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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.52
EAN: 9780143039631
ISBN: 0143039636
Label: Penguin Classics
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 304
Publication Date: 2006-05-30
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Studio: Penguin Classics

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.

Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Top Class Steinbeck
Review: 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.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Great Steinbeck
Review: 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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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Steinbeck's Bait-and-Switch: A Good Writer Fails to Act
Review: I'm perhaps the only Steinbeck lover not to have yet read "Grapes of Wrath" or "East of Eden." Instead I have focused on "Of Mice and Men" and his lesser known works, such as "To a God Unknown" and, my personal favorite, "Pastures of Heaven." I've been enamored with his ability to vividly craft characters in particular.

When I began reading "In Dubious Battle," it appeared the most engaging of all Steinbeck's work. Telling the story of American Communist party workers Jim and Mac, it begins with the story of hardscrabble Jim initiating himself into Mac's radical cell. There is a great (and misleading) sense of intrigue - Mac and Jim travel by boxcar, work secretly through letters, go from secret contact to contact and finally arrive among disgruntled orchard workers. Early on, the pace is fast, exciting, and engaging.

Suddenly, Steinbeck simply fails to deliver, leaving the reader wondering when he's going to pick up the pace again. After Jim and Mac slowly initiate a worker's strike, I expected the sense of excitement to continue. It simply never does.

Summary of "In Dubious Battle" - Workers get mad. Workers get tired. Workers get mad. Workers get tired. Workers get mad. Workers get tired.

The rest of the book mostly concerns Jim and Mac talking - and talking - and talking - and talking. And while their philosophical chats are mildly interesting at first, they simply repeat themselves for the rest of the book. Most of the action takes place in the dark or far away from the narration, and most of the story simply concerns the strikers bickering over petty nonsense...

...and eating. Steinbeck must have been peckish while writing this story, because at least a good 25% of the story concerns finding, eating, and (worst of all) TALKING about food. There is plenty of action that Steinbeck could have shown during the story, but for some reason he prefers to focus on Jim and Mac endlessly walking from tent to tent in their encampment, discussing whatever comes to mind.

Steinbeck's sense of intrigue and social injustice is worth reading the first few chapters. But I advise any reader of "In Dubious Battle" to take this course - after the strike is initiated, simply set the book down. You won't miss anything. Nothing of great import happens, and only a very few memorable characters ever surface, and they are lost among the sea of forgettable faces.

I suppose now I'll give "Grapes of Wrath" a go. Perhaps if it isn't one of his "greats," it isn't worth reading.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Steinbeck's finest work
Review: It is one book i read over and over. This and the Grapes of wrath should be must reading in High schools. (however the way this contry is being attacked by our home grown anti-intellectual fundamentalists I fear this won't happen anytime soon)

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: "Man hates himself"
Review: When I read a novel I never over analyze it or try to read between the lines or ponder the symbolism of different objects, I just read the book and try to enjoy the story. The main reason is because my brain is the size of a Fig Newton (but chewier) and also because I really don't care. I read for enjoyment not to blow an o-ring agonizing about the philosophical conclusion of the whole thing.

That bit of useless ranting over, I really enjoyed this book. Steinbeck has such a seemingly effortless way of making everyday events so exciting and touching to read about.

Mac and Jim are two Communists who get jobs as apple pickers then quickly earn some of the work leaders trust and start edging the already angry workers toward a Valley wide strike.

That's really about it, but as with everything I've read by Steinbeck it has a profound feeling of humanity and beauty that I can't explain.

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