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    Work Song
    Work Song
    Work Song
    Audiobook9 hours

    Work Song

    Written by Ivan Doig

    Narrated by Jonathan Hogan

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    National Book Award finalist and Wallace Stegner Award winner Ivan Doig has garnered critical and popular acclaim for his vibrant, authentic tales of the American West. In Work Song he takes listeners to Butte, Montana, in 1919 for the tale of one charmer’s efforts to elude Chicago gangsters.

    Stepping off the train in the world’s copper mining capital, Morris Morgan secures a room at the boarding house of an attractive widow he’d like to know better. As the erudite Morris begins working at the local library, he tries not to take sides in the labor dispute at the Anaconda Mining Company. But when he’s mistaken for an undercover union operative, he’s soon caught up in the seething ferment of an iron-fisted company, radical union agitators, and beleaguered miners.

    “More atmospheric, pleasingly old-fashioned storytelling from Doig, whose ear for the way people spoke and thought in times gone by is as faultless as ever.”—Kirkus Reviews
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateNov 5, 2010
    ISBN9781449821395
    Work Song
    Author

    Ivan Doig

    Ivan Doig (1939-2015) was born in Montana and grew up along the Rocky Mountain Front, the dramatic landscape that has inspired much of his writing. A recipient of a lifetime Distinguished Achievement Award from the Western Literature Association, he is the author of fifteen novels and four works of nonfiction.

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    Reviews for Work Song

    4/5

    193 ratings39 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I think that Ivan Doig is one of the greatest living western writers. I thoroughly enjoyed his newest book, Work Song, which is the story of one Morrie Morgan in Butte, MT immediately following World War I. Copper mining, union activities, and the public library figure heavily in the plot of the novel. (Maybe it was the emphasis on the library that so captivated me!) Morrie previously appeared in a Doig novel set ten years earlier, The Whistling Season, when he did a stint as a teacher in a one-room school. Now he has moved on to library work after a period of time in New Zealand. Doig really brings Montana history to life. This one is a winner!
    • 4/5
      Morrie returns to Butte Montana, where the town is preparing for a miner's strike. Morrie is employed as librarian assistant to Sam Sandison also a book collector and former rancher. The union build up to the strike first by doing work action and then work to come up with their own WORK SONG just before the strike occurs. Morrie wins a gambling bet and decides to "move on" again but with one catch he is to marry Grace, the landlady of the boarding house where he was staying. If looking for a good, clean, read without violence but some a little threats than this might be for you. (Second book of Three book series).
    • 5/5
      I happened to see this book as a recommended book, for myself, after finishing The Whistling Season. I noticed the author's name and investigated to learn that Work Song is the second book in a series of 3. I was so excited.This book continued to hold my attention, just as the first did. This book follows Morgan for a bit.I loved the ending, and am looking forward to the next book.
    • 4/5
      Morrie Morgan has arrived in Butte, Montana just after the end of World War I. Morrie is “an itinerant teacher, walking encyclopedia, and inveterate charmer” who’s been attracted by news of “the richest hill on earth” and a need to get as far from Chicago as possible. While he lands a position at the local library, he’s also soon immersed in the miners’ struggles to form a union and fight for better working conditions and fair wages. What a charming and engaging story! Per the book jacket, Morgan first appeared in Doig’s The Whistling Season; I have not read that earlier work and didn’t feel I was missing any information to understand Morrie and follow this story.The pace is somewhat slow. As events unfold we learn about the residents of Butte – Sandison (former cattle baron, and still an acknowledged “big man” in town), Grace (Morrie’s young, pretty, widowed landlady), Griff & Hoop (two old miners who share the boarding house with Morrie), Barbara aka Rabrab (Morrie’s former student, now teaching 6th grade), Jared (a young union organizer, and engaged to Rabrab), and Russian Famine (a waif of a boy who needs guidance). The town, itself, is practically a character with its small café, prolonged Irish wakes, boisterous bar, festival celebration, and church gatherings. I liked Morrie’s slow, deliberate way of judging the situation. The bookworm in me loved all his literary references, and his ability to cite an appropriate passage, seemingly plucked out of thin air. Make no mistake, he’s no milquetoast librarian; Morrie can (and does) take care of himself, though he’s decidedly uncomfortable with firearms. Grace is a marvelous strong woman. Principled, kind, compassionate, feisty, courageous and conflicted. Doig’s skill at character building shows in the way her actions reveal her inner struggles. I need to go back and read The Whistling Season … heck, I need to read ALL of Ivan Doig’s works.
    • 3/5
      I was so excited when I won this book from the Good Reads Giveaways, as it was a book I was planning on buying when it came out. I loved the Whistling Season and couldn’t wait to read this follow-up book. Doig is a wonderful writer and storyteller. He really makes you feel like you are in Butte, MT in 1919-the Richest Hill in the world. His story is populated with eccentric and quirky characters like The Earl of Hell, who looks like Santa Claus and is in charge of local public library, Russian Famine, a 6th grader who gets his nickname because he is so thin and can’t sit still, Hoop and Griff, the mining partners who look like twins but are not related, and of course Morrie (Morris) Morgan, the walking encyclopedia from The Whistling Season.

