Butte Is Endlessly Fascinating
I've finished Ivan Doig's fine novel about Butte, Work Song. It is set in 1919, in the midst of Butte's labor strife.
At that point, Butte was the largest city in Montana, with about 60,000 people. It was ruthlessly controlled by the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, which employed thugs to keep the working people intimidated.
Mr. Doig's story is about an unemployed accountant who meets working people at a genteel boarding house, and soon is converted to their views about the malevolent company. He is actually a scholar and brings some sense of history and perspective to his life, and suggests that songs have a powerful grip on people,and can be valuable to union organizers.
And there the story takes an odd turn, and Morrie, our hero, sets out to write some musical inspiration for his friends. The storyline is oddly genteel in dark and brutal Butte, but at the same time absorbing.
Thus, in a town where company goons, possibly Pinkerton men, have lynched an organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World, Doig takes us to inspirational music. That makes the novel unique and absorbing, and one I admire.
At that point, Butte was the largest city in Montana, with about 60,000 people. It was ruthlessly controlled by the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, which employed thugs to keep the working people intimidated.
Mr. Doig's story is about an unemployed accountant who meets working people at a genteel boarding house, and soon is converted to their views about the malevolent company. He is actually a scholar and brings some sense of history and perspective to his life, and suggests that songs have a powerful grip on people,and can be valuable to union organizers.
And there the story takes an odd turn, and Morrie, our hero, sets out to write some musical inspiration for his friends. The storyline is oddly genteel in dark and brutal Butte, but at the same time absorbing.
Thus, in a town where company goons, possibly Pinkerton men, have lynched an organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World, Doig takes us to inspirational music. That makes the novel unique and absorbing, and one I admire.
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