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Work Like Any Other

por Virginia Reeves

MiembrosReseñasPopularidadValoración promediaMenciones
20625131,222 (4.03)91
"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)"-- "A starkly beautiful, morally complicated and astonishingly accomplished debut set in 1920s rural Alabama following Roscoe T. Martin, a prideful electrician sent to prison after his illegal siphoning of electrical state power for his wife's family's farm leads to an innocent man's death"--… (más)
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» Ver también 91 menciones

Mostrando 1-5 de 25 (siguiente | mostrar todos)
This is a work of historical fiction, set in the south in the mid 1920s Before the story has begun we are already aware there will be a death on this land and that Roscoe Martin will be jailed for it. The story flashes back and forth between the time leading up to that death and jail sentence, to the time Roscoe is currently serving out his sentence and then continues past his eventual release. He and his wife Marie were not exactly the happiest married couple you will ever encounter though they did both try to make things work in their own way up until his jail time when Marie totally abandoned him. Roscoe had never actually wanted to be a farmer and his resentment of that was often felt by his wife and son. This was a tragic story of the breakdown of not only a marriage but ultimately a family.
I enjoyed the story but I could have done without the excessive descriptions of wires, coils transformers and how electricity works.

I received an advance copy for review ( )
  IreneCole | Jul 27, 2022 |
Really nice and savouring to read.
A poignant exploration of people's development over ~20 years of life. great to see the characters change, refusing to change and reacting to the changes thrust upon them. ( )
  mjhunt | Jan 22, 2021 |
The core of this novel is Roscoe's time in prison and how he handles it - the inner struggle with guilt and loss as well a the outward struggle with the prison regime and its characters. We're also given some insight into Martin's life before prison interwoven with his prison life, but not that much and mainly as a supporting narrative cum commentary. We also have a short but emotionally powerful redemption story folllowing his release but we know too little of the main characters involved, Martin apart, for it to be truly insightful. Reeves tells her tale well but ultimately it doesn't quite deliver. March 2020 ( )
  alanca | Apr 20, 2020 |
I'm sitting here wondering why not five stars because the writing - minus the story - was certainly that. I can't believe this is a debut book. Virginia Reeves is very talented, and in this, her "work is not like any other."

I think I'm leaning towards 4.5 stars. For instance, there were places in the book where I was confused by what was happening. Where the poetic flow of words took over a scene and subsequently left me puzzled. Or maybe that was me - because I was so busy studying the prose, I neglected to follow the story. However, I'd go back and re-read passages in order to understand, because I wanted to understand, and eventually I just moved on. A scene or two while Roscoe was in prison running the dogs would be one of those, for example.

Last, the ending, while satisfying, struck me as a bit odd. No spoilers here, but the characters hinted by way of dialogue at something big, yet the revelation of this man's situation was sort of...mediocre in it's result. As in a production was made of something that didn't seem all that major, something I'd sort of guessed, yet what other outcome could there have been?

All in all, I appreciated this finely turned out story, and will be on the lookout for other "work" by her! ( )
  DonnaEverhart | Mar 23, 2019 |
Easily one of the best novels I've read this year. Roscoe is a complicated, believable character and he made the book for me. I'm not sure I entirely buy the conclusion, which felt a bit neat to me, but that is just a quibble. The writing is so good and the characters so well-drawn that I could hardly put the novel down. ( )
  GaylaBassham | May 27, 2018 |
Mostrando 1-5 de 25 (siguiente | mostrar todos)
Reeves is a fine wrangler of words, able to snake sentences of slithery charisma in and around each other. This is especially true in her depictions of time and place: her settings and the people in them stand firm and vivid in the mind’s eye — a room in the farmhouse will surround you, the clanks and cries of the jail will reverberate clearly. In its finest moments you are learning from the inside out, not just the outside in.
añadido por kidzdoc | editarThe Australian, Sam Cooney (Apr 9, 2016)
 
A tale of guilt and redemption set in 1920s Alabama.

This is the story of Roscoe T Martin and the death that transforms his life. An electrician by trade, Roscoe is frustrated by life on the failing farm his wife inherited from her father. Roscoe decides that he can save the farm—and himself—by running power lines to his family’s property and its machinery. The farm does prosper for a time, but the reader knows from the novel’s opening line that this scheme will end in tragedy.

Elegant to a fault. Lacking in heart.
añadido por kidzdoc | editarKirkus Reviews (Dec 21, 2015)
 
When you’re on the last few pages of a book and find yourself longing for more, then you know that it is a very powerful read. Such is the case with Work Like Any Other. Author Virginia Reeves has delivered a commanding, dramatic novel of life in 1920s Alabama, inside a family torn apart by anger, resentment, shame, guilt, and desire.

This is a deeply gripping portrayal of Americana in the Deep South, replete with racism, violence, and heartbreak. It is astonishingly well-written, particularly for a debut novel. Reeves delivers powerful heartrending scenes of despair and hope. The reader is immersed within a family torn apart by guilt, yet connected by an undercurrent of love. Reeves paints magnificent scenes with expressive and direct language. Her characters are well thought out and deeply permeated with emotion.
 
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Alabama does not mean "Here we rest." It never did.

— Mrs L.B. Bush, from "A Decade of Progress in Alabama," 1924
Kilby Prison marks the impending transfer of the State of Alabama from the rear ranks of prison management to the front ranks. Alabama is following the example of the State of New York and the State of Virginia in establishing a central distributing prison to which prisoners will be sent immediately upon their conviction, and where they will receive: first, a thorough study of their history; second, a most thorough examination, mental and physical, by trained experts; third, a thorough course of treatment to remove any remedial defects; fourth, assignment to that prison and employment for which the convict is best adapted; and fifth, a systematic course of reformatory treatment and training, in order that the prisoner may be restored to society, if possible, a self-respecting, upright, useful and productive citizen.

— Hastings H. Hart, from Social Progress of Alabama, 1922
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For my grandmother, Theresa Reeves
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The electrical transformers that would one day kill George Haskin sat high on a pole about ten yards off the northeast corner of the farm where Roscoe T Martin lived with his family.
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"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)"-- "A starkly beautiful, morally complicated and astonishingly accomplished debut set in 1920s rural Alabama following Roscoe T. Martin, a prideful electrician sent to prison after his illegal siphoning of electrical state power for his wife's family's farm leads to an innocent man's death"--

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