10 great books featuring working class heroes

nspired by a posthumous story collection from Lucia Berlin: a list of excellent stories starring proletarians too rarely given voice in industrial life.

10. "Down and Out in Paris and London," by George Orwell

Long before Anthony Bourdain went behind the scenes of the food industry in "Kitchen Confidential," George Orwell revealed what it was like to work in a cafeterie of a Parisian hotel. “Nothing could be easier, on the face of it, than this stupid scullion work, but it is astonishingly hard when one is in a hurry. One has to leap to and fro between a multitude of jobs – it is like sorting a pack of cards against the clock.” Orwell recounts his days spent teetering on the brink of starvation. It’s a classic for a reason, and a book that generation after generation of working class heroes will cherish as fuel for the will to carry on.

10 of 10
You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.