      This is a character driven story, and the plot itself is a bit weak. Morrie Morgan comes to Butte to make his fortune in this booming cooper mining town and winds up working at the town’s library (the best collection of books west of Chicago). He inadvertently gets involved with the head of the mining union (via an ex-student of his from The Whistling Season) and helps them to write a catchy song to spur on their union cause. He also takes a fancy to his widowed landlady Grace-so there’s a bit of a love story going on too.

      The atmosphere, characters, and Doig’s evocative descriptions make up for the lack of plot and it was a highly enjoyable read. Although this is a stand alone book, I would suggest reading the Whistling season first, since much of the “mystery” of the first book is revealed in this book as common knowledge.
    • 3/5
      3.5 I enjoyed the humor in this book--kind of a cross between Wodehouse and Twain--light--in a western. I look forward to reading more from this author who was new to me.
    • 3/5
      *3.5 stars*
      Okay, so it turns out that this book isn't really a sequel. Yeah, it deals with a character from a previous novel, but it would have made perfect sense going out of order.
      This novel tells the story of Morrie Morgan, a man hiding out in Butte, Montana from the betting men in Chicago. Set in 1919, it explores a mining town at its height, when thousands of miners were digging for copper at every shift. As things heat up between the workers in the union and Anaconda, the men who own the mine, Morrie finds himself having to take sides-- something dangerous for any man, much less one that has a whole past to dig up.
      This book was enjoyable and I think I almost prefer it to Doig's last one, The Whistling Season. This one had a lot more suspense, but nonetheless, the plot did not move as quickly as I would have liked.
    • 4/5
      Good golly! Ivan Doig sure knows how to tell a story! Set in Butte, Montana, this is the story of a character I would describe as an all grown up Yom Sawyer. Morry has a big heart, a daring spirit and is a quick thinker which tends to get him into and out of tricky situations. The story pits a copper mining company against the union in a bit of a "high noon" atmosphere. It all comes down to a song...yep, a song. It has a love story, lots of tense situations, an urban legend librarian and more. Wonderful read!
    • 4/5
      This is the second part of Doig’s Morrie Morgan trilogy which begins with The Whistling Season. It's ten years later and Morrie has just arrived in Butte, Montana, a copper mining city, almost completely controlled by the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. He first takes a job as a Cryer ( a chief mourner at Irish wakes), but then finds a job that suits his literature loving background in the town’s library. Anaconda Copper has the workers in its grip, and as, the company threatens to cut wages, the miners’ plan to go on strike. A third group, The International Workers of the World , or IWW, are also competing for votes. It’s a time when labor agitators can be strung up from railroad bridges, so Morrie, as an unknown newcomer with a strong sympathy towards the miners, must walk carefully. Further care is needed as it looks like organized crime has also found Morrie, wanting revenge for a fixed boxing match involving Morrie’s brother.I lived in the area and worked in Butte for two years. Doig really caught the ambiance and the history of the Copper Kings’ copper collar around the throats of western Montana.Good story, solid history and Morrie is a great character. I’ll be looking forward to the third in this series. The more of Doig's books that I read, the better I seem to like him.
    • 4/5
      41. [Work Song] by Ivan Doig This is the middle volume of the trilogy that begins with [The Whistling Season] and concludes with [Sweet Thunder]. I read the first novel in 2012, and the third in 2013, having requested an ER copy not realizing the two were connected or that there was another in between. [Work Song] tells the story of Morrie Morgan's arrival in Butte, Montana, in 1919, where he hopes to make a fortune and escape his past. But, as well-read and resourceful as he is, even his best-laid plans are not proof against company goons and outside agitators as the miners take a stand against Anaconda Copper’s recent cut in their daily wages, and Morrie finds himself taking sides, against his better judgment. Morrie is one of my favorite characters of all time. He is charming; knowledgeable; good-intentioned but slightly unreliable (he’s apt to pack up and run---he’s done it before). A mining town on the brink of a strike is an odd place to set one, but this is pretty much a comfort read, when all is said and done. I’m fairly sure that I’ll be re-reading all three of these novels one day; they are very easy to settle into. I sure wish Doig could have stuck around and given us more of Morrie.
