CITIZENS

by Meyer Levin ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 25, 1940

The Old Bunch introduced Meyer Levin to a discerning group of readers who saw in him something of the quality of Halper and Farrell and Dos Passos. He deals with live problems of the day, with the people who make the machinery run. Now in a long, powerful, photographic novel of a steel strike in Chicago, one gets a closeup of the ten men most intimately involved. A Jewish doctor is the protagonist; he becomes involved by chance, just at the moment when the workers are quietly picketing, and the police thrust themselves in with gas bombs and gunfire. Issues are deliberately created, the Red menace flaunted, Fascist organizations capitalize on the troubles, factionalism within the labor ranks are indicated. The people are blinded by the very forces that have brought it about, the doctor alone emerges, aware to the full extent of the elements involved. Not an easy book, nor a pleasant one; there is strong language and tough language; the story is overly detailed, overlong. But the issues are vital ones and Levin will catch the imagination of the social minded who can take it.

Pub Date: March 25, 1940

ISBN: 1432626361

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1940

Categories: FICTION