The Cold Millions: A Novel
By: Jess Walter / Narrated By: Edoardo Ballerini, Gary Farmer, Marin Ireland, Cassandra Campbell, MacLeod Andrews, Tim Gerard Reynolds, Mike Ortego, Rex Anderson, Charlie Thurston, Frankie Corzo
Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
WOW! Sometimes brutal, ENDlessly beautiful… just WOW!
Yup, I’ve done it. Now that our little audiobook club has listened to and discussed The Cold Millions, I’ve gone over and checked out other reviews. And they’ve pretty much taken the wind out of my reviewing sails cuz they’ve already said so much of what I’ve wanted to say. Which is?
That Jess Walter is, quite simply, one of The Best Writers Out There.
Seriously. Each book he crafts is soooo unlike the others already penned it’s astounding. So if you loved Beautiful Ruins? Be prepared, cuz neither this nor any other freaking Jess Walter is gonna be like that. Each story is unique; each story is beautifully written.
So it was like this, see. Our little audiobook club had done, and raved over, a Jess Walter. NATurally, we dashed over and discovered the glorious man had a new release coming in October (This was waaaay back in the Spring, dunno if Pandemic Reality had hit by that time). And NATurally that had me hitting Pre-Order right quick and waiting patiently. Thank GOD October finally arrived, and I couldn’t wait for it to be my turn to choose for the club’s pick. Now it’s heeeeeere, and I’m oh so happy to tell you about it!
Early century in Spokane, Washington. The Dolan brothers have paired together to make a go of it, hopping freight cars, living by their wits, making do and sleeping pretty rough. Our main character is young Rye, just a teenager, and we can’t tell if it’s him taking care of older brother, Gig, or it’s older brother Gig taking care of the young and innocent Rye.
But there’s no room for innocence in this turn of the century tale of 1909 Spokane, where the Haves make and break the meager lives of the Have Nots. Gig drinks hard, womanizes dirty, but he dreams of a day a man can make an honest wage for an honest day’s work. Rye dreams of homes and roots and keeping Gig from Skid Row, but soon he finds himself stepping on the soapbox and making speeches after Gig is arrested and dragged away along with other men, always men, speaking up for those just trying to make do.
Then the women come into the story, and we have Cougar-Dancing/Taunting Ursula, she of the down and dirty vaudeville act, trying to survive in this world where men dominate… excuse me, where only a few white men, dominate. And we have the portrayal of the real life Elizabeth Gurley Flynn who soon captivates Rye’s soul. Between the two of these feisty gals, Gig and Rye are caught, saved, damned, redeemed.
AWESOME! And SUCH a difficult book with so many storylines and so verrrrry many characters going at it, be they suffragists, organizers, murderers, hobos, thieves, saints.
Which brings me to the Full Cast (And just look at ‘em! It doesn’t get any fuller than this!) of narrators. There’s veteran J. Walter narrator, Edoardo Ballerini, who’s as stellar as he always is, adding pathos and drama. Then there’s the narrator (And I couldn’t tease out narrators to save my life, even tho’ I’ve listened to pretty much all of them in other works… so suuuuue me….!) who voices Ursula—she adds just the right amount of vulnerability to a swagger for the woman. And there’s hard-going Gig who comes up broken, oh so broken by the world and his own sensibilities, only to meet his greatest challenge in the end by a life that’s already been cruel. It’s all written so that each narrator gets their own chapter, divided by character, so they don’t have to struggle with carrying so many stories, just mainly their own. It works verrrry well, and each totally own their piece.
When all was said and done, our little club fell into dark thoughts about how tragic things once were, and how inCREDibly damning it is that so little has changed in the world. That Time has produced Gurley Flynns is amazing; but they’re precious few when there are so many Gigs broken by the system, so many Ryes wanting just a decent pair of gloves to cover work-scarred/cold-calloused hands.
This can be a very dark book, but hey: Life is danged dark.
At least Jess Walter wrote it. He shines, he glows, he throws gossamer glimmers of light into a cold and bleak world.
Yeh yeh yeh
THEY already said it in their reviews: He’s one of The Best Out There.
Hear hear!
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