Work Like Any Other By Virginia Reeves

3.5*

Roscoe T. Martin siphons off electricity of the power company's lines near his and his wife's farm. Electricity being the solution for the struggling farm, things are starting to look up and are finally going well, for the farm and his family. Until a company employee gets electrocuted when inspecting the illegal lines. Now Roscoe has been arrested and hauled to jail.

As someone with a technical background, I could imagine how he must've felt when everybody around him showed their mistrust and resistance against something so alien as electricity, while to him it was God's next miracle.

Set against the historical background of Alabama and the Kilby Correctional Facility, we get to see Roscoe's daily life in prison, working hard at whatever prison job comes his way. Roscoe's wife Marie is portrayed as this cold-hearted and resentful b*tch woman, you cannot but dislike.

Technical parts were well-written and interesting, and the characters well-fleshed out. From guilt to forgiveness, resentment to compassion, even racial issues, all are dealt with in this story. A wonderful debut by Virginia Reeves.


word gem
quoin: 1. an external solid angle of a wall or the like. 2. one of the stones forming it; cornerstone. 3. any of various bricks of standard shape for forming corners of brick walls or the like. 4. a wedge-shaped piece of wood, stone, or other material, used for any of various purposes.


Review copy supplied by publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a rating and/or review. 9781471152214 Between the blurb and the first paragraph, you already know everything that’s going to happen. I admire books that can keep you reading with interest even though you know exactly what’s coming, but this isn’t really one of those. What Reeves’s strategy suggests is that the crime and its unintended consequences are not the important thing here, but rather Roscoe’s years in prison and what they do to his relationships, especially with his wife.

Ultimately I would have preferred for the whole novel, rather than just alternating chapters, to be in Roscoe’s first-person voice, set wholly in prison (where he helps out in the library and with the guard dogs) but with brief flashbacks to his electricity siphoning and the circumstances of his manslaughter conviction. I can’t rate this lower because the writing is entirely capable, but the structure made it so I felt the story wasn’t worth my time. (I was meant to review this for BookBrowse but couldn’t rate it highly enough.)

Favorite lines:

“The use of electricity is in the 600s, applied science. Religion is in the 200s. If there were any books on the death penalty, they’d be in the 300s—social sciences—but we don’t have any of those.”

“I fear we don’t grow, either, here in these walls. Instead, we go backward.” 9781471152214 Elegant, beautiful, heart breaking.
My View:
I think what I loved most about this read was the quietness, the stillness. Despite so much tension, aggravation, violence and anger seeping through the pages of this novel, this was a particularly quiet and sensitive read, perhaps the considered responses by the protagonist contributed to the restful way I embraced this narrative; despite the harshness of the conditions, the punishment being served and the crime committed, Roscoe T Martin remains respected, valued and at ease with himself. His wife however is the opposite - full of bile and bitterness despite her freedoms, she is emotionally stunted and withered. Her identity is so closely tied up to her perception of what it is to be female (family/mother) that she is unable to love herself or anyone else – what a sad character. I disliked her immensely. The two main characters are so opposite – one open, one closed, on likable, one not – they are very well constructed.

This is a poignant exploration of relationships, power over, the importance of meaningful work in our lives, moral dilemmas, racism, redemption and forgiveness. A harsh penal system is pared back and dissected – the parts abhorrent and clearly showing the futility of the sentencing and worthless attempts at rehabilitation. The narrative is a classic tragedy; so much unfairness, ugliness and resentment in a small world. Good intentions have tragic outcomes, life choices effect all for many many years. Education is a panacea for everything.

A moving and thought provoking read.
9781471152214 This book was a real slow burn for me. For the first half, I was thinking it would be 3 stars at most. The premise was interesting, the writing felt competent, but I didn't really feel at all emotionally invested. After that, it definitely picked up and I found myself much more interested in what would become of the characters, Roscoe in particular. The last few chapters were rather poignant and raised a lot of questions about blame, responsibility and forgiveness. I struggled somewhat to understand Marie's perspective though - she just seemed cold beyond belief.

