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Union Dues
The setting is Boston, Fall 1969. Radical groups plot revolution, runaway kids prowl the streets, cops are at their wits end, and work is hard to get, even for hookers. Hobie McNutt, a seventeen year old runaway from West Virginia drifts into a commune of young revolutionaries. It's a warm, dry place, and the girls are very available. But Hobie becomes involved in an increasingly vicious struggle for power in the group, and in the mounting violence of their political actions. His father Hunter, who has been involved in a brave and dangerous campaign to unseat a corrupt union president in the coal miners union, leaves West Virginia to hunt for his runaway son. To make ends meet, he takes day-labor jobs in order to survive while searching for him. Living parallel lives, their destinies ultimately movingly collide in this sprawling classic of radicalism across the generations, in the vein of Pete Hamill, Jimmy Breslin, and Richard Price.
392 pages, Paperback
First published November 30, 1976
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427 people want to read
About the author
John Sayles
89 books135 followersJohn Thomas Sayles is an independent film director, screenwriter, novelist and short story writer who frequently plays small roles in his own and other indie films.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
January 1, 2019
John Sayles is so fabulous at capturing the history of a people and making its politics tangible. His most recent work, the epic A Moment in the Sun, pulled me in completely with its focus on the dawn of the 20th century. In this earlier work, Union Dues, Sayles captures so much of the time-specific visuals he rendered in A Moment…, but moves it nearly seventy years later, to the radical 1960s.
Union Dues tackles labor and revolution. As someone who is deeply interested in the 1960s group known as the Weathermen, I enjoyed this book's nods to the group. Though Sayles used the fictitious Third Way, a group that aims to be less radical than other revolutionary groups (e.g. The Weathermen), he captures the inner workings and sentiments in a way that is convincing. Between the dialogue and the action, Sayles forms a story that is quite believable and breathes naturally.
Wrestling with politics, class, and generational issues, Union Dues asks some tough questions. It lacks the scope, the sheer brilliance of A Moment in the Sun, and perhaps some of its organic growth, but it is an excellent story on its own, particularly for those interested in the era.
Union Dues tackles labor and revolution. As someone who is deeply interested in the 1960s group known as the Weathermen, I enjoyed this book's nods to the group. Though Sayles used the fictitious Third Way, a group that aims to be less radical than other revolutionary groups (e.g. The Weathermen), he captures the inner workings and sentiments in a way that is convincing. Between the dialogue and the action, Sayles forms a story that is quite believable and breathes naturally.
Wrestling with politics, class, and generational issues, Union Dues asks some tough questions. It lacks the scope, the sheer brilliance of A Moment in the Sun, and perhaps some of its organic growth, but it is an excellent story on its own, particularly for those interested in the era.
August 2, 2019
Sayles captures the voices of many during the times of radical social change and upheaval, 1969. I liked that the points of view primarily are from a coal miner father and his son, whom the father was searching for after his son ran away to Boston. In particular, I was intrigued by how Sayles explores the schisms in the movements for peace and social justice. He also has an extraordinary ear for dialects, accurately nailing the pompous tone of some seeking (mostly) social justice while also exploring the earnestness or naivety of others. Voices of working class day laborers, meatpackers, construction workers and others are authentic. The dynamic between women and men as the feminist movement is budding is right on point. Class divisions and the suffering of the every day worker are subtly explored. "Union Dues," published in 1977, echoes many of the same struggles today so I highly recommend this trip to the past so we can consider tactics that can result in social change ---and those that can not.
October 6, 2009
A bumpkin from West Virginia, lets call him "Barack Palin", falls in with WIlliam Ayres and Bernadine Dohrn and blows up his father coal mine...or something like that. Captures the aftermath of the radical anti-war movement in the 70s, the psychology of cults, and somehow maintains strong characters and a class analysis. More fun than Matewan and prescient of the Secaucus Seven.
November 28, 2024
Phenomenal dialogue and character writing. Even “background” characters like cops and unemployment office managers are fleshed out in their own chapters, which was a different approach I hadn’t seen in a novel before. The story is really engaging and interesting….until it fizzles out and doesn’t resolve itself.
November 17, 2025
Another read for a class I’m in. Interesting tale of people stuck in a broken system. Sadly, it’s a completely timeless novel.
