John Steinbeck

A novel that fearlessly explores the line between principled defiance and blind fanaticism, John Steinbeck's In Dubious Battle contains an introduction and notes by Warren French in Penguin Modern Classics. 'This book is brutal. I wanted to be merely a recording consciousness,' Steinbeck said of In Dubious Battle, which aroused immense controversy when first published in 1936. It follows the fortunes of Jim Nolan, disenfranchised and alone, his family destroyed by the system. Desperate to find his place in the world, Jim joins the Communist Party and becomes entangled in a strike of migrant workers which spirals out of control, unflinchingly detailing the apocalyptic violence that breaks out when the masses become the mob. This fast-paced, compelling novel is at once a brilliant observation of social and political turmoil and a moving story of a young man's struggle for identity. In Dubious Battle explores and dramatises many of the ideas and themes key to Steinbeck's writing. If you enjoyed In Dubious Battle, you might also like Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, also available in Penguin Classics. 'Sweeps along with the torrential impetus of a great natural fire, impelled by a poetic energy' Guardian 'Dramatically intense, beautifully written. It is the real thing; it has a vigour of sheer storytelling that may sweep away many prejudices' New Republic

In Dubious Battle

In his journal, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck called East of Eden "the first book," and indeed it has the primordial power and simplicity of myth. Set in the rich farmland of California's Salinas Valley, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families—the Trasks and the Hamiltons—whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel. The masterpiece of Steinbeck’s later years, East of Eden is a work in which Steinbeck created his most mesmerizing characters and explored his most enduring themes: the mystery of identity, the inexplicability of love, and the murderous consequences of love's absence. This edition features an introduction by David Wyatt.

Will Vunderink

There are two things that I remember about reading In Dubious Battle for a twentieth-century American lit class in college. One: the Intro to Creative Writing adage "Show, don't tell" is certainly a cliche, but it's a very useful cliche that any writer would do well to keep in mind. Judging by this book Steinbeck never learned that bit of advice, and the novel suffers horribly for it. Two, I hated In Dubious Battle.

Jaden Nelson

Man, can Steinbeck write a good novel. I want to start out by expressing my confusion for Steinbeck novels in my experience of reading them (only 2 so far). For some reason, his books have been extremely entertaining and page-turning, yet when I sort of step back and look at what I'm reading, it such a dull topic that I would think-knowing myself-be very uninterested or "bored" by now. Yet, it's an amazing reading experience and I am genuinely excited to read on or pick the book back up again. That being said, now onto a disorganized collection of thoughts I am going to call a review. 
 If you know nothing about In Dubious Battle, then I encourage you to read the synopsis which to be completely honest, sounds pretty dull; however, In Dubious Battle (IDB) was, for me, a fast-paced and wholesome read. It paints an insightful picture of the Depression era and tells the story mainly of 2 men-our "main character" Jim and a friend he meets, Mac. They are "reds" or communists. Jim joins the party because he is looking for meaning in life, something to work towards. Okay, I think all of this plot stuff is not really what I want to say in the review. ugh this is already turning into a rant and I'm only 200ish words in... Just go read the book if you want to find out more, I encourage it because I think it has a lot of deeper meanings, some of which I am going to now share my thoughts on (and because I thought it was a fun read).

(view spoiler)[I'm going to reference some page numbers, which are for the edition I read, the penguin classics edition, so the numbers may or may not be of any help depending on which edition you are using.
-
 First of all, I previously said main character in quotes because really, most of the book is about/follows Mac, not Jim. I like Jim; he's a good guy and he gives his life to a cause(as we see in the synopsis). Mac I do not really like. He's hot-headed/short tempered, a little cocky, and is kind of a complete turd some of the time(I did like him sometimes). You can see what I mean on pages 129, 158, and basically off and on throughout the last half of the book. Second, I am going to write some of my deeper thoughts on the book and some themes I thought IDB "touched on"(sorry if I say that 5 million times). Thus, these are  my  themes and thoughts I got from the book. I only lightly skimmed the introduction and I don't plan on reading it (yet at least), so these are not necessarily the underlying themes Steinbeck intended to reach the reader, they are just mine.(I think I should take a note from Steinbeck and stop using so many commas:/ 

