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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
comments from a former "Nazareth Steel" worker, April 14, 2006
This review is from: Music of the Mill: A Novel (Hardcover)
I worked at Bethlehem Steel's Los Angeles Plant, the setting of Mr. Rodriguez's novel, in the mid-seventies. It was a searing experience that has haunted me for thirty years. No one who didn't work in it can possibly fathom what went on in American heavy industry. Rodriguez's remembered knowledge of the mill operations is remarkable, and his descriptions of the physical conditions and sensations of steelworking shot bolts up my spine. As an editor, I have some bones to pick with the story line, but not with the author's ferocious passion or narrative competency. He means what he says, and he knows what he's talking about.
Michael Lecky
Harvard, MA
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a stunning work of social justice, ethnic pride and personal liberation, May 19, 2006
"Music of the Mill" is a visionary work. Luis J. Rodriguez has created a novel of social justice, ethnic identity and personal liberation. Moving with electrifying pace, "Music" invites the reader to explore seen and unseen worlds -- steel mills, barrio streets, yearnings of the heart -- and compels engagement through a series of engrossing characters. Thematically rich, the novel ultimately belongs to those who believe that working-class people are capable of transforming themselves, and in so doing, change a nation.
It is not surprising that the author has received inspiration from John Steinbeck, Theodore Dreiser and James T. Farrell. Following in the footsteps of these men, Rodriguez uses social realism, industrial conflict and immigration as the backdrops to his exploration of the Salcido family's physical and spiritual journey. From the patriarch Procopio's determination to seek a better life in the United States to his granddaughter Azucena's struggle with her Chicana identity, "Music" unrelentingly analyzes the possibilities and costs of Americanization, the impact of large-scale industries and the human dynamics of families operating under the most severe psychological pressures.
Courage abounds in "Music." There is the courage of Porcopio, who uproots himself from Mexico and steadfastly creates a new life for his American-born children as a steelworker in the ironically named Nazareth mill. His son, Johnny, exemplifies the courage of sacrifice and commitment; a self-reformed streetwise tough, Johnny rejects the Social Darwinism imposed by the mill. Instead, he opts for social reform and personal integrity. His quiet, unwavering commitment to equality and dignity in the workplace is iconic. Johnny's daughter, Azucena, demonstrates a different type of courage. Assimilated but rootless, spiritually impoverished and angry, Azucena's life spirals out of control. Yet, in acts of nearly invisible strength, she summons a rekindled ethnic awareness to save her own life.
This is not a tidy book. Characters have genuine flaws, and their defects often impede their growth. The miseries of alcohol and drug addiction, poverty and gang warfare often destroy otherwise decent people. It is to Rodriguez' credit that he perceives these indices of social degradation as the outcroppings of a capitalistic society; the Nazareth steel mill is naturalistically indifferent to the sufferings of its workers and the city of Los Angeles takes little action to stop young Mexican-Americans from killing each other. "Music" shows how people, faced with seemingly insurmountable odds, can muster the strength to challenge social evil. If there is any justice gained by people like Johnny and his resourceful, wise wife Aracely, it is imperfect and hard-earned.
Three generations ago, the Joad family captured the national imagination in John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath." Luis J. Rodriguez inspiring, gritty "Music of the Mill" will remind us that novelists can create works that remind us that liberty, equality and justice are forged by people like the Salcidos. In honoring their struggle, Rodriguez refines our national purpose.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Sags Under the Weight of Its Didacticism, October 29, 2007
Heavily based on the author's own experiences working at Bethlehem Steel and running with L.A. barrio street gangsters, this multigenerational novel often sags under the weight of its sociopolitical message. I'm a big fan of the novel as social history and of social realism -- and when the book sticks to those elements, it largely succeeds. However, it often slips into awkward didactic lectures about capitalism and social justice.
In the first third of the book, we meet teenage Procopio Salcido in the 1940s, as he leaves his drought-ridden Mexican state for a better life in the U.S., eventually making his way to L.A. and landing a job at a huge steel mill. The story of his journey, especially his involvement with striking miners in Arizona, is quite compelling. Similarly, the initial descriptions of the mighty mill at work, and the racial divisions between the men who work there, are fascinating.
The middle third of the book follows Procopio's tearaway son Johnny, who, as a teenager, becomes involved with a local Chicano street gang. After a stint in jail, he joins his father and brothers at the mill, and embarks on his own journey. This builds up to the central plotline -- Johnny's leadership of a multiethnic coalition to challenge the good-old-boy racist union leadership in the early '70s. The various cultural divisions are all handled fairly well, as is Johnny's slowly growing interest in Communism. The constant threat of an industrial "accident" engineered by the scheming racists who wish to maintain their (im)balance of power at the plant looms large throughout.
Set in the late '80s, the final third of the book revolves around Johnny's daughter Azucena, whom we see veer from good girl to drug addicted teenage mother. This parallels the collapse of big steel in the U.S., the closure of the plant, and the ensuing unemployment and social devastation. Her journey from gangbanger arm candy to indigenous culture activist and torch song singer is both less interesting and more cliched in many ways than the previous histories of Procopio and Johnny.
As social history, some of this is quite interesting. The sections that take place in the steel mill itself are excellent recreations of a lost time and place, and vividly evoke the blood, sweat, and stoicism of heavy industrial work. However, one has to slog through so many heavy handed explanations of class and racial oppression that most readers will probably not find it worth the energy it takes. It's a shame, because although I am personally sympathetic to the broad progressive message of the book, I can't bring myself to recommend it.
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