magazine
Every once in a while, critics are so divided on their opinion of a novel as to leave readers scratching their heads in bewilderment. Witness Work Song. Sure, its plot is a little thin, and it's "history lite." Yet most critics praise Doig, a veteran writer of the West, for his ability to weave a story out of the familiar Montana countryside--or his panoramic, loving portrayal of those landscapes--and they explain Doig's hold on readers as the result of an avuncular blend of history an...more
Martha Davis
Summery: An award-winning and beloved novelist of the American West spins the further adventures of a favorite character, in one of his richest historical settings yet.

“If America was a melting pot, Butte would be its boiling point,” observes Morrie Morgan, the itinerant teacher, walking encyclopedia, and inveterate charmer last seen leaving a one-room schoolhouse in Marias Coulee, the stage he stole in Ivan Doig’s 2006 The Whistling Season. A decade later, Morrie is back in Montana, a...more
Jennifer
Although I have not read the first in this series (Whistling Season) I felt like this book stood on its own just fine. I found it fascinating to read about Butte, still a wild west type town even after WWI. It was not clear to me even at the end that we were meant to take sides. The good guys were clearly the miners, but not necessarily their union. I thought the author did a great job presenting all the sides and the challenges using one main character who does not have all the information ever...more
Alan
Alan rated it 4 of 5 stars
Shelves: first-reads
I was excited to win this book in a Goodreads Giveaway. This is my third Ivan Doig novel and was surprised to see one of his books in the giveaway list; I'd only seen lesser known authors in the Giveaway section before.

In 1920 in Butte, Montana during a labor strike armed men hired as guards for the Anaconda Copper Co. fired on striking miners killing one miner and wounding several others. Relations between the miner's union and the company had been strained for years before th...more
Clif Hostetler
Doig crafts his prose with the skill of a poet, and tells his story with the down-home humor of a country yarn spinner. I think the author had a smile on his face when he wrote this book. Also, this is a book that can be read by a Victorian prude and not be embarrassed by explicit sexual content.

Morrie the school teacher from the previous book, The Whistling Season, provides the first person narrative in this story. Ten years have passed during which time Morrie has traveled the ...more
Kim
I love how it takes a while to get into the poetic language of a Doig book, but once you're into it, you're transported to the story's early 1900s Montana world. I also love how there's suspense and danger in his books, yet they retain a certain innocence. I don't remember the plot of Whistling Season very well, but I do remember really liking the character Morrie. This book follows his life working in a library in Butte, Montana, during a troublesome time between a big copper company, the miner...more
Jim
Jim added it
Morrie Morgan, last seen in The Whistling Season, turns up in Butte, Montana, in 1919. He finds a room in a boarding house run by an attractive widow. His first job in Butte is as a cryer (a paid mourner) for a funeral home but he soon finds his ideal job in the Butte Public Library. The boss is Samuel S. Sandison, who formerly ran the Triple S cattle ranch. Sandison contributed many fine books to the library.