Only flaw the novel has is one too many characters. Its strengths lie in focusing on the central few. 3.5 rounded up.
Only flaw the novel has is one too many characters. Its strengths lie in focusing on the central few. 3.5 rounded up.
May 16, 2021
The author, although he had a new novel published as recently as 2020, is primarily known these days as a filmmaker and political activist. UNION DUES (c1977, but reprinted in 2006) was nominated for the National Book Award and the National Critics’ Circle Award at the time. Mister Liberryhead was mighty impressed with it when he first read the book in his mid-twenties, and the novel still shows great talent and has a Steinbeckian resonance. But, dang it, UNION DUES is too depressing to bear reading 40+ years later. For example, here’s the declared goal of the ragtag radicals by whom the protagonist – fleet-footed West Virginia runaway Hobie McNatt, age sixteen – is scooped up: “We want to change the existing order so that it works for the people instead of against them…We want to help people win back control over their own lives” (p81). A dream so simple, so despoiled over time, so sad. Still, Sayles’s characterizations and dialogue are pitch-perfect. And the narrative has the scope of Greek tragedy, even though it features coal-miners, small “c” communists, Boston cops, Vietnam vets and average Americans so average they break your heart. Man, ever’body has to pay their union dues.
January 7, 2020
Darwin McNatt argues with his father, a West Virginia coal miner, and disappears up north. His brother Hobie leaves to find his bro. Then Hunter, the father of the two, tries to find them both. Dar is a Viet Nam vet, totally bummed out, just farting around in New Hampshire. Hobie is taken in by a radical urban commune in Boston, where he gets laid and finds out all about the bullshit internal politics of the commune. Hunter finds Dar, but can't break through with him. But he finds, more or less, a new life in working class Boston.
A re-read, one that holds up very well. An excellent immersion into the late 60s hippie life, and the honest, but futile, efforts of the radical left to make an impression in the politics of the time.
I will remember that it was not Hobie, but Sarah, the most reasonable to the communards, who fixed the clogged up stove, and she did it early in the story. I will remember the excellent set pieces in the bar with Huner and his work friends, and in the commune's political sessions, which were all bullshit maneuverings among the leaders for control of the agenda. Excellent range of characters who were all empathetic.
A re-read, one that holds up very well. An excellent immersion into the late 60s hippie life, and the honest, but futile, efforts of the radical left to make an impression in the politics of the time.
I will remember that it was not Hobie, but Sarah, the most reasonable to the communards, who fixed the clogged up stove, and she did it early in the story. I will remember the excellent set pieces in the bar with Huner and his work friends, and in the commune's political sessions, which were all bullshit maneuverings among the leaders for control of the agenda. Excellent range of characters who were all empathetic.
August 19, 2022
Well, I picked up Union Dues on a whim a few years ago. I've always like John Sayles, at least, I've liked the movies he's written (Piranha, Alligator, The Howling) and directed (Eight Men Out, Lone Star), so I figured "why the heck not?" when I started reading this. I'm glad I picked it up.
The story deals with 17 year old Hobie McNutt and his father, Hunter. One day, Hobie decides to leave the small West Virginia mining town they live in, and run off to Boston looking for his brother. Hunter soon leaves his job at the mines to pursue him. On their arrival in Boston, you get to spend time with the McNutts and various people that they interact with. This ranges from revolutionaries, cops, union workers, prostitutes and Black Panthers. Here, all the characters have their daily struggles just to survive and thrive. We see several times how the union workers are getting squeezed by complacency among union leaders who are cozy with the company. Young kids who think they are far left revolutionaries, don't actually take the time to consider what the communities they advocate for actually need, and so on, in these pages.
Sayles doesn't present this as a typical narrative, rather as a series of vignettes. That way he can deliver his various messages and frustrations to the reader without having to tie it neatly together. I appreciated Sayles's messaging though, it was thoughtful and sympathetic. He really let his characters have agency and took pains to show that while institutions can be broken, the people who are a part of them may not be as broken.
The story deals with 17 year old Hobie McNutt and his father, Hunter. One day, Hobie decides to leave the small West Virginia mining town they live in, and run off to Boston looking for his brother. Hunter soon leaves his job at the mines to pursue him. On their arrival in Boston, you get to spend time with the McNutts and various people that they interact with. This ranges from revolutionaries, cops, union workers, prostitutes and Black Panthers. Here, all the characters have their daily struggles just to survive and thrive. We see several times how the union workers are getting squeezed by complacency among union leaders who are cozy with the company. Young kids who think they are far left revolutionaries, don't actually take the time to consider what the communities they advocate for actually need, and so on, in these pages.
