The Cold Millions

I had high hopes for this book, this author is a master craftsman, a true wordsmith. I have enjoyed many of his other books. Thats not to say I did not enjoy this one, I did, just not to the degree I expected. I loved the characters, their plight, the time period and setting. What more could a reader ask?
Throughout the year I am stumbling in the dark looking for that great read that will immerse me into that ever elusive, Fictive Dream. I think most all avid readers are involved in this same hunt. If Im lucky I find five out of a fifty. I was hoping The Cold Millions would be one of these books.
What kept me at arms-length in this story was the multitude of points of view that stopped the forward motion of the story. I loved the three primary characters and the main story thread. Each time the author switched, yet again, to another character the main story line came to a complete stop while the author gave backstory on the new character. Instead of having three or four stories braided into one plait the structure is a tree limp with many different branches. We go along the limb buried in the story and then come to a branch where we take a hard-right detour. The detours are masterfully done and could be character sketches or short stories in their own right. But Im in it for the, Fictive Dream, that wonderful plait of stories lines woven and seamless that carry me away, and in the end, I regret that there isnt more.
Would I recommend this book? Absolutely.
David Putnam author of The Bruno Johnson series

At first the characters and subject matter didnt interest me. Then I became interested in the main character, Rye. The story picked up. I was left with the feeling that I had read a good book. But the most important part of reading this book is that it somewhat calmed my fears about what our country is going through now. Apparently there have been many times when we are in upheaval and it seems quite dark. But times change and we weather through it.

I guess when the topic is as hateful and ugly as the labor battles in the early 1900s, what better perspective to captivate the reader than through the mind of a (mostly) innocent teenager.
Orphans, all Ryan wanted was to establish a home with his adored older brother Gig, but the times in Spokane were too hard and unfair to play it straight.
Not knowing the deck was stacked against them, Gig joined a righteous cause and Ryan was dragged along with him. They were used and considered expendable by all sides, their loyalty to each other the only value they never let go of.

Interesting narrative but drags out way too slow. Tedious read.

A story of two brothers born into squalor and deprivation who become part of the 1909-1910 free speech battles led by the militant IWW and their 19-year old pregnant firebrand Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, in Spokane, Washington. Their world is violent and uncaring, where a few live in splendor, most scrape by, and the very hardest of the work is done by people who subsist from meal to meal, with literally nothing to call their own. It is constructed around real events and people, is full of finely-drawn characters and is a compulsive read.

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