The Cold Millions (2020) By Jess Walter

 

Aside from being a phenomenally good read, The Cold Millions published last month includes a hidden gem: its Acknowledgements.  I have definitely never said that before, ever. In fact, I seldom read the Acknowledgements section of any book.

Written by bestselling author Jess Walter (Beautiful Ruins), The Cold Millions is a fictionalized history of union and “Wobbly” organizing in the mining and timber industries of the Pacific Northwest (Washington State, Idaho and Montana). “Wobbly” is the slang term for members of the Industrial Workers of the World. The novel is an understandable lesson on labor vs. industrial robber barons in American history.

The reason the Acknowledgements section is so great is because it is a “how-to” manual on writing historical fiction.  Walter did his homework, studying local history (the book is set in Spokane, where he lives) and meticulously researching relevant events in labor organizing in the first decades of the Twentieth Century; and key figures from the movement, one of the most prominent of which is Elizabeth Gurley Flynn – the protagonist in the novel -- better known to history as one of the founders of the ACLU and later as a member & Chairwoman of the American Communist Party.

Rebel Girl Song (written by Joe Hill)

Walter took these events and fictionalized versions of several real individuals -- Flynn, Acting Spokane Police Chief John Sullivan, labor lawyer Fred Moore, and many others -- and tied them altogether with a completely fictional cast of characters: showgirls Ursula the Great (the original and her successor), and the Dolan brothers -- Gig, and his younger brother Rye who serves as the primary narrator in the book.  The result was action packed and convincing novel, with a compelling Epilogue.

Recommendation:  Yes, a great reminder of a largely forgotten period of American history.

My Cat Yugoslavia (Finnish 2014, English Translation 2017) By Pajtim Statovci

 

My Cat Yugoslavia is an amazing and strange book. While not particularly an easy read, it is an excellent read.

The author Pajtim Statovci is a now 30-years old war refugee, born in Kosovo, living in Finland.  My Cat Yugoslavia, his first novel, is semi-autobiographical. He’s written two other novels, Crossing and Bolla, all three have won literary awards. 

How does one begin to talk about this book? 

Let’s start with the two main narrators: Emine, a girl first introduced to the reader as a teenager; and then leaping ahead twenty-some years, her son Bekim. Their lives are as complex as Yugoslavian history. 

They are ethnic Albanians from a village outside Pristina, the provincial seat of Kosovo, then a part of the Republic of Serbia, which became a part of Yugoslavia – a nation “created” from “leftover countries” by mapmakers in the aftermath of World War I (Paris 1919, Six Months That Changed the World by Margaret MacMillan). Yugoslavia contained three ethnic groups, and several erstwhile Republics.  By the end of World War II it had evolved into a communist country held together by Prime Minister, then dictator, Josip Tito. The book begins at the time of Tito’s death, which lead to multiple wars including the war between Serbia and Bosnia, the politics of which is well beyond my ability to simplify.

While still a teen, Emine is married off to a man from a neighboring village, who turns out to be abusive to her and their children. When the war breaks out the family flees Kosovo, eventually becoming refugees living in Finland. There are multiple topics crafted together in this novel: the issue of war refugees, the treatment of immigrants, the generational divide between immigrant parents raised in the old country and their children raised in the new country, abusive family relationships, and the impact all of this has on one’s ability to navigate one’s own life. 

With that as an overview, let me explain why I used “strange” to describe the novel.  There are other characters who play a role in the book: Bekim’s pet boa constrictor; and “The Cat,” a human with a cat persona that Bekim picked up in a gay bar and who became his first live-in relationship -- the cat and the snake do not like each other; and finally, a real cat who Bekim befriends near the end of the book while visiting the village where he was born back in Kosovo. 

Three or four chapters into reading My Cat Yugoslavia I was so confused I had to stop and start over. A helpful hint from my friend Daniel who sent me the book, clued me in that my difficulty was discerning when, from chapter to chapter, the first person narrator changed, which was frequently, as did the year and place the action was occurring. Forewarned, on the second go around I had little difficulty.   

Recommendation:  Highly recommended. This will definitely be a re-read in a few months after I’ve had time to digest it.