After Mayday 2020 — these 3 books about working class characters have changed my life and my own writing

This year almost all of us were forced to stay at home on Mayday, festivals and demonstrations were canceled due to the new Corona virus. That’s why I took the time and decided to write about working class novels — being forced to stay inside, I thought it would be a good chance to use the month of May to re-read those inspiring works.

Class awareness has always played a part in my life and I always sympathized with working class people who helped us to have a 8-hour working day and better health and social system today.

Since I studied British and American literature but I’m living in Japan now and I also have a big interest in Iceland I want to shortly introduce three authors from those countries and their works which I really enjoyed reading.

USA: The Jungle

When speaking about this book I even remember how I actually read it — laying on my bed crying about the miserable life of Jurgis and his awakening to the idea of socialism. As you can guess now, I have a very emotional attachment to this book. And I still keep a copy of it with me in Japan and Germany.

Published in 1960 Upton Sinclair portrayed the harsh living conditions of immigrant workers in…