I read the book that came after this one, Sweet Thunder, already. Since this book spoils plot developments for book one, The Whistling Season, which I still have not found yet, the review will be below the spoiler cut.
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Morrie Morgan, having left behind two lives by now, moves into Butte, Montana, having no idea of the company wars going on between the mine workers and the Anaconda Company. He is quickly enlightened by his boardinghouse landlady, Grace Faraday (whose husband died in a mine disaster) and Hoop and Griff, his fellow boarders. To that end, Morgan changes his job ambitions and eventually gets a job at the Butte library, working for the town's cranky rich guy, which suits him. He also reunites with a former student of his, "Rabrab" (Barbara backwards), who is now a teacher and engaged to Jacob, a union guy fighting for the rights of the miners. Morrie is also being stalked by two thugs who suspect that he's involved with the union, but Morrie is more concerned that they'll figure out his past dealings with the Chicago mob.
Morrie is also slowly getting interested in his landlady and she is in him, but she has suspicions about him (rightly so!) and tries to put the brakes on a romance, bumming Morrie out since he has a history of being rejected by widows. I did want to see how he managed to change her mind on this by the end, but it was pretty much "oh, okay, suddenly she wants to be with you because you said you'd leave town" and I was all, "one two skip a few here?" Come on, coulda used more development.
Mostly the plot is about Morrie hanging around town, getting to know people, and with the assistance of Rabrab and Jacob, getting involved in fighting back against the mining company. Eventually the title is dropped 200+ pages in when Morrie is recruited to assist the miners in coming up with a musical anthem for their cause. This is a fun idea, which others don't do so well and then a last minute ah, suggestion wins the day there.
I really loved Sweet Thunder and liked reading about how that book came about, but this book is a little slower build by comparison. I feel like it's a build to the third more than it''s its own separate entity, in a way? But I love Morrie as a narrator and the people he hangs out with, so it's fun to keep on reading even as the mining drama takes a while to get Morrie into it. Morrie talking in general is fun. When his new acquaintances lose their minds at him mentioning getting a bookkeeping job with the Anaconda Company, he turns off the lights and then says that we're now all in the dark as a way to chill them out. He's a great support to Grace, especially when he whips up a turkey tetrazzini in the kitchen. And his most memorable bit is when at one point he has to give a spontaneous '"first aid" lecture and he talks about blood in a very picturesque, nearly Shakespearean way.
I also loved this quote when Grace ask how can someone ever get a straight line on him: "I don't know any cure for being myself. The lotion for that hasn't been concocted yet." Hear, hear, sir.
Three and a half stars. Could be better/faster/more developed, but is still a pretty fun read!
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