Historical fiction is a cogent reminder that our generation didn’t invent all the ills that plague humanity. One could argue that the story of the United States --- where we’re all “created equal” --- is one of vast inequality from the start.

The labor movement of the early 1900s in the boom town of Spokane, Washington, is the setting for THE COLD MILLIONS. The story of two brothers struggling just to keep warm and fed contrasts with the lives of the rich timber and mining barons, who are happy to exploit cheap labor when they need it, but loathe to have bums and tramps in town when they don’t. This keeps the town cops busy in the down season, knocking heads and breaking up hobo camps. 

"THE COLD MILLIONS is a joy to read. Rye’s point of view is front and center, but a cast of colorful characters have their say as well.... This is the best kind of historical novel --- one that asks big questions and entertains at the same time."

Sixteen-year-old Rye (Ryan) is all alone in the world except for his older brother, Gig (Gregory), who fled their poverty-stricken Montana home as a teenager. Now that he has found Gig in Spokane, they live rough and do hard physical work when they can get it. Gig has inherited their father’s love for alcohol and acquired a profound sense of the injustice of having to pay the job sharks a dollar just to get a day’s work. Rye looks up to his brother, and when Gig takes up the cause of the Industrial Workers of the World, he is drawn in as well. It’s all a big adventure for Rye until they are arrested with hundreds of other men at a Free Speech Day put on by the “Wobblies.”

Rye’s age, his orphan status and an altruistic lawyer get him out of jail, but he soon encounters one inspiration for the Wobblies revolt when Lemuel Brand, one of Spokane’s elite, tries to enlist him as a spy. Rye is stunned by Brand’s palatial home: “The unfairness hit Rye not like sweet brandy but like a side ache --- a physical pain from the warmth of that heated floor and the softness of that chair… He flushed with sadness, as if every moment of his life were occurring all at once --- his sister dying in childbirth, his mother squirming in that one-room flop, poor Danny sliding between wet logs, Gig in jail, and Jules dead --- and how many more? All people, except this rich cream, living and scraping and fighting and dying, and for what, nothing, the cold millions with no chance in this world.”

Jess Walter, whose novel BEAUTIFUL RUINS was a bestseller, is a master of snappy dialogue and skillful storytelling. THE COLD MILLIONS is a joy to read. Rye’s point of view is front and center, but a cast of colorful characters have their say as well. Ursula the Great headlines a show at the Comique Theater involving a scandalous outfit and a caged mountain lion. She falls for Gig but is indebted to Brand. Nineteen years old and pregnant, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn makes enemies of the powerful by traveling the country and giving fiery speeches to workers. She incites them to join the IWW, and Rye falls under her spell. Walter weaves these and many other threads into a suspenseful and satisfying conclusion as he reveals a wild, untamed Spokane that belies the respectable, conservative town of today.

This is the best kind of historical novel --- one that asks big questions and entertains at the same time. I highly recommend it.