Classics Book Club: Out of This Furnace
Out of This Furnace by Thomas Bell (1941, 424 pages)
May 28, 2026
Out of This Furnace is Thomas Bell’s most compelling achievement. It's a story of three generations of an immigrant Slovak family -- the Dobrejcaks -- that still stands as a fresh and extraordinary accomplishment.
The novel begins in the mid-1880s with the naive, blundering career of Djuro Kracha. It tracks his arrival from the old country as he walked from New York to White Haven, his later migration to the steel mills of Braddock, Pennsylvania, and his eventual downfall through foolish financial speculations and an extramarital affair. The second generation is represented by Kracha’s daughter, Mary, who married Mike Dobrejcak, a steelworker. Their decent lives, made desperate by the inhuman working conditions of the mills, were held together by the warm bonds of their family life, and Mike’s political idealism set an example for the children. Dobie Dobrejcak, the third generation, came of age in the 1920s, determined not to be sacrificed to the mills. His involvement in the successful unionization of the steel industry marked the culmination of a half-century struggle to establish economic justice for workers.
Out of This Furnace is a testament to ethnic heritage and a vivid portrayal of a violent and cruel period in our history, but it is also a superb story. The writing is strong and forthright, and the novel builds constantly to its triumphantly human conclusion.
An adored only child, Annie has until recently lived an idyllic life. She is inseparable from her beautiful mother, a powerful presence, who is the very center of the little girl's existence. Loved and cherished, Annie grows and thrives within her mother's benign shadow. Looking back on her childhood, she reflects, "It was in such a paradise that I lived."
When she turns twelve, however, Annie's life changes, in ways that are often mysterious to her. She begins to question the cultural assumptions of her island world; at school she instinctively rebels against authority; and most frighteningly, her mother, seeing Annie as a "young lady," ceases to be the source of unconditional adoration and takes on the new and unfamiliar guise of adversary.
