IN DUBIOUS BATTLE

First published in 1936, this germinal work lays the groundwork for Steinbeck’s later masterpieces, OF MICE AND MEN and THE GRAPES OF WRATH. Jim and Mac, radicals with unionizing on their minds, travel the circuit of California’s migrant camps where pickers suffer pitifully inadequate wages and inhumane living conditions, conditions ripe for revolution. Tom Stechschulte’s performance perfectly echoes those days when men were willing to sacrifice their lives for a principle. While Steinbeck’s women are usually designated to the periphery, Stechschulte manages to endow Lisa, the daughter-in-law of a local leader, with an earthy life beyond the page. As Jim and Mac organize the workers and prepare them to strike, Stechschulte’s easy manner lends both truth and grace to this piece of literary history. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 02]