Blue Collar Blues

August 31, 1998
Anyone who works in the auto industry will find McMillan's third novel (after Knowing and One Better) an intimate account of both blue- and white-collar Detroit and manufacturing America in general. When it comes to character development, however, McMillan seems to be running on fumes. Thyme Tyler is an African American plant manager for Champion Motors (a hybrid of Ford, GM and Chrysler) who has hit the glass ceiling even though she holds a Ph.D. Khan Davis is a handsomely paid factory worker who faces the threat of layoff and daily struggles for overtime in the plant. The two women maintain a slightly incredible friendship despite their class differences and despite Khan's refusal to forgive Thyme's marriage to a stereotypically lily-white Champion exec. This friendship is the eye in a storm of downsizing and plant closings, and although the women's connection is not the only unlikely element in McMillan's tale, she keeps the story lines mercifully clear. In fact, this assembly-line simplicity is the novel's main fault: readers may find it hard to get revved up by characters and problems that so clearly bear the stamp of mass-production. Many not-so-subtle hints--of secrets ripe for exposure and violence bound to erupt--are planted too obviously for a suspenseful or surprising climax, and a riveted-on conclusion ends the job too quickly and neatly. (Sept.) FYI: McMillan spent more than 20 years as a factory worker at Ford.