One Hundred Days Of Refusal: A Novel

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Wyatt E Jones || One Hundred Days Of Refusal is a novel that chronicles the transformation of a working-class town through a labour strike and its aftermath, presented in a series of fragmented, poetic vignettes without named characters or traditional plot structure.

Set in an unspecified historical context (evoking early 20th-century industrial struggles), it begins with the stirrings of discontent: workers waking in cramped boarding houses, a soapbox orator challenging inequality, whispers of scabs and strikes, confrontations with authorities leading to arrests and violence, and acts of solidarity like singing outside jails and sharing bread. The early days depict raw tension, fear masked as humour, and collective defiance against bosses, police, and systems that “sell life by the hour.” Women play crucial roles, organising support and recognising the inevitability of conflict.

As the strike persists (around days 39-44), the narrative shifts from overt resistance to an experimental, leaderless existence. The town navigates the “work” of autonomy: loose schedules on chalkboards, boundary-setting, internal arguments over risk and endurance, and reflections on how revolutions fade into daily maintenance. Themes emerge of care as movement, rest without permission, and the realisation that comfort and danger share borders. External threats like rumours of troops or official letters recede, replaced by internal recalibrations – people choosing edges, acknowledging fatigue, and finding progress in quiet absences rather than grand actions.

By the final days (91-100), the town has dissolved into a state of unremarkable persistence. Days blend without urgency or distinction; structures fade, movements occur without echo, and life continues absent demands for justification. The narrative grows increasingly sparse, ending with minimal sentences like “Morning happens” and “Nothing is interrupted,” symbolising a quiet undoing of permanence – neither victory nor defeat, but a refusal to disappear or claim territory. The strike’s energy dissipates into an ordinary existence where nothing is defended, taken, or activated, yet everything endures.

Overall, the story traces an arc from explosive collective action to subtle, leaderless sustainability, exploring how radical change can evolve into invisible normalcy without resolution.

This novel is a bold, experimental meditation on class struggle, community, and the quiet erosion of power structures, delivered in a style that’s equal parts poetic and austere. Its strength lies in the fragmented, vignette-driven narrative – short paragraphs that evoke a collective consciousness rather than individual heroes, mirroring the anarchic themes. The language is evocative and rhythmic, with recurring motifs like singing, chalked slogans, and fading light building a palpable atmosphere of tension giving way to acceptance. It subverts expectations of revolutionary fiction by focusing on the mundane aftermath: the “work” of endurance, the dissolution of urgency, and how true change might look like nothing happening at all. This makes it intellectually rewarding, challenging readers to reconsider what constitutes success in resistance – persistence over spectacle.

Recommended to fans of literary fiction exploring socialism, anarchy, or existential drift. It’s not an easy read, but its subversion of narrative norms leaves a lingering impact: a reminder that revolutions don’t always end; