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The Cold Millions: A Novel di Jess Walter
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The Cold Millions: A Novel (originale 2020; edizione 2020)

di Jess Walter (Autore)

UtentiRecensioniPopolaritàMedia votiCitazioni
7394230,280 (4.09)76
Fiction. Literature. Western. Historical Fiction. HTML:

A Most Anticipated Book by: The New York Times Book Review * Wall Street Journal * Time * Esquire * The Millions * Vogue * People * New York Post * USA Today * Medium * The Philadelphia Inquirer * Newsday

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Ruins comes another "literary miracle" (NPR)??a propulsive, richly entertaining novel about two brothers swept up in the turbulent class warfare of the early twentieth century.

An intimate story of brotherhood, love, sacrifice, and betrayal set against the panoramic backdrop of an early twentieth-century America that eerily echoes our own time, The Cold Millions offers a kaleidoscopic portrait of a nation grappling with the chasm between rich and poor, between harsh realities and simple dreams.

The Dolans live by their wits, jumping freight trains and lining up for day work at crooked job agencies. While sixteen-year-old Rye yearns for a steady job and a home, his older brother, Gig, dreams of a better world, fighting alongside other union men for fair pay and decent treatment. Enter Ursula the Great, a vaudeville singer who performs with a live cougar and introduces the brothers to a far more dangerous creature: a mining magnate determined to keep his wealth and his hold on Ursula.

Dubious of Gig's idealism, Rye finds himself drawn to a fearless nineteen-year-old activist and feminist named Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. But a storm is coming, threatening to overwhelm them all, and Rye will be forced to decide where he stands. Is it enough to win the occasional battle, even if you cannot win the war?

Featuring an unforgettable cast of cops and tramps, suffragists and socialists, madams and murderers, The Cold Millions is a tour de force from a "writer who has planted himself firmly in the first rank of American authors" (Boston Globe).… (altro)

Utente:burritapal
Titolo:The Cold Millions: A Novel
Autori:Jess Walter (Autore)
Info:Harper (2020), Edition: 1st Edition, 352 pages
Collezioni:La tua biblioteca, In lettura
Voto:*****
Etichette:Nessuno

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The Cold Millions di Jess Walter (2020)

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» Vedi le 76 citazioni

Two brothers, trying to keep their heads above water, searching for work in the tumult of the early twentieth century. Walter presents a story of love and longing amidst poverty and riches, graft and kindness. ( )
  ben_r47 | Feb 22, 2024 |
Predictable, impossible plot. 1 dimensional characters. DNF ( )
  CharleySweet | Jul 2, 2023 |
Spokane, Washington, in 1909 makes a volatile mixture. Some townspeople get by, a few live in luxury, while a vast army of loggers, miners, prostitutes, and hobos struggles to exist. Into that cauldron leaps the I.W.W., the International Workers of the World, known as Wobblies, whose stated goal is to organize workers into a union that capital must recognize, and to do so without violence.

For that, they are called anarchists, revolutionaries, subversives, and agitators, chiefly at the behest of Spokane’s wealthiest citizens, who own the mines, logging companies, real estate, flophouses, saloons, and brothels. But the Wobblies won’t back down and have planned a Free Speech demonstration; the local constabulary, corrupt to the core, will be ready.

Before that happens, however, a policeman is killed, and suspicion immediately falls on the migrant workers, tramps, and other “undesirables” who’ve floated into town. But the newcomers, among whom are sixteen-year-old Ryan (Rye) Dolan and his older brother Gregory (Gig), don’t know this yet. In fact, they know very little of what’s in store.

Gig’s a Wobbly (and a drunk), while Rye devotes himself to one cause, trying to keep his older brother out of trouble. Pigs will fly before he succeeds. And even after a violent confrontation with vigilantes who offer them the choice between getting flung in the river or a broken head, the brothers have seen nothing yet. After all, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn will come to lead the Free Speech demonstration.

Perhaps the most famous labor organizer in America at that time, Flynn, as Walter portrays her, is about the best stump speaker this side of Teddy Roosevelt and more than a match for any man foolish enough to debate her. But even the Wobblies’ labor allies wonder what a pretty, pregnant, nineteen-year-old “girl” is doing (a) away from her husband, and (b) speaking to workingmen, often in terms no modest wife would ever utter, even in private. The Dolan boys are smitten, especially Rye. I don’t blame him one bit.

With exceptional economy, prose, and storytelling punch, Walter justifies his considerable reputation with The Cold Millions. The narrative reads like a thriller about labor strife, with reversals thriving everywhere. Life’s a fight to the finish, and so much wrong blankets the landscape, you seldom know where right is hiding itself, let alone how to act accordingly. In other words, the novel captures the divisions and desperation of a bygone era that seem remarkably like the present.

Flynn is pure electricity, and you can see the sparks; the novel crackles whenever she appears. The Dolan brothers represent Everyman, men who’ve had hard luck and want only a fair chance to improve it. But as Ryan observes, “Hell, it took only your first day in a Montana flop or standing over your mother’s unmarked grave to know that equal was the one thing all men were not. A few lived like kings, and the rest hugged the dirt until it cracked open and took them home.”

What powerful stuff, and Walter deals it straight. There’s no sugarcoating, only an occasional kindness or flash of decency. Sometimes, you can tell the good guys and bad guys apart too easily, yet in the author’s defense, the stakes are such that there’s no straddling allowed. I do wish that Rye had more flaws; he makes mistakes, but usually out of naïveté, which he does his best to address. You pull for him, but I want to do so not just because he’s a trusting innocent. I want him to struggle more with evil instead of skirting it by instinct.

