BIG JIM TURNER

The story of Big Jim Turner as he grows up in Idaho at the turn of the century- in a wild country and among wild men. Idving with relatives in his earlier years, in his teens he begins to shift for himself, working in lumber camps, on ranches, and at times associating with members of the I.W.W., one of the more prominent organizers being his uncle Black Dan Barton, whose generally bad reputation causes Jim some trouble. Bess Clover, the girl Jim loved, was also a rebel, but Jim seems more interested in himself than in rebellion, in daydreaming- and writing poetry which is not very good. If the background of the pioneering west and the labor struggle is authentically defined, the balance is not, the characterization- even that of Big Jim- fuzzy to the point of futility.