    • 5/5
      This book features Morrie Morgan, who previously appeared in as a schoolteacher in a one-room schoolhouse in [The Whistling Season]. This time, he's in Butte, living in a boarding house, working in a library, and mixing it up with a powerful mining company. In 1919, there are plenty of characters in Butte, but Morrie is a match for all of them. It makes for an entertaining series of events. Doig conveys time and place without pulling us out of the story, which is just one of the reasons that he's known as a pre-eminent storyteller of the West.
    • 5/5
      Solid Doig style, erudite, personally energized. The characters are credible and literately human. There is a love of life in these men and women. Doig has the character Sandison utter, in casual conversation, the Latin phrase Hic sunt dracones (Here be dragons). The only dragons in this story are props for the encouraging success of the other characters.
    • 4/5
      The main character was Morrie Morgan. A good old fashioned story with a lot of suspense and a little romance.
    • 4/5
      I preface this with the fact that I am a diehard Ivan Doig fan and read everything he writes and enjoy all his work. This book was enjoyable, different, good semi-history of Butte set in 1919. It wasn't my favorite Doig book and was slow and not compelling to read in places, but Doig does well with characters and in this book has some interesting side trips to places like Columbia Gardens, which I remember visiting in the 60s when I was impressed that such a cool place existed in Butte. As a Montanan, I felt it captured the spirit of Butte well. There is a film called Butte America which is a good way to explain that Butte is much different from the rest of Montana and much of the rest of America, so it can only be thought of as it's own very unique place carved from the history which Doig touches on here.
    • 4/5
      Doig is an excellent "wordsmith" - he writes in an easy and lyrical style - telling a good story with rich characters.
    • 4/5
      I don't read many westerns, but I'm glad I made an exception for this one. Doig has a clear, concise prose that is almost poetic. His ability to paint pictures, draw characters, and weave a story is quite amazing. He tells the tale of Morris Morgan who arrives in Butte with only the clothes on his back, who manages to secure a room in the boardinghouse of one Grace Faraday, and who, after working for several weeks as the 'cryer' for a funeral director, finds himself hired as the gopher in the public library. It seems our hero is classically educated and manages to impress the librarian with his knowledge and love of books. In the meantime, the owners of the copper mine--the major employer in the town-- are trying to bust the union, the miners are anxious about job security, and it appears they may be a past that our hero is dodging. A great story, beautifully written. It certainly whet my appetite for more by this writer.
    • 4/5
      Not one of Doig's best. A sequel, of sorts to "The Whistling Season" cented on the adventures, ten years later, of the main character, Morrie Morgan, in 1919 Butte, MT.Readable but with a few plot holes and strains on the suspension of disbelief. The setting is the star. Good depiction of Butte, even the faint echo I grew up with.
    • 3/5
      This book is follow-up of Morrie from the Whistling Season. Morrie is colorful but not as inspiring. Thought the middle of the book dragged on a bit.
    • 4/5
      This book is the sequel to Doig's Whistling Season. Once again, our protagonist the smart and slick talking Morgan Llewyllen, aka Morris Morgan alights from the train in Butte, Montana in 1919 in the midst of union struggles with the giant copper company Anaconda. He meets the miners at his boardinghouse and through his work with an undertaker and later at the public library. He gets drawn into the union struggle and helps the union write a rallying song. I thought this was rather a weak premise on which to base the entire plot! Of all the things involved in the early unions, surely coming up with a song is a minor issue. Anyway, Morgan escapes Butte just as the Chicago mob is about to catch up with him again, but with his widowed landlady, Grace, on his arm. We are set up for more sequels! I hope the next one has a stronger plot line and the same delightful characters!
    • 4/5