An interesting and well written debut that I feel deserves its place on the Man Booker longlist, though I would be surprised to see it win. 9781471152214 This was a very moving and accomplished first novel set in Alabama in the 1920s. Roscoe T. Martin, his wife Marie and their young son Gerald are living on a farm inherited from Marie's father. Roscoe is a reluctant farmer, but he finds a way to use his former career as an electrician by illegally wiring their farm for electricity. This crime leads to a terrible accident resulting in Roscoe's imprisonment for manslaughter.

Roscoe is a good man who meant no harm, but he winds up paying for his actions in horrible ways that go way beyond his incarceration. Marie is a cold, hardened heap of resentment and selfishness and she's unpleasant to read about. Whatever his crimes, Roscoe did not deserve Marie and poor Gerald certainly didn't deserve her. While Roscoe tries to repay what he owes his family and friends, the constant source of comfort in his life is his work, whatever that might be at the time.

I found the first third of the book a little slow and disjointed, but after that it was very involving, and the last third, which I will not reveal, was my favorite part of the book.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher. 9781471152214

SUMMARY Work Like Any Other

In this astonishingly accomplished, morally complicated, “exceptional and starkly beautiful debut” (Kevin Powers, National Book Award–nominated author of The Yellow Birds), a prideful electrician in 1920s rural Alabama struggles to overcome past sins and find peace after being sent to prison for manslaughter.

Roscoe T Martin set his sights on a new type of power spreading at the start of the twentieth century: electricity. It became his training, his life’s work. But when his wife, Marie, inherits her father’s failing farm, Roscoe has to give up his livelihood, with great cost to his sense of self, his marriage, and his family. Realizing he might lose them all if he doesn’t do something, he begins to use his skills as an electrician to siphon energy from the state, ushering in a period of bounty and happiness. Even the love of Marie and their child seem back within Roscoe’s grasp.

Then a young man working for the state power company stumbles on Roscoe’s illegal lines and is electrocuted, and everything changes: Roscoe is arrested; the farm once more starts to deteriorate; and Marie abandons her husband, leaving him to face his twenty-year sentence alone. Now an unmoored Roscoe must carve out a place at Kilby Prison. Climbing the ranks of the incarcerated from dairy hand to librarian to “dog boy,” an inmate who helps the guards track down escapees, he is ultimately forced to ask himself once more if his work is just that, or if the price of his crimes—for him and his family—is greater than he ever let himself believe.

Gorgeously spare and brilliantly insightful, Work Like Any Other is “a striking debut about love and redemption, the heavy burdens of family and guilt, and learning how to escape them…Virginia Reeves is a major new talent” (Philipp Meyer, New York Times bestselling author of The Son). Work Like Any Other

I read this because it was on the long list for the Man Booker Prize in 2016 and my local public library had several copies (and a co-worker had already requested one of the other copies!)

This is not a sweeping, multigenerational novel or historical epic, nor is it an experimental or startling work. As such I am a bit surprised to see it on the Man Booker list, but recently they have had a few titles that are about smaller lives. This would be one of those instances. Roscoe is an electrician in the early years of the 20th century, and when he inherits his father-in-law's farm in Alabama, his life moves into a period where he loses his identity, his place, and the respect his wife had for him. So he uses his strengths and brings electricity to the farm and ends up in jail. The novel itself is more about the consequences of this brief period. I read it practically in one sitting because somehow, even though it doesn't sound like much, Virginia Reeves kept me reading until it was done. 9781471152214 No one gets paroled their second time. There doesn't seem much point to try
I thought this was one of the most interesting sentences in this book...one worthy of discussion.

Roscoe T Martin, didn't get paroled his second time around as he imagined. We are denying your parole. Your next hearing will be in two years. Will it??