Sayles doesn't present this as a typical narrative, rather as a series of vignettes. That way he can deliver his various messages and frustrations to the reader without having to tie it neatly together. I appreciated Sayles's messaging though, it was thoughtful and sympathetic. He really let his characters have agency and took pains to show that while institutions can be broken, the people who are a part of them may not be as broken.
January 25, 2020
Very straightforward writing style, mostly letting the characters speak for themselves and give meaning to what's happening, treating working class characters with respect, and an ear to the internal dynamics of a subset of political groups. It also is a reminder of how far we are now from the hope for radical change that was widespread in that time.
December 21, 2025
The idea of a novel exploring the clash of 1960s-era radical politics, the fallout of the Vietnam War, and old-fashioned labor union organizing sounded intriguing. I kept expecting the three or four parallel and intertwined storylines to intersect at some point to relay a broader message, but they did not. Too bad.
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July 4, 2022Almost 400 pages and Hunter never found Hobie?????? Bullshit
Currently reading
August 25, 2025interesting quotes:
"People aren't a grateful bunch as a whole, it's easy to start to wonder why you should break your neck with so little return." (p. 68)
"People aren't a grateful bunch as a whole, it's easy to start to wonder why you should break your neck with so little return." (p. 68)
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June 22, 2009Read the STOP SMILING interview with filmmaker John Sayles
Q&A: John Sayles
By Patrick Z McGavin
Honeydripper is the 16th film by filmmaker and novelist John Sayles made in collaboration with his producer and partner, Maggie Renzi. A lyrical, funny and sharp evocation of early Fifties Alabama, it stars Danny Glover as a juke-joint impresario who is desperate to save his floundering club from economic ruin. (Honeydripper opens December 28th in LA and NY.)
Since his debut film, The Return of the Secaucus 7, Sayles’ best work has examined the interlay of class, race and social values. The new movie appears flush with autobiographical implications that detail the struggles and vicissitudes of the independent artist. Arranged anecdotally, the plot develops through a collage of stories, monologues and memories linked through music and a colorful collection of personalities.
A filmmaker, novelist, actor and MacArthur genius grant recipient, Sayles has long stood outside the industry, content to live and work in suburban New Jersey. In a recent interview, he talked about his life, art and work.
Stop Smiling: What was the genesis of the story of your new film, Honeydripper?
John Sayles: There’s this rock ’n’ roll legend about Guitar Slim, an early New Orleans electric guitar player who was famous for missing his gigs, among other things. He was also famous for going out on the street with a long extension cord and [he’d:] actually go to the doorways of other clubs — they’d be carrying an amp behind him and he’d play people back into his club. That plot interested me. Before people were known, before album covers, we didn’t get to see those [musicians:] on-screen until the Sixties. There were only about three rock ’n’ roll films when I was a kid.
I really started thinking of those [historical:] transitions, when everything started changing very quickly. When the talkies came in, there were people who were all of a sudden unemployable. It wasn’t just actors; there were directors who just didn’t know how or didn’t want to do that thing. What happens when that happens? Who are the ones who can get on that train that’s pulling out of the station, and who are the ones who either can’t or don’t want to? In music, I always think of Phil Ochs, a big-time singer. But as folksinging got less popular, he came out with a gold lamé jacket and did this rock ’n’ roll album that was partly ironic — and not very good — and he was obviously kind of bitter already. That was a bad decision for him, but when Bob Dylan strapped on an electric guitar, that was a great decision.
SS: In the last 10 years, the South has figured more prominently in your films.
JS: I spent a lot of time in the South. My mother’s parents lived in Hollywood, just north of Miami. I read a lot of William Faulkner, Harry Crews and Flannery O’Connor, all those great Southern Gothic writers. Then I read a lot of the Latin American magical realists, like Gabriel García Márquez, and all those guys were influenced by Faulkner.
Read the complete interview...