-Doc: pg. 112-113 --Doc's a pretty smart guy and one thing he said that I think is really eye-opening is *paraphrasing* when you label something as "good" or "bad," you can loose your ability to see the "whole picture." You may not be able to see all of the bad parts of something you label "good," maybe labeling it as "just another trickery" or something like that. This is a good thing to keep in mind for life-don't be blinded by putting labeling things or picking sides because it can make you ignorant of seeing what's really going on. 
-Doc: pg. 153-- "I guess that's just the way it is with me. I have some skill helping men, and when I see some who need help, I just do it. I don't think about it much. If a painter saw a piece of canvas, and he had colors, well, he'd want t paint on it. He wouldn't figure why he wanted to." Man I love Doc. While I think painters don't feel the strong urge to paint every canvas they see, I think this is an inspiring quote for the medical field and life in general, I guess.(do you need a comma before I? I can never tell)

-Jim!: pg. 160-- This is reference more than once throughout the book, but Jim talks about how they have to use every means they can get; although it's a little crude in this situation (a reference to using his friend's dead body), I like the idea of sort of "rolling with the punches"/making do with what you are given. A good way to handle things, I suppose(that dang comma again).

-a quote by one of my favorite characters "middle aged man"pg 175-- essentially says that if the men stopped yacking so much and got to working and fighting "...more sluggin' an' less arguin'..." that they would actually get somewhere. This is definitely still more or less true for our generation...

-Mac: pg 225-- *paraphrasing* Men are ruined by a life without meaning. I think this is a fear/problem many people still encounter today.
---side note: If you haven't noticed, virtually all of the quotes/ dialogue in this book is of "men" because this is set in the depression era when women weren't held as equals at all."

-One big idea of the book (to me) is that a mob or a people banded together by a common cause can become and animal, something that is different and it thinks different from the people that make it up. This is true of true for the mob in IDB, but also I think it can show how people act differently when they belong to part of a group in real life, say the nationalism people feel or being part of a religion. When people are in these groups and united with others, they (often) act differently than each of them would if they were alone. 
---sorry if all of this underling and bold is annoying.
-An overarching theme/idea in IDB is that sometimes, no matter how much passion you have for or put into something, things just don't always work out. There is a quote from Paradise Lost at the beginning of the novel and the name "In Dubious Battle" comes from Paradise Lost. From what I got, it is named "In Dubious Battle" because of the battle the strikers are fighting in which they are almost guaranteed to loose. In paradise lost, I believe it is a similar situation. I believe this theme is one reason this book is recommended before reading The Grapes of Wrath(although more of the passion doesn't always lead to success side). Also, it may be because of the several instances of foreshadowing to TGOR in IDB, as mentioned in the notes section.(I hope to read TGOR soon!)

 Finally, excuse my language, BUT WHAT WAS THAT F***ING ENDING. I MEAN I KNOW IT SAID RIGHT ON THE SYNOPSIS THAT THE STRIKE "CRUSHES" JIM, BUT SERIOUSLY??? LIKE THAT? LIKE WHAT ARE THOSE LAST TWO PAGES?????? I think I remember reading something in the introduction about Steinbeck purposely leaving the ending up to the readers' minds, but I was not prepared for it and I'm still a little mad about that.  (hide spoiler)]

Well, this was definitely more of a very long rant, but if you made it this far,-whoever you are-congrats!(is a ,- allowed? I'm feeling rebellious)I guess this is one of the first books I've really dug deep into and shared my many thoughts(as you can see from all 1000+ words:/ Thanks for making it this far and have a good day reading, preferably reading this book if you haven't picked it up yet:)

In Dubious Battle

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