      Summery: An award-winning and beloved novelist of the American West spins the further adventures of a favorite character, in one of his richest historical settings yet.“If America was a melting pot, Butte would be its boiling point,” observes Morrie Morgan, the itinerant teacher, walking encyclopedia, and inveterate charmer last seen leaving a one-room schoolhouse in Marias Coulee, the stage he stole in Ivan Doig’s 2006 The Whistling Season. A decade later, Morrie is back in Montana, as the beguiling narrator of Work Song.Lured like so many others by “the richest hill on earth,” Morrie steps off the train in Butte, copper-mining capital of the world, in its jittery heyday of 1919. But while riches elude Morrie, once again a colorful cast of local characters-and their dramas-seek him out: a look-alike, sound-alike pair of retired Welsh miners; a streak-of-lightning waif so skinny that he is dubbed Russian Famine; a pair of mining company goons; a comely landlady propitiously named Grace; and an eccentric boss at the public library, his whispered nickname a source of inexplicable terror. When Morrie crosses paths with a lively former student, now engaged to a fiery young union leader, he is caught up in the mounting clash between the iron-fisted mining company, radical “outside agitators,” and the beleaguered miners. And as tensions above ground and below reach the explosion point, Morrie finds a unique way to give a voice to those who truly need one. — PenguinI first met Morrie Morgan in Doig’s Whistling Season and I remembered him well when I started to read Work Song. I know several members of my book club had a hard time getting into the story and I think my remembering Morrie helped me enjoy it from the start. You don’t have to have read the first book to follow this story. Actually, I think Doig does a really good job working the important story lines from the previous book. I think some authors have a very hard time working in past stories, especially if you’re read the earlier stories, it came seem very clunky and forced. That’s not the case here.I love almost any book that expounds on the glory of books and boy does this story. A big portion takes place in the fictional Butte Public Library (if it really existed I would be on the first train to Butte to move in). Morrie’s boss at the library, Sandi Sandison or the Earl of Hell as he’s know around town, has a collection of classic literature to make bibliophile drool. An ex-rancher, with his own shady past, he was one of the characters I just loved. He braved frost bite just to get something to read. How could I not love him?Morrie finds a way to get himself mixed up in the fight between the miner’s union and the copper mine and winds up on the wrong side of two company goons while leading the drive to find the perfect song to become the union anthem. What I liked about this book, which is what I liked about Whistling Season, is the words. Doig has a way of putting words together I find magical. It’s so lyrical I myself captivated by the language. I hadn’t finished it by the day of my book club but couldn’t bring myself to rush through it because I didn’t want to miss a word.Whistling Season and Work Song are the only two of Doig’s books I’ve read. Most of his others take place in Montana and seem to have western themes. Old West literature is not a type of fiction I read but I enjoyed two so much I’ll have to give the others a try. Even if I don’t love the stories I’m sure I love the words.
    • 4/5
      I imagine that Ivan Doig must be a kind, warm and humorous man. Certainly his stories have great warmth and humor and he treats his characters kindly, even those with somewhat poor morals and behaviour. This story is no exception. It continues with another episode in the life of Morrie, the wonderous schoolteacher in "The Whistling Season". Morrie meets some quirky denizens of the mining town of Butte, Montana, after the first World War. The characters are not drawn with the detail and depth of the latter book and the story is not nearly as magical. However it is entirely enjoyable and worth reading, especially to experience the life of the copper miners and their struggles against the Anaconda Company.
    • 5/5
      In 1919, Morris Morgan (from The Whistling Season) ends up back in Montana -- in Butte, where mining is king and he hopes to make lots of money. He gets caught up in the disputes between the mine owners and the miners; he boards with an attractive young widow and two retired Welsh miners; and he gets a job at the library which happens to house a miraculous collection of classics. Morrie is a character to remember and love. While not quite as memorable as The Whistling Season, this is another strong book by a skillful writer.
    • 3/5