Q&A: John Sayles
By Patrick Z McGavin
Honeydripper is the 16th film by filmmaker and novelist John Sayles made in collaboration with his producer and partner, Maggie Renzi. A lyrical, funny and sharp evocation of early Fifties Alabama, it stars Danny Glover as a juke-joint impresario who is desperate to save his floundering club from economic ruin. (Honeydripper opens December 28th in LA and NY.)
Since his debut film, The Return of the Secaucus 7, Sayles’ best work has examined the interlay of class, race and social values. The new movie appears flush with autobiographical implications that detail the struggles and vicissitudes of the independent artist. Arranged anecdotally, the plot develops through a collage of stories, monologues and memories linked through music and a colorful collection of personalities.
A filmmaker, novelist, actor and MacArthur genius grant recipient, Sayles has long stood outside the industry, content to live and work in suburban New Jersey. In a recent interview, he talked about his life, art and work.
Stop Smiling: What was the genesis of the story of your new film, Honeydripper?
John Sayles: There’s this rock ’n’ roll legend about Guitar Slim, an early New Orleans electric guitar player who was famous for missing his gigs, among other things. He was also famous for going out on the street with a long extension cord and [he’d:] actually go to the doorways of other clubs — they’d be carrying an amp behind him and he’d play people back into his club. That plot interested me. Before people were known, before album covers, we didn’t get to see those [musicians:] on-screen until the Sixties. There were only about three rock ’n’ roll films when I was a kid.
I really started thinking of those [historical:] transitions, when everything started changing very quickly. When the talkies came in, there were people who were all of a sudden unemployable. It wasn’t just actors; there were directors who just didn’t know how or didn’t want to do that thing. What happens when that happens? Who are the ones who can get on that train that’s pulling out of the station, and who are the ones who either can’t or don’t want to? In music, I always think of Phil Ochs, a big-time singer. But as folksinging got less popular, he came out with a gold lamé jacket and did this rock ’n’ roll album that was partly ironic — and not very good — and he was obviously kind of bitter already. That was a bad decision for him, but when Bob Dylan strapped on an electric guitar, that was a great decision.
SS: In the last 10 years, the South has figured more prominently in your films.
JS: I spent a lot of time in the South. My mother’s parents lived in Hollywood, just north of Miami. I read a lot of William Faulkner, Harry Crews and Flannery O’Connor, all those great Southern Gothic writers. Then I read a lot of the Latin American magical realists, like Gabriel García Márquez, and all those guys were influenced by Faulkner.
Read the complete interview...
September 16, 2011
Great book, extremely well written.Sayles discusses many different issues that were taking place in the late 60s. Father-son issues, Vietnam War issues, mine safety and other important issues. Quite a lot of changes have occurred since this book was written (1977) but some issues never change and for issues like unions, the situation has gotten worse. I like everything that Sayles does from novels to movies.
April 6, 2014
John Sayles shows his customary ear for dialogue in this "novel of the Sixties," which tells three (or four) entwined stories of a West Va. teen who runs away and lands with a group of radicals in Boston, and his coal-miner father who comes to look for him. A small section of the book inspired Sayles' 1987 historical drama "Matewan."
October 18, 2010
The characters in this book feel real. Except for the two cops, but their dialogue is hilarious. Excellent take on the end of the sixties/beginning of the seventies in America. Has a real feel for place (W. Virginia/Boston & environs).
September 11, 2012
A fun read, not least because of the fact that the kernel of the movie Matewan is contained in one of the story arcs, and lets you know what happened t the preacher boy, CR lively and the others. A must read if you love Sayles work.
August 31, 2007
Full review here:
http://landismom.wordpress.com/2006/0...
http://landismom.wordpress.com/2006/0...
August 6, 2008
powerful story about class and the 1960s New Left..
April 18, 2014
For my money, the best novel of the Sixties, casting an unsparing eye and understanding heart across class, economic, and generational lines.
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February 5, 2013It's been a long, long time.
April 28, 2017
Hunter McNally is a West Virginia mine worker. When his son Hobie takes off for Boston to meet his brother, who's drifting after a tour of duty in Vietnam, Hunter pursues him, and both father and son get caught up in the labor movement and 1969 political and union activism. Sayles draws his characters in sharp, distinctive brushes, and the history they witness secondhand seems firsthand in the narration. Read this for the first time when I was about 20, near Hobie's age. Read it just now, when I'm closer to Hunter's age. The class conflicts that ricochet across the generation gap seem closer to me than ever before.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews