Thom reviewed In dubious battle by John Steinbeck
Review of 'In dubious battle' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Kicking off the year with Steinbeck, a novel set in California and dealing with unfair work practices by corrupt owners. The author described it this way - "I have used a small strike in an orchard valley as the symbol of man's eternal, bitter warfare with himself."
Three orchard owners working together cut the rates they pay their migrant apple pickers. They are backed up by corrupt government and vigilantes, and it is the latter that leads to the best quote from this novel. When describing the vigilantes, the main character says:
"Why, they're the dirtiest guys in any town. They're the same ones that burned the houses of old German people during the war. They're the same ones that lynch Negroes. They like to be cruel. They like to hurt people, and they always give it a nice name, patriotism or protecting the constitution. ... The owners use 'em, …
Kicking off the year with Steinbeck, a novel set in California and dealing with unfair work practices by corrupt owners. The author described it this way - "I have used a small strike in an orchard valley as the symbol of man's eternal, bitter warfare with himself."
Three orchard owners working together cut the rates they pay their migrant apple pickers. They are backed up by corrupt government and vigilantes, and it is the latter that leads to the best quote from this novel. When describing the vigilantes, the main character says:
"Why, they're the dirtiest guys in any town. They're the same ones that burned the houses of old German people during the war. They're the same ones that lynch Negroes. They like to be cruel. They like to hurt people, and they always give it a nice name, patriotism or protecting the constitution. ... The owners use 'em, tell 'em we have to protect the people against reds. Y'see that lets 'em burn houses and torture and beat people with no danger. And that's all they want to do, anyway. They've got no guts; they'll only shoot from cover, or gang a man when they're ten to one. I guess they're about the worst scum in the world."
Clearly these "proud" vigilantes haven't changed much since 1936.
The story is mostly portrayed through the dialog of the characters, especially Doc Burton, whose more humanist point of view provides an excellent counterpoint to the main characters. Unfortunately the women in the story are all weakly written, mostly cooking and cowering. Steinbeck would improve on that some in future years.
This was a pretty good book, a great way to kick off 2022. It appeared on then-candidate Barack Obama's list of favorite books. James Franco made this into a film, which I haven't seen.