Morrie finds himself dragged into the middle of the struggles between the local miners ...more
Sheila
Sheila rated it 3 of 5 stars
Morrie gets off the train in Butte Montana looking for the riches the copper mine town has to offer in the early 1900's. He is running from gangsters in Chicago. We learn his brother, Casper, a boxer threw a fight years before that resulted in money being made from a bet. His brother was murdered and Morris escaped as did Casper's wife, Rose. Rose met a widower in another town and remarried. Morrie has changed his name and grown a mustache. He finds lodging in a boarding house owned by Grace, an...more
Elizabeth
This novel is about Butte, Montana in 1919 and the struggle between the Anaconda Copper Mining Company and the union. It is also about our hero--a man who reads Latin, travels, fights, loves, etc. Ivan Doig is a splendid writer who is often classified as a "western writer." I guess that is because the landscape--usually Montana and the surrounding area--is part of the narrative. But that is too limiting--his characters are universal. I've read many of his novels (my favorite is "...more
Diana
Diana rated it 4 of 5 stars
This book is a sequel to “The Whistling Season” although a person doesn’t have to read the books in order to understand what is going on. After World War I, Morrie Morgan moves to Butte, Montana, the copper mining capital of the world. He finds a job in the local library which is managed by a former rancher with a chequered past. A former student of Morrie’s introduces her fiancé who is one of the men trying to gain rights for the miners. Morrie becomes involved in the effort to help unite t...more
Kani
Kani rated it 4 of 5 stars
Another Doig tale of little known history (in Montana of course!).... this time it is of the era between the great wars, the time during which my parents were born & much of the U.S. became (literally) electrified. Before the depression but after that "war to end all wars", there was the era of the Anaconda copper mine. This is not the story of the mine but of the workers & their struggle with the power of corporations. Life was different then & though it's not the wild west, it's a...more
Barbara
When Morris Morgan arrives in Butte, Montana, in 1919, he's not looking for a teaching job, his former line of work ten years earlier in The Whistling Season. He plans to use his accounting skills at the Anaconda Mining Company, which is furiously extracting copper from the Richest Hill on Earth. His plans change rapidly when he finds lodging with the widow of a miner killed on the Hill and her two eccentric lodgers, Hoop and Griff. Instead he takes a job as a cryer for a funeral home. At h...more
Samantha
*3.5 stars*
Okay, so it turns out that this book isn't really a sequel. Yeah, it deals with a character from a previous novel, but it would have made perfect sense going out of order.
This novel tells the story of Morrie Morgan, a man hiding out in Butte, Montana from the betting men in Chicago. Set in 1919, it explores a mining town at its height, when thousands of miners were digging for copper at every shift. As things heat up between the workers in the union and Anaconda, the men ...more
Deyanne
I was so enraptured with Whistling Season that this sequel came as a disappointment. The characterizations are rich and that is why I ranked this book a four instead of a three. Ideally, I would score it 3 1/2. I still savored sections, especially the description of Morrie's first visit to the Butte library. When discovered, the eccentric rancher that runs the library exclaims, "You look like a bookworm on a spree!" That aptly describes Morrie. Other characters in the book are equ...more
Karli
Karli rated it 5 of 5 stars
Shelves: 5-star-reads
I received an Uncorrected Proof of this book through the Goodreads Giveaways, and am so pleased with my prize.

The continuing story of Morris Morgan finds him stepping off a train in Butte, Montana just after WWI. He is hoping to find his fortune in the copper mines, and instead finds a boarding house that becomes a home, a former student who becomes a friend, and a librarian with a daunting past and a torn soul who hopes for redemption.

This is a wonderfully written sto...more
Mary
Mary rated it 4 of 5 stars
I love Ivan Doig, plain and simple. His writing about Montana enchants me, and that's tough to do, considering I AM a native 4th generation Montanan, making me (sadly) over critical.

Butte and Anaconda are colorful settings for ANY book, but Mr. Doig writes with a generosity toward the good people of the towns back in the mining boom, that few people recognize. Rough towns usually have sensational highlights; Butte is a veritable neon boulevard, historically, in that case!

