The Canyons - Softcover

Kostival, Ben

Softcover

ISBN 10: 099841462X ISBN 13: 9780998414621

Publisher: Radial Books, LLC, 2018

Synopsis

The Canyons combines the naturalism of Frank Norris' McTeague with the modernist techniques of Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, yielding a work of historical noir that Howard Zinn called "an ingenious blending of fact and fiction." Based on the Colorado coalfield war of 1913-14, The Canyons borrows the zeitgeist of a century ago to allegorize contemporary conditions of national, populist ferment.

The Canyons unfolds through the perspective of Harlan Baxter, a functionary tasked by his New York-based company to investigate deteriorating conditions at a Colorado coal mine. While Baxter struggles to orient himself in the pressurized coalfields, a mine shaft explodes, killing several miners and precipitating a strike. The company imposes harsh countermeasures which Baxter must oversee, but when provocation leads to murder, Baxter allies himself with the miners to fight alongside them in the most violent labor insurrection in American history.

The Canyons reintroduces the coalfield war to new generations. The passion, drama, and context of the strike bear directly on American inequality, racial strife, and the suppression of labor. Books like George McGovern and Leon Guttridge's The Great Coalfield War and Scott Martelle's Blood Passion have examined the strike in non-fiction, and David Mason's Ludlow covers it in epic-poem form, but the Coalfield War has never before received proper treatment in a novel. With fully rounded characters, a fast-paced plot, and a compelling moral force, The Canyons will appeal alike to scholars, students, and general readers.

About this title

About the Author

Ben Kostival was born and raised in Pennsylvania, but he has lived in many states, including Alaska. He has held dozens of jobs. His first novel, Elm and North, was published in mid 2017. His fiction has appeared in a number of literary journals. Currently he resides in Boston, where he enjoys reading, sitting quietly, being calm, and remaining motionless for hours at a time.

Review

"An ingenious blending of fact and fiction." -- Howard Zinn
"Ben Kostival is a superb writer . . . The Canyons [is] instantly engaging and important . . . tragic but not moribund, more alive and spirited, and relevant than ever today." -- Kevin Baker, bestselling author of the City of Fire trilogy
"Fascinating reading." -- Steve Early, author of Refinery Town and The Civil Wars in U.S. Labor

About this edition

• Publisher: Radial Books, LLC
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 099841462X
• ISBN 13: 9780998414621
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 258