Union Dues: A Novel [Paperback]

John Sayles (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 21, 2005

The setting is Boston, Fall 1969. Radical groups plot revolution, runaway kids prowl the streets, cops are at their wits end, and work is hard to get, even for hookers. Hobie McNutt, a seventeen year old runaway from West Virginia drifts into a commune of young revolutionaries. It's a warm, dry place, and the girls are very available. But Hobie becomes involved in an increasingly vicious struggle for power in the group, and in the mounting violence of their political actions. His father Hunter, who has been involved in a brave and dangerous campaign to unseat a corrupt union president in the coal miners union, leaves West Virginia to hunt for his runaway son. To make ends meet, he takes day-labor jobs in order to survive while searching for him. Living parallel lives, their destinies ultimately movingly collide in this sprawling classic of radicalism across the generations, in the vein of Pete Hamill, Jimmy Breslin, and Richard Price.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

If the U.S. were to boast one great independent film director, he would be John Sayles, a cult figure among his admirers. Nominated for both an Academy Award for scriptwriting and a National Book Award, Sayles has written screenplays, teleplays, short stories, and novels and has worked as a script doctor for a virtual who's who of Hollywood film and television talent.

Product Details

• Paperback: 392 pages
• Publisher: Nation Books (December 21, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156025730X
• ISBN-13: 978-1560257301
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #742,030 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is my favorite book in the world, July 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Union Dues: A Novel (Paperback)

John Sayles is better known as a film maker, but he's an even better novelist. This book is the best example of why. If one flashback chapter can lead to a movie as good as "Matewan," imagine what the rest of the book is like. For a more playful story with equally serious themes, try "Pride of the Bimbos," too.

5.0 out of 5 stars Chapter 10..., September 14, 2011

By 

Fan of New Orleans music (Illinois) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Union Dues: A Novel (Paperback)

... is some of the best writing I've ever come across. Thought so 30 years ago when I first read it -- and still think so.

Maybe it's a short story in the middle of a novel, maybe it's the jumping-off point for a screenplay -- either way, it's pretty damn good.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars high expectations lead to disappointment, October 24, 2011

By 

MV (East Bay, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Union Dues: A Novel (Paperback)

After reading Sayles most recent novel, A Moment in the Sun, I was eagerly anticipating going back to one of his first, Union Dues. Perhaps I had too high expectations because I was disappointed with Union Dues.
The story takes place in 1969 between the West Virginia mines and Boston focusing on the struggles of unions and job seekers. But, the story felt very didactic, more oriented toward teaching a lesson than developing complex characters.

The main characters are a dad, Hunter (mine worker), and his two sons, Dawson, a Vietnam vet and Hobie, a 17 year old football star who runs away to Boston. The focus is ostensibly Hunter journeying to Boston to find his son because he never really knew him and couldn't just let him leave (this kind of motive underlies the novel building its philosophical and moral lessons). In some ways the tone reminds me of Sinclair Lewis, very much a criticism of unions (this is not a pro union novel, but the criticism does not come from those who think unions ruin profit or capitalism but that the men who take over unions become power hunger manipulators and don't work for the common man).

Most of the novel takes place in Boston as Hobie joins a "revolutionary cell" to fight the capitalist pigs (there are mentions of the weathermen, etc), Hunter arrives and can't get a decent job and has to apply for unemployment which he finds despicable as he searches for Hobie, and Dawson lays around getting unemployment, doing nothing and wishing he hadn't done "such horrible things" in Vietnam. The characters are various levels of cliche. It's difficult to even understand why Hobie is in Boston--he says he's hunting for Dawson, but he doesn't do any hunting. He just moons around the revolutionary house wishing that one of the women would go to bed with him (and using his running ability to help commit revolutionary acts). Hunter does a bit of hunting before he settles into this kind of attempt to get in the union rut and a relationship with a local woman.

The novel ends rather abruptly and without any hope of substantial change for any of the characters. It's not a happy picture and it's not a very satisfying read if what you are looking for is the development of a historical moment from a complex perspective (like Sayles does in a moment in the sun). If you are going to read Sayles, I would highly recommend Moment in the Sun.