Germianl by Emile Zola

This is my last book for the Classics Challenge. I had never read anything by this author but I was drawn to it because I'd just read a novel by Balzac and enjoyed that very much plus it deals with a coal strike in the north of France in "the black country". At the beginning of the book, our protaganist, Etienne, appears in the coal country from Paris looking for work. Etienne is part of a recurring family that Emile Zola followed in 20 novels. Etienne has previously worked for the railroads but lost his job and is now out on foot searching for work. He has some education, having worked as a mechanic. Alas, there are no mechanic jobs but he meets a mining family, the Maheus, who have a shortage on their team and take him on as a hauler. This is a bottom rung job, one normally filled by girls and boys. This whole first part of the book involves describing the workings of the mine, how the miners do their work, the home life of the miners, and the village they live in. Etienne doesn't intend to be a labor organizer but conditions are so bad and then the company demands an unacceptable concession from the miners and Etienne finds himself in a position of leadership because he has some ideas and can speak to a crowd. A bitter strike erupts and there are different people vying for leadership but Etienne wins the day by speaking about the International and a fund to help people through a long strike. He wins people over also on the vision he creates of a better world and plays upon their desire to see the tables turned. The strike continues through winter, people are starving, conditions are desperate and a mob forms and goes on a rampage through the district. This whole section culminates in the mob throwing stones at a small group of militia and the militia firing on them and killing several children and women. The people feel crushed especially the Maheus, because Maheu (the father) is shot and killed in addition to losing their young daughter to starvation. There is also a love story that revolves around Etienne, Catherine Maheu, and another miner Chaval. This takes up a lot of the story but doesn't really come to the forefront until Catherine, Etienne, and Chaval (along with others) find themselves trapped deep in the mine ,victims of an act of sabotage. The latter part of the book follows the effort to save the trapped miners and the love triangle being played out to its' ultimate conclusion when Etienne stones Chaval to death in a blind rage. In the end the miners are forced back to work, Catherine dies , Etienne barely survives, the company has taken some big losses but it is the miners who have really paid the price with their lives. I know that all of that sounds sad and it is, but I think the novel ends on a a hopeful note by saying that things cannot continue like this indefinitely and there will be change for the better in the future. I was so impressed with this book. I finished it in a week because it was hard to put down. It is a bleak story and yet it grabs you and won't let you go. There are many dimensions to the book. In Zola's mind, it was first and foremost a novel about the struggle between labor and capital. The introduction states that it was not a factual account ,especially for that time period, it may have been more reflective of an earlier time. That being said, though, it captures the extreme difficulty of people's lives and tries to grapple with the question of justice. The struggle for justice is with us now and shows no signs of going away anytime soon if ever. In that sense, it's a timeless story.