Regular marked price: $15.00Discount Price: $10.20
Cost Savings: $4.80 (32%)Price fluctuation possible.
How soon does it ship: Normal ship time within one day
Shipping? Absolutely FREE if you qualify for Super Saver Shipping.
Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.52
EAN num: 9780143039631
ISBN number: 0143039636
Label: Penguin Classics
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 304
Printing Date: May 30, 2006
Publishing house: Penguin Classics
Sale Popularity Level: 64161
Studio: Penguin Classics
Other books you might be interested in perusing:
Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Today, nearly forty years after his death, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck remains one of America’s greatest writers and cultural figures. We have begun publishing his many works for the very first time as blackspine Penguin Classics featuring eye-catching, newly commissioned art. This season we continue with the seven spectacular and influential books East of Eden, Cannery Row, In Dubious Battle, The Long Valley, The Moon Is Down, The Pastures of Heaven, and Tortilla Flat. Penguin Classics is proud to present these seminal works to a new generation of readers—and to the many who revisit them again and again.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
-
Unlike Steinbeck's other works, "In Dubious Battle" exhibits much more of a social conscience toward the need of the average man. Aside from "The Grape of Wrath" and "The Moon is Down", this trait of Steinbeck is not always evident in his work. Although communism is never mentioned by name, the book is centered around the laborers that organize in a fruit strike in the California Valley. In his storytelling, flaws are revealed on both ends of the spectrum so it would be inaccurate to call this book pro-communist. Yet the pro-labor leanings expressed in the book may reveal a preference.
Jim Nolan is new to the movement, leaving his past life with the idea of making a difference. While he initially seems to be the main character, the focus becomes quite broad. "The party" plans to incite a strike and seeks employment as pickers with this in mind. As the plot is sets up, the story moves somewhat slowly in the initial pages. The reader may find himself/herself waiting for the descent to begin as rage gradually builds among the workers.
As the strike begins, the characters begin to take shape in a form similar to characters in Steinbeck's other works. As the rules of working life are removed, some of the men struggle without structure in their lives. While Jim becomes familiar with the life of the party, Mac and London act as a guiding force with the future in mind. However, Doc is the steady force in the novel as he provides a remarkably objective eye toward the movement. Although his role is less prominent, he may be the most complete character in the book.
My only real disappointment in the novel is that I felt it ended to abruptly. The factions are headed toward what is seemingly their ultimate clash as the story draws to a close. While the answer of a war between communist and capitalistic ideas has seemingly been won in the real world, one has to wonder how it ended in the world created by John Steinbeck.
Rated by buyers -
This book is solid. Steinbeck engages with the reader with symbolic themes such as struggle of the exploited proletariat and the dissenting views of 1930's America in this story about the rise of a local fruit pickers strike. As usual, Steinbeck does a great job throwing the reader into a vivid setting he has created- while at the same immersing the reader into the everyday struggle of the "working class" American with nothing to lose. Steinbeck's inclusion of real characters who are not shy to have a opposing opinion about the importance of the drive of the primary protagonists plays an vital role in the story. A must read for anyone fascinated with the frustrations of everyday workers, including their failure and successes.
Rated by buyers 
-
This is one of those books that changes the way you see the world.
I've read a few of Steinbeck's books, including the big ones and some of the smaller ones.
In Dubious Battle is just as excellent as Grapes of Wrath, only in a smaller way. After I finished this book, I sat and thought for a long time, unable to get it out of my mind.
This is not to be missed. Entertaining and thought provoking.
Rated by buyers -
I am a huge Steinbeck fan, and have always been. There are a some of his works that I appreciate more than others. Steinbeck captures the heart and the soul of the poverty stricken, the worker bees that keep the social wheels turning. He knows their mind and their emotions like he has been there with them and he believes what they have to say is of value. He brings a warmth and almost acceptance to the idea of being a Communist in America.
Rated by buyers 
-
I'm perhaps the only Steinbeck lover not to have yet read "Grapes of Wrath" or "East of Eden." Instead I have focused on "Of Mice and Men" and his lesser known works, such as "To a God Unknown" and, my personal favorite, "Pastures of Heaven." I've been enamored with his ability to vividly craft characters in particular.
When I began reading "In Dubious Battle," it appeared the most engaging of all Steinbeck's work. Telling the story of American Communist party workers Jim and Mac, it begins with the story of hardscrabble Jim initiating himself into Mac's radical cell. There is a great (and misleading) sense of intrigue - Mac and Jim travel by boxcar, work secretly through letters, go from secret contact to contact and finally arrive among disgruntled orchard workers. Early on, the pace is fast, exciting, and engaging.
Suddenly, Steinbeck simply fails to deliver, leaving the reader wondering when he's going to pick up the pace again. After Jim and Mac slowly initiate a worker's strike, I expected the sense of excitement to continue. It simply never does.
Summary of "In Dubious Battle" - Workers get mad. Workers get tired. Workers get mad. Workers get tired. Workers get mad. Workers get tired.
The rest of the book mostly concerns Jim and Mac talking - and talking - and talking - and talking. And while their philosophical chats are mildly interesting at first, they simply repeat themselves for the rest of the book. Most of the action takes place in the dark or far away from the narration, and most of the story simply concerns the strikers bickering over petty nonsense...
...and eating. Steinbeck must have been peckish while writing this story, because at least a good 25% of the story concerns finding, eating, and (worst of all) TALKING about food. There is plenty of action that Steinbeck could have shown during the story, but for some reason he prefers to focus on Jim and Mac endlessly walking from tent to tent in their encampment, discussing whatever comes to mind.
Steinbeck's sense of intrigue and social injustice is worth reading the very first few chapters. But I advise any reader of "In Dubious Battle" to take this course - after the strike is initiated, simply set the book down. You won't miss anything. Nothing of great import happens, and only a very few memorable characters ever surface, and they are lost among the sea of forgettable faces.
I suppose now I'll give "Grapes of Wrath" a go. Perhaps if it isn't one of his "greats," it isn't worth reading.
Find other books like this one:
