Ji FU reviewed The Rambling Kid by Charles Ashleigh
A fun lefty tale
I really liked The Rambling Kid even if it wasn't what I was expecting. When I heard "A novel about the IWW" I was hoping for a story where we won, where wobbles successfully seized the means of production whilst bringing about a new world inside the shell of the old, even if in only a small part of the world. Alas what I got was a story that very well could have been a true story. Ashleigh even made frequent references to the Wobblies sometimes being too high on expectations and theory perhaps too dogmatic, for what the working-class needed, all while being the best thing they had.
But the book wasn't all gloom and doom. We follow the life of Joe who goes from a boy in London, England, to a farmer in the Dakotas. Straight thru Ellis Island to the prairies of the Scandinavian immigrants. The …
I really liked The Rambling Kid even if it wasn't what I was expecting. When I heard "A novel about the IWW" I was hoping for a story where we won, where wobbles successfully seized the means of production whilst bringing about a new world inside the shell of the old, even if in only a small part of the world. Alas what I got was a story that very well could have been a true story. Ashleigh even made frequent references to the Wobblies sometimes being too high on expectations and theory perhaps too dogmatic, for what the working-class needed, all while being the best thing they had.
But the book wasn't all gloom and doom. We follow the life of Joe who goes from a boy in London, England, to a farmer in the Dakotas. Straight thru Ellis Island to the prairies of the Scandinavian immigrants. The farm goes bankrupt and off to the Twin Cities they go. Joe joins the Wobblies for a good time and a good job and then hops the trains like a hobo. He falls in love, possibly more than once. Charged with a crime he didn't commit and becomes a spokesman for the movement.
So all-in-all still good fun while also have quite a bit of true working-class grit. Recommended to any Fellow Worker, whether or not they've joined the One Big Union.