HOLDING THE LINE Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike of 1983

Kingsolver's first nonfiction effort is a treatment of the women on the strike line in the 1983 Phelps-Dodge copper mine strike in Arizona. In her lengthy introduction, Kingsolver admits she was unable to avoid taking sides, and Toren adopts the author's empathetic tone. In addition, she offers one vocal characterization for the various Mexican-American strikers and handles Spanish pronunciations with ease. Toren captures the miners' frustration and resentment as each relates tales of teargassing, arrests, and betrayal with outrage, bitter sarcasm and wit. Toren seems perfectly in step with the author's treatment of events that just couldn't happen in America but did. L.V.B. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 00]