      Although I have not read the first in this series (Whistling Season) I felt like this book stood on its own just fine. I found it fascinating to read about Butte, still a wild west type town even after WWI. It was not clear to me even at the end that we were meant to take sides. The good guys were clearly the miners, but not necessarily their union. There was a clear distinction between the Union and the IWW or wobblies. The IWW was communist and people didn't like them, the "union" was the mine worker's organization - their own. I also thought the references to Wilson and his policies were interesting. I would probably have missed them completely if I hadn't done some reading about W.Wilson and WWI this year.I thought the author did a great job presenting all the sides and the challenges using one main character who does not have all the information everyone else has. I followed him around and worried about him and was really interested to see where he ended up. I really liked the characters. I think my favorite minor (tee-hee) characters were Hoop and Griff. Morrie is entertaining and pedantic and charming, yet not infallible. I wanted to get to know Grace a little better. I was kind of surprised by the end - not shocked, but a little surprised.I'm giving this 3.5 stars.
    • 3/5
      I give "Work Song" three stars, out of my sincere respect for the author's oeuvre and in particular for this book's lead character, Morgan Llewellyn (aka Morrie Morris), as observed in an earlier volume, "The Whistling Season." Had I not read that book beforehand, I would have given "Work Song" just two stars. If you read no further and have not met Ivan Doig before, do read "The Whistling Season" and an earlier memoir, "This House of Sky." In those you will be treated to Doig's full ability to describe and startle, to sketch atmosphere, deliver taste and smell, to express in English afresh the meanings that inhabit the crevices of daily life lived long ago. Doig is a master at linking the details of the small occurrences of life lived in ordinary, repetitive circumstance into a strong strands of emotion and surprise. That mastery unfortunately is not in evidence in "Work Song.""Work Song" is a pastiche, airy here, kludgy there, of plot elements appear for mild comic effect but cloy more than amuse. Brass knuckles, soft-hearted restaurant owners, hard-hearted mining corporations, a library full of rare books in a hard-scrabble mining town just after World War II where few read, rancher turned rare book collector and public library manager, music to rally miners, world series and boxing trivia, (spoiler alert:) big betting wins, homebodies who within a paragraph agree to head off to far away places unknown, the "pernicious bachelor" who proposes and marries the same evening. These simulacra do not convey the kind of story Doig is able to tell.
    • 5/5
      Ivan Doig has penned a second historical novel that features the former school teacher from The Whistling Season. Now using the name Morrie Morris, he arrives by train in the post-WWI copper mining city of Butte, Montana. The railway has lost his travel trunk, and Morrie shortly gains the unwanted attention of a couple of Anaconda Mining Company thugs on the lookout for outside agitators seeking to organize mine workers. Concerned with keeping his family history concealed, Morrie finds employment first as a funeral 'cryer' followed shortly with a position as assistant to the director of the Butte Public Library, a former cattle rancher with his own legendary past. Friendship with a pair of retired Welsh minors who live at the same boarding house, a reunion with a former student, and his fledgling relationship with a widowed landlord all lead to Morrie's further entanglement in the plight of Butte's mine laborers. Doig's development of unique and oftentimes quirky characters that are enfolded into historical tales of western settlement and expansion contribute to another interesting book - - not to be missed. (lj)
    • 3/5
      I found this book rather disappointing. It's really a "homespun" yarn about Morrie Morgan. The plot seemed superficial and the characters two dimensional. I saw in some reviews, that Doig was being compared to Wallace Stegner. In my opinion, Stegner's place is secure and Doig no way approaches his talent. Since I didn't read "The Whistling Season", I was confused how the character's name changed from Llewelyn to Morris to Morgan.
    • 4/5
      I think that Ivan Doig is one of the greatest living western writers. I thoroughly enjoyed his newest book, Work Song, which is the story of one Morrie Morgan in Butte, MT immediately following World War I. Copper mining, union activities, and the public library figure heavily in the plot of the novel. (Maybe it was the emphasis on the library that so captivated me!) Morrie previously appeared in a Doig novel set ten years earlier, The Whistling Season, when he did a stint as a teacher in a one-room school. Now he has moved on to library work after a period of time in New Zealand. Doig really brings Montana history to life. This one is a winner!
