Work Song

By: Ivan Doig

Narrated by: Jonathan Hogan

National Book Award finalist and Wallace Stegner Award winner Ivan Doig has garnered critical and popular acclaim for his vibrant, authentic tales of the American West. In Work Song he takes listeners to Butte, Montana, in 1919 for the tale of one charmer’s efforts to elude Chicago gangsters.

Stepping off the train in the world’s copper mining capital, Morris Morgan secures a room at the boarding house of an attractive widow he’d like to know better. As the erudite Morris begins working at the local library, he tries not to take sides in the labor dispute at the Anaconda Mining Company. But when he’s mistaken for an undercover union operative, he’s soon caught up in the seething ferment of an iron-fisted company, radical union agitators, and beleaguered miners.

©2010 Ivan Doig (P)2010 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

“Charismatic dialogue and charming homespun characterization”—brilliantly illuminated by Jonathan Hogan’s compelling narration—“make [ Work Song] another surefire winner” ( Publishers Weekly).

"More atmospheric, pleasingly old-fashioned storytelling from Doig, whose ear for the way people spoke and thought in times gone by is as faultless as ever.” ( Kirkus Reviews)

Another winner

I have been captured by Ivan Doig's writing. His stories grab you at the get go. This, his second in a series, could stand alone, but as a follow up to Whistling Season follows the life of Morgan, a Renaissance man. The reader is excellent.

After listening to The Whistling Season,

I happened to see this book as a recommended book, for myself. I noticed the author's name and investigated to learn that Work Song is the second book in a series of 3. I was so excited.

This book continued to hold my attention, just as the first did. This book follows Morgan for a bit.

I loved the ending, and am looking forward to the next book.

Great time in Butte

While I've never actually set foot in that copper-tinged town I now feel that I've been there and lived there and more.

Maybe better on paper

Another enjoyable sojourn in Montana with Ivan Doig and his character, Morrie Morgan. For me, however, this narrator did not bring fully to life Morrie’s erudition mixed with his tendency to live one step ahead of danger. Also thought there was a richness and complexity to his relationship with Sandy that Doig could have explored in more depth. Nevertheless none of this will keep me from gobbling up more of the author’s generally excellent writing.

Loved the story

Loved the story as well as the narration. Jonathan Hogan gave a spectacular performance of this wonderful Ivan Doig story. This is the second book in the trilogy,. I look forward to hearing more about Morrie Mogan and Montana in Sweet Thunder.

Another dandy!

I quite liked this. Not my favorite reader, but the story was smooth. Now to go back and listen to Sweet Thunder!

A hero’s journey through a 1920’s copper mining town

The main character, Morgan, arrives in Butte, The richest mine on earth with just the clothes on his back. His unusual background is revealed slowly as he makes his way on wits and charm. The book is full of quirky characters and plot twists and is worth the read.

Fantastic book

For decades I have said that Mark Twain and Charles Dickens are my favorite authors. I am now adding a third author. I have Ivan Doig. I am a sucker for historical fiction. And theses three books that make up this trilogy are among the best I have ever read. Humor, intrigue, fully developed characters, a tremendous use of language, set around the historical west in Montana, these books are hard to put down. This last month has been made better by the journey I was taken on by reading The Whistling Season, Work Song and Sweet Thunder.

good follow-up to The Whistling Season

This was a great continuation of the story Doig began in "The Whistling Season," although I wish I had known about this book when I listened to WS several years ago so that I remembered the original story better. Doig weaves a wonderful tale and you continue to connect with Mortie as he now finds himself in Butte, MT. Whose life will he change? How will his life change? What problems might he cause? What odd facts might he spout? Read this book and continue to enjoy.

Very Good

I read the whistling season a few years back and really liked the book. I liked the writing/prose and the story. I have read a couple of other books Ivan Doig and liked one and hated the other( the eleventh Man ).

Morie was a great character in the whistling season and he is brought back as the main character in this book. He steps off the train and into this book with all his wit, charm and brass knuckles. How could such an educated man be working in a mining town as a undertakers cryer? only Morris Morgan can.

I thing Ivan Doig is a great story teller. He brought the city to life in my mine and it was if I could have been right there and felt the blast of dynamite under the boarding house. When I heard "Ignoramus, I am the librarian!" I knew that Ivan had Created another larger than life character in Samuel S. Sandison. Maybe he will write his story next

I thought the Narrator did a great job. His voice was just right for the book. Good tone and inflection and no grandiose, over the top reading.