Work Song

This novel is one of those interesting works of fiction that has a big backdrop to frame its story. The setting is the Big Sky country of Butte, Montana, in 1919, where copper mining, union organizing, and strike busting contribute to the political and economic upheaval of the post-WWI era. Narrator Jonathan Hogan is a natural choice for this book. His voice is warm and homey, like an old-time radio broadcast minus the static, but it also has a vague, detached quality that suits the vagabond Morrie Morgan, the personality at the heart of the story. Hogan's Irish and Welsh accents and his singing voice make his performance that much more authentic, and his wry delivery moves the story along. R.I.G. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

Starred review from May 10, 2010
Doig affectionately revisits Morris "Morrie" Morgan from the much-heralded The Whistling Season. Now, 10 years later, in 1919, Morrie lands in Butte, Mont., beholding the area's natural beauty that "made a person look twice." Scoring a job is a top priority, as is getting more face time with Grace Faraday, the alluring widow who runs the boardinghouse where he stays. Things, naturally, are complicated, as the fiendishly bookish Morrie is on the run from Chicago gangsters who feel they've been duped after he scored a windfall from a fixed sports wager. The local "shysters" at the duplicitous Anaconda Copper Mining Company, meanwhile, find Morrie's sudden interest in Butte highly suspicious as they try to bully Grace into selling her property. Morrie lands what might be an ideal job working at the public library with ex–cattle rancher Samuel Sandison, though our sturdy narrator must choose sides when the mining company ups the ante. Drama ebbs and flows as Morrie yields to the plight of union leader Jared Evans, and Morrie and Samuel come to terms with sins from their pasts. Charismatic dialogue and charming, homespun characterization make Doig's latest another surefire winner.