A captivating, albeit short, narrative of an office and its employees.
By Bill Savage ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 27, 2023
Floyd, a 17-year-old, is looking for a summer job in 1948 and finds one at Blake Silk Mill as a bobbin boy. His colleagues George Klumpfer and Maggie O’Hara try to make him feel inferior, but he leaves to serve in Korea and returns with a new role as “tester”. In 1971, 16-year-old Chris Tiller also works as a bobbin boy at the now Blake Textile Mill, with George as the superintendent and Maggie as the floorlady. The novella then jumps to 2001, showing the decline of the industry and its employees’ dreams. Savage’s writing style captures the power of mid-20th-century American industry, as Floyd is amazed by the sound of the mill. However, the novella feels underdeveloped, with Floyd’s war years being dealt with in just a few sentences. Despite this, it is a thoughtful tale that evocatively describes the American manufacturing peak and decline on a human level.
Pub Date: June 27, 2023
ISBN: 9798350901948
Page Count: 200
Publisher: BookBaby
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2023