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In Dubious Battle (Penguin Classics)
Binding: Paperback
Author: John Steinbeck
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Features:
Average Rating: 4.5
Total Customer Reviews: 43
List Price: $16.00
Our Price: $10.88
Sales Rank: 322356
Product Description
Today, nearly forty years after his death, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck remains one of America’s greatest writers and cultural figures. We have begun publishing his many works for the first time as blackspine Penguin Classics featuring eye-catching, newly commissioned art. This season we continue with the seven spectacular and influential books East of Eden, Cannery Row, In Dubious Battle, The Long Valley, The Moon Is Down, The Pastures of Heaven, and Tortilla Flat. Penguin Classics is proud to present these seminal works to a new generation of readers—and to the many who revisit them again and again.
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Users Product Reviews: |
Product Review Summary: Little known work I am a big Steinbeck fan and have read most of his books. I like them all, but this one is a very gripping tale about farm labor and unions in the California central valley. It is a very moving book.
Product Review Summary: For the Party Unlike Steinbeck's other works, "In Dubious Battle" exhibits much more of a social conscience toward the need of the average man. Aside from "The Grape of Wrath" and "The Moon is Down", this trait of Steinbeck is not always evident in his work. Although communism is never mentioned by name, the book is centered around the laborers that organize in a fruit strike in the California Valley. In his storytelling, flaws are revealed on both ends of the spectrum so it would be inaccurate to call this book pro-communist. Yet the pro-labor leanings expressed in the book may reveal a preference.
Jim Nolan is new to the movement, leaving his past life with the idea of making a difference. While he initially seems to be the main character, the focus becomes quite broad. "The party" plans to incite a strike and seeks employment as pickers with this in mind. As the plot is sets up, the story moves somewhat slowly in the initial pages. The reader may find himself/herself waiting for the descent to begin as rage gradually builds among the workers.
As the strike begins, the characters begin to take shape in a form similar to characters in Steinbeck's other works. As the rules of working life are removed, some of the men struggle without structure in their lives. While Jim becomes familiar with the life of the party, Mac and London act as a guiding force with the future in mind. However, Doc is the steady force in the novel as he provides a remarkably objective eye toward the movement. Although his role is less prominent, he may be the most complete character in the book.
My only real disappointment in the novel is that I felt it ended to abruptly. The factions are headed toward what is seemingly their ultimate clash as the story draws to a close. While the answer of a war between communist and capitalistic ideas has seemingly been won in the real world, one has to wonder how it ended in the world created by John Steinbeck.
Product Review Summary: A Story of Struggle This book is solid. Steinbeck engages with the reader with symbolic themes such as struggle of the exploited proletariat and the dissenting views of 1930's America in this story about the rise of a local fruit pickers strike. As usual, Steinbeck does a great job throwing the reader into a vivid setting he has created- while at the same immersing the reader into the everyday struggle of the "working class" American with nothing to lose. Steinbeck's inclusion of real characters who are not shy to have a opposing opinion about the importance of the drive of the primary protagonists plays an vital role in the story. A must read for anyone fascinated with the frustrations of everyday workers, including their failure and successes.
Product Review Summary: Top Class Steinbeck This is one of those books that changes the way you see the world.
I've read a few of Steinbeck's books, including the big ones and some of the smaller ones.
In Dubious Battle is just as excellent as Grapes of Wrath, only in a smaller way. After I finished this book, I sat and thought for a long time, unable to get it out of my mind.
This is not to be missed. Entertaining and thought provoking.
Product Review Summary: Great Steinbeck I am a huge Steinbeck fan, and have always been. There are a some of his works that I appreciate more than others. Steinbeck captures the heart and the soul of the poverty stricken, the worker bees that keep the social wheels turning. He knows their mind and their emotions like he has been there with them and he believes what they have to say is of value. He brings a warmth and almost acceptance to the idea of being a Communist in America.
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