This was Barbara Kingsolver’s first book, written during her work as a reporter while living in Arizona. She covers the 1983 strike at the Morenci Copper Mine where women played a key role. The union workers began striking at the end of their contract with corporate giant Phelps Dodge, and thus began a standoff that lasted a year and a half. The company brought in “scab” labor to try to break both the strike and the union itself.

Kingsolver states in the preface that she personally knew the strikers and was on their side. There are many interviews with women involved in working the picket lines, organizing strike-related events, making food for the strikers, and maintaining morale. Some of the women were employed in the mine and others were there in support of their husbands.

There are many power plays and abuse of human rights documented in this book. The police and National Guard were called in. The situation escalated. The media coverage focused on sensationalistic headlines. It is hard to believe this all took place in the 1980s. It reads as something you might expect in the early days of unions.

One of the main themes is how these women found a sense of empowerment. Barbara Kingsolver uses her strong writing skills in portraying the anger, frustration, determination, and accomplishments of these women. There are probably a few too many interviews and long quotations. It is fairly obvious this is an early work, but definitely shows Kingsolver’s potential, which she has since developed into a successful writing career.
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