...more
Betty410
Ivan Doig, as he did in a prior book "the Whistling Season" uses the English language to describe a place and a time and the people with a beautufully fine touch.
Butte, Montana, 1919. The copper mine, the miners, the boarding house, the library all fold together using as a main character, the man who ran away after the Whistling Season.
There is another book Doid wrote between these two--"Eleventh Man" that invites investigation.
Mentioning this author to a f...more
Kathy
Kathy rated it 4 of 5 stars
This sequel to Whistling Season also stands alone very well. The story is about the Anacona mine in Butte, the miners and the library and its importance as a community gathering place. In this time, union workers could be arrested for gathering in any public place. As usual, Doig builds strong and interesting characters and tells their story. We have 2 librarians, one a former vigilante, the other an intellectual running from the Chicago gambling mob. Combine that with a young sassy teacher...more
Brandon
I've liked Doig since Dancing at the Rascal Fair, mostly for his research and ability to weave regional history with personal tales. So I guess it's ironic that the historic details in some of his later books are what bug me. It's not that I don't want them -- especially in the case of this book about boomtown-days Butte, they're why I chose to read -- but they're kinda clunky, slipped into the storyline with not a great deal of subtlety. I want Doig to do the library work for me, but I don't wa...more
Terry
I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of this novel. The characters were brought to life vividly and I am defenseless when the author draws characters from another novel and weaves them into different relationships, a technique Madeleine L'Engle used frequently to good effect. The political aspects of the book were spot-on without being preachy. Even though I could see where the plot and subplots were going, I was pulled along to see how the expected resolution would be accomplished. Actually,...more
Sharon Huether
Work Song was just ok. I had read Ivan Doig's This House of Sky, which was a true story and thought Work Song was be a great book, it wasn't. The character Morrie, who come to Butte, Mt just after WW1 lives in a boarding house full of different characters, the miners Griff& Hoop. Morrie gets a job being a crier at a Funeral Home which he does well as reputation would have it. He then visits the local Library and starts reading the classics. Mr Sandison the manager observes him and offers him...more
Marilyn Getts
I enjoyed this title for several reasons. It takes place in Butte, Montana during the mining period. This period is wilder than our fascination with the "Wild West" of cowboys and six shooters. Work song has Unions, evil mine owners, gangsters, and a very clever man of all trades-Morrie. The fact that Morrie works in the library makes it very endearing to me. This period of the American West is largely overlooked and I was glad to see less about taming the West and more about envi...more
Steve Howes
This book starts off a bit slower than some of the author's earlier works but it turns out to be a wonderful story. It is a sequel to The Whistling Season, one of my favorite books. The story takes place in Butte, Montana in 1919 amid labor strife between miners and the Anaconda Company. Throw in a cantankerous old librarian with a dubious past and the IWW (Wobblies) and the results are a great book. Although this book stands alone, I would recommend reading The Whistling Season first so one...more
Kerry
Kerry rated it 5 of 5 stars
It was my first Ivan Doig read. I will read more! The cover really hooked my interest - I like books set in the old west. The book was an easy read, did not go too far in depth into the psyches of the characters, but yet you knew them. There were many insightful statements Doig made that were cause for reflection. By the end of the book, you did feel as tho you could perfectly envision Morrie. I want to go back and read the first Morrie book, The Whistling Season. A nice book, many stories withi...more
Mary Ellen
I got a free proof copy of this book through "freereads" program here on goodreads. It was kind of fun to start reading something a little bit before its release date.

Those who were fond of Doig's The Whistling Season will certainly enjoy Work Song. The book opens in 1919, and "Morrie Morris," the teacher in Whistling Season's one-room schoolhouse, has just arrived in Butte, Montana, a town wholly controlled by its number-one employer, Anaconda copper company. ...more
Luann
I was so sad to come to the end of this! I really do love Doig's characters. Something about this one didn't grab me up quite as much as The Whistling Season, but I still enjoyed it very much. I will definitely read any other books Doig writes in the future with any of these same characters. I'll also have to check out some of Doig's other twelve books.

While this book didn't grab me up quite as much, something to do with all the mining details, I think, there were many parts I really...more
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Ivan Doig was born in White Sulphur Springs, Montana to a family of homesteaders and ranch hands. After the death of his mother Berneta, on his sixth birthday, he was raised by his father Charles "Charlie" Doig and his grandmother Elizabeth "Bessie" Ringer. After several stints on ranches, they moved to Dupuyer, Pondera County, Montana in the north to herd sheep close to the Ro...more
More about Ivan Doig...
The Whistling Season Dancing at the Rascal Fair This House of Sky: Landscapes of a Western Mind English Creek Ride with Me, Mariah Montana

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