Mutiny: The Rise and Revolt of the College-Educated Working Class by Noam Scheiber (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). Reviewed by Tim Hirschel-Burns. “The Starbucks and Apple union drives provide the heart of the narrative, but Mutiny also makes extended detours to the Amazon Labor Union, Hollywood strikes, the UAW, and more. In each case study, Scheiber introduces a vivid set of personalities at is center. The author is an effective storyteller, and the case studies are deeply reported, providing a workplace-level view of how labor struggles actually play out: the spreadsheets sorting employees based on their likely warmth toward a union; the obstinance of C-Suite executives determined to show that unionized workers don’t win better terms; and the sense of purpose unionization efforts give to workers who see their lives drifting.”

The Keeper: A Novel by Tana French (Viking). Reviewed by Bob Duffy. “French has written 10 successful novels, the first five of which fall squarely in the realm of character-driven crime fiction. The more recent — including this series — involve crimes or serious transgressions that demand unraveling. But they also bristle with the deepened attention to character portrayal more often associated with literary fiction. Most prominent on this measure: French’s interest in and insight into her characters’ psychology go beyond the immediate exigencies of plot progression that motor the standard whodunit.”

Strange People on the Hill: How Extremism Tore Apart a Small American Town by Michael Edison Hayden (Bold Type Books). Reviewed by William Rice. “As a Washington native who lived for several decades in eastern coastal Maine, I have some experience with the cultural conflict between residents with longstanding familial ties to a rural place and eager newcomers. I was expecting this book to be an explication of that phenomenon. But this tale is one of newcomers versus newer newcomers. If there are any residents of Berkeley Springs or its environs with deep roots in the area, we don’t meet them. And, presumably, it’s among that same population that we’d likely find vocal proponents of VDARE, but we don’t make their acquaintance, either.”

Those Who Are About to Die: A Day in the Life of a Roman Gladiator by Harry Sidebottom (Knopf). Reviewed by Peggy Kurkowski. “What most people know about the art and business of gladiatorial combat can be measured within the confines of Ridley Scott’s big-screen blockbuster ‘Gladiator.’ But there are worlds of meaning wrapped up inside ancient Rome’s most famous ‘sport,’ and in this stunningly innovative work of research and reconstruction, Sidebottom turns over every stone to get to the heart of the controversial entertainment that embodied and reflected the society that birthed it.”

Undercity: A Novel by Monte Schulz (Fantagraphics Books). Reviewed by William Schwartz. “But these flaws are outweighed by the fact that Undercity openly and unapologetically conjures a world where violence committed by the state has gotten so bad, the only answer is to commit violence against it. Marco may hurt people — and may, in fact, be mentally ill — but he’s almost certainly correct in believing the only alternative is to be hurt by them. The characters in Undercity aren’t fighting a mere culture war. It’s a straight-up war.”

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