The BLURP tells TOO MUCH!! It spoil things for me a little.
However, the side plot was additional enjoyment. Not being an electrician, I enjoyed the course teachings about copper wires, coil transformers and electricity. I thought the author actually described it terrific! That was my first electrical-training-experience! Kinda Fun!

Being more serious - about significant issues covered in this novel....
If a close friend said to me...This is a thought-provoking powerful story dealing with moral dilemmas, misfortune, blame, punishment, sorrow, race, choice, failed dreams,
guilt, hope, compassion, family, forgiveness, and love.....Alabama in the 1920's, .....that would be enough for me to choose this book.
I hope it is for you too!

Great book club choice. Its my opinion that readers will enjoy this book even 'more' if they do not' read the BLURP...
To allow for more reading surprises! :)
3.5 rating

Thank You Scriber, Netgalley, Virginia Reeves



9781471152214 This beautifully written historical novel -cum- morality tale was longlisted for the 2016 Booker, and at the time I was not trying to read the whole lists, so I have only just caught up with it. My only criticism is that the ending provides a rather too neat moral conclusion that seems pretty unlikely for 1920s Alabama.

The first part of the book alternates two parallel stories. An omniscient narrator introduces the main protagonists Roscoe and Marie, who are struggling to maintain the farm she has inherited from her father. Roscoe is a trained electrician and conceives a plan to electrify the farm illegally by linking his own network to a nearby power line. The scheme succeeds for a couple of years but is undone when an employee of the power company is electrocuted while investigating Roscoe's work.

This results in the imprisonment of both Roscoe and the loyal black farm servant Wilson. The alternate chapters are narrated by Roscoe himself and effectively tell his prison diary.

The shorter second part is a single long chapter that forms Roscoe's own account of what happened after his release, allowing what has been quite a dark story a partial note of redemption.

An enjoyable read and a promising debut novel. 9781471152214 A family on a farm in rural Alabama in the 1920's , a family torn apart by perhaps pride meant to bring them together, the misery and pain of prison life touched at times by friendship and moments of satisfaction - this story is about so much . It's about loss - loss of one's self , loss of dignity , of family , having to make peace with your past before you can move ahead , about not being able to forgive and about the capacity for forgiveness and about redemption.

There are alternating chapters in the third person narrative on what happened to get Roscoe in prison with chapters in the first person as Roscoe is in prison. You can read the description to get the details or read them in other reviews, so I won't go into those here . I can only tell you this was an introspective, emotional book that is well written and descriptive. It's a beautiful debut novel that brought me to tears when I could feel the despair and again with hope and goodness of people when I least expected it . Definitely recommended!

Thanks to Scribner and NetGalley. 9781471152214 It is the 1920's and electricity is spreading quickly, but not yet to rural areas. Roscoe, a young married man gives up a job he loves with Alabama power and light, to make his home with his wife and son on the farm left to his wife by her father. He, however, is not a farmer and their marriage is floundering because of his unhappiness until he gets an idea to wire the farm by tapping into the power lines servicing the town. A unfortunate death will send Roscoe to prison, it will also send the black man who helped him, the man who has run the farm for years, to a worse fate, that of the mines. But should one lose every because of one misstep? Is there no chance for forgiveness or redemption?

I sometimes check Kirkus after I have read a novel to see what they thought. Sometimes I agree with them, sometimes not, in this case not. They praised the elegant writing and this I agreed with, the writing was amazing. They then went on to say the novel had no heart, this I disagreed with. Yes, this is a quieter story, a moral journey, a novel where forgiveness is offered in an unexpected place, but it touched me. The beginning of electricity, the beginning of the prison reform movement, life in prison, and the questions of what would be waiting for him when he is released. This story is the journey of a man with good intentions, who finds his life derailed but must move forward and make a life with what is left.

Found this a most worthy read.

ARC from publisher.
9781471152214