[John Sayles] is described by his publisher as "a jack of all kinds of blue-collar trades." He is also, probably not coincidentally, one of our most exciting and accomplished young writers. His last novel, Union Dues, featured moving portraits of Americans at their jobs…. [The Anarchists' Convention] is also peopled by characters who leave the "music-masters" behind every morning; dishwashers, dog-breeders, cowboys, truck drivers, anthropologists in the field. Work does not just fill their time; it shapes their consciousness and gives form to their lives….

Sayles has an unerring ear for American speech…. His characters, whether they are illegal aliens in California or office temps in Boston, speak with individuality and vividness….

Keen powers of observation, of course, can serve as a crutch, leading the writer to produce journalistic fiction, the rendering of life without the leaven of imagination and the structure of art. "Golden State" suffers from...