I also get impatient with digressions into the backgrounds of minor characters, a few of whom wind up dead shortly thereafter, which feels unfair to the reader. Yet I’ll give Walter credit for insisting on fleshing everybody out, even if the back story becomes intrusive.

There’s also no arguing with the overall effect, which is breathtaking. Walter captures a time, place, and mindset with such brilliance, he makes it look easy. And as a fellow Washingtonian, I salute his effort to portray the Wobblies, who left their mark on the Pacific Northwest a century ago and more. ( )
  Novelhistorian | Jan 25, 2023 |
Digital audiobook performed by Edoardo Ballerini, Gary Farmer, Marin Ireland, Cassandra Campbell, MacLeod Andrews, Tim Gerard Reynolds, Mike Ortego, Rex Anderson, Charlie Thurston, and Frankie Corzo.
4****

Set in the early twentieth century, this novel focuses on the two Dolan brothers: sixteen-year-old Rye and his older brother Gig. Rye just wants a steady job and a home. Gig is more idealistic, fighting along other men to form unions and demand fair wages and better working conditions. Together, they live by their wits – hopping freights and forming alliances with those they feel might be able to help them.

In addition to the two Dolan brothers, Walter populates the work with a wide variety of memorable characters, from Jules (a Native American from Coeur d’Alene) to Ursula the Great (a vaudeville singer who performs with a live cougar) to Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (a nineteen-year-old feminist) to Lemuel Brand (a wealthy mining magnate). There are plots and subplots, twists and turns, allies who are really enemies, double and triple crosses, good guys who are really bad guys (and vice versa).

Based on actual events in 1909 Spokane, Washington (the Free Speech Fight and the formation of the International Workers of the World), at the novel’s core is a class struggle that is reminiscent of what America is undergoing now just over a hundred years later.

The story is told from multiple characters’ points of view, and some scenes are related more than once, giving the reader additional insight as the point of view changes in the same scenario. Walter has the ability to really put the reader right into the heart of the scene; I practically heard the sound of the train on the tracks, smelled the odor of unwashed bodies, felt the chill of a cold jail cell.

Walter is a masterful storyteller and I was engaged and interested from beginning to end.

I listened to the audio which was masterfully performed by a cast of talented voice artists. This really brought the characters to life for me and made it easier to discern the changes in point of view. However, I think the complexity of the story might be better appreciated if read in text first. ( )
  BookConcierge | Nov 29, 2022 |
I liked the alternating points of view, it is always interesting reading a book from the points of view of different characters. When I first started reading this book back in 2020, it didn't speak to me, so I put it aside and I recently borrowed the audiobook from the library. I had to power through the first couple of chapters because again, it just wasn't speaking to me. I am glad that I did continue listening because the story was interesting. I liked following the Dolan brothers through their stories. I thought Ursula and Gurley were the most interesting characters and I love the epilogue and the information about the rest of Rye's life doled out in this section. ( )
  Shauna_Morrison | Nov 23, 2022 |
Irresistible hobo brothers, an evil tycoon, a pregnant union organizer, a burlesque star, and a shady private eye light up a tale of the great Northwest in the early 20th century...This tour de force is testimony to Walter's protean storytelling power and astounding ability to set a scene, any scene."
aggiunto da streamsong | modificaKirkus Reivews
 
Spokane in 1909 might not sound riveting—but when brothers Gig and Rye arrive from Montana, they land in a town teeming with interesting characters. Add in Jess Walters’ prodigious talent as an author who can weave a damn good story, and you’ve got one of the most accomplished and readable novels of the year.
aggiunto da streamsong | modificaAmazon Review, Chris Schluep
 
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Fiction. Literature. Western. Historical Fiction. HTML:

A Most Anticipated Book by: The New York Times Book Review * Wall Street Journal * Time * Esquire * The Millions * Vogue * People * New York Post * USA Today * Medium * The Philadelphia Inquirer * Newsday

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Ruins comes another "literary miracle" (NPR)??a propulsive, richly entertaining novel about two brothers swept up in the turbulent class warfare of the early twentieth century.

An intimate story of brotherhood, love, sacrifice, and betrayal set against the panoramic backdrop of an early twentieth-century America that eerily echoes our own time, The Cold Millions offers a kaleidoscopic portrait of a nation grappling with the chasm between rich and poor, between harsh realities and simple dreams.

The Dolans live by their wits, jumping freight trains and lining up for day work at crooked job agencies. While sixteen-year-old Rye yearns for a steady job and a home, his older brother, Gig, dreams of a better world, fighting alongside other union men for fair pay and decent treatment. Enter Ursula the Great, a vaudeville singer who performs with a live cougar and introduces the brothers to a far more dangerous creature: a mining magnate determined to keep his wealth and his hold on Ursula.

Dubious of Gig's idealism, Rye finds himself drawn to a fearless nineteen-year-old activist and feminist named Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. But a storm is coming, threatening to overwhelm them all, and Rye will be forced to decide where he stands. Is it enough to win the occasional battle, even if you cannot win the war?

Featuring an unforgettable cast of cops and tramps, suffragists and socialists, madams and murderers, The Cold Millions is a tour de force from a "writer who has planted himself firmly in the first rank of American authors" (Boston Globe).

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