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In Dubious Battle

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About this listen

 A riveting novel of labor strife and apocalyptic violence that maps the frontier where the masses become a mobAt once a relentlessly fast-paced, admirably observed novel of social unrest and the story of a young man’s struggle for identity, In Dubious Battle is set in the California apple country, where a strike by migrant workers against rapacious landowners spirals out of control, as principled defiance metamorphoses into blind fanaticism. Caught in the upheaval is Jim Nolan, a once aimless man who finds himself in the course of the strike, briefly becomes its leader, and is ultimately crushed in its service.“Dramatically intense, beautifully written. It is the real thing; it has a vigor of sheer storytelling that may sweep away many prejudices.†—The New Republic Classics Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction

What the critics say

By the Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

"Dramatically intense, beautifully written. It is the real thing; it has a vigor of sheer storytelling that may sweep away many prejudices."
-The New Republic
All stars
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A solid, interesting Steinbeck novel. Not his best; this was an early work, and it shows him developing themes he would later bring to greatness in books like The Grapes of Wrath. But the reading is absolutely perfect, one of the best performances I've listened to. Every character is voiced differently, and none sound silly.

great reading

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