    • 4/5
      As a Montanan I admit that I am partial to Ivan Doig. My first exposure was “This House of Sky”, truly an exceptional memoir and one that lovingly captures a complicated Montana childhood. The love affair continued with “English Creek”, “Dancing at the Rascal Fair” and “Bucking the Sky”, all three linked with the story of one family. Then came a few I could have probably skipped. But with his “The Whistling Season” I knew he was back in form. This new novel, “Work Song” is linked as well, and Morrie Morris, a memorable character from “The Whistling Season” now takes center stage.On the run from a checkered past in Chicago, and an ill-fated romance on the Montana hi-line, Morrie shows up in Butte, Montana in 1919, in the midst of labor turmoil. He fortunately finds lodging in a boarding house run by the widowed Grace Faraday and a job at the Butte Public Library. The labor unions are chafing under the brass-knuckled tactics of the Anaconda Company goons. Doig skillfully sets the scene as the miners, mostly immigrants from Ireland, Italy, Cornwall, Russia and Sweden struggle to find a way to stand up for their rights as one union with one voice. Morrie crosses paths with a former student from the hi-line and her beau, a union organizer and a humorous and entertaining plot is set into motion. Morrie agrees to help the multi-ethnic union members choose a “work song”, a unifying theme song that will demonstrate their solidarity and further their cause. Doig has a unique writing style that captures the lively spirit of the times and the complexity of the characters strutting on Butte’s colorful stage. “Work Song” is a quick-paced novel that brought great pleasure to this lover of Montana’s talented writers. But it will be a treat to all non-Montanans (but Montana lovers) as well.
    • 5/5
      Mr. Doig never disappoints me when I am in the mood for an entertaining historical novel with a simple plot. An enjoyable relaxing read.
    • 4/5
      The third in a series of novels following the adventures and misadventures of Morrie Morris, Ivan Doig's newest yarn maintains his hallmark breezy, historically-rich Western style, even if the payoff isn't terribly memorable.Morris stumbles into Butte, Montana, in its post-WWI heyday, trying to escape the shadows of his past. He lodges in a boarding house run by the smart-talking, tough, and handsome widow Grace Faraday. Her perspective, like those of nearly all of Butte's residents, is framed by a singular, larger-than-life corporate hydra: the Anaconda Company, which spearheaded the mining operations on the 'world's richest hill' of copper. The mining men and miner's wives, the cafes and mouthpiece newspaper--it's like the town of Butte exists as a support network for the the juggernaut mining company.Morris' first employment attempt in Butte results in a farcical stint working for a local mortuary. This translates into surreal whisky-fueled all-nighters at wakes in the Irish part of town and provides Doig a good opportunity to introduce us to some foreshadowing in the shapes of several hardened but goodhearted union organizers. The whole funerary thing mercifully over, Morris moves on to a more plausible employment: at the library, under the blazing eye of Sam Sandison, who is, according to some local residents, possibly the devil.Cue some blasts from the past. This is, recall, the third book in a series. There's the chipper former student who provides spunk and, well, that's about it, though she is conveniently married to the (darkening clouds of uh-oh!) head union agitator. There's also Morris' inability to escape his weird, gambling fraud past--they always seem to find him, even if this is the 1910s in rural Montana. But never mind that. That feels like necessary housekeeping. What's fun are the new ideas and people. 'Work Song' feels comfortable in its own skin. Doig is inventive (but not too inventive), his characters quirky (but not exasperatingly quirky). Combine Doig's training as a historian and his command of the anecdotal, and it can be occasionally uncanny just how lolling and self-confident the narrative can be. Sometimes the story wanders too far into a mineshaft, sometimes it holds a singular note about workers' rights just a bit too long. Sometimes Doig's earnest attention to tying into the previous novels wears thin. Where Doig shines in 'Work Song' is in illuminating new ideas and folks: the real-life empire of the Anaconda mining company, the mercurial eruptions of Sam Sandison, a wiggly youth they call Russian Famine, a quick look into early 20th-century slang. It almost seems like he needs to set himself free of the shackles of a continuing series, and give us what he does best: gorgeous glimpses into the landscapes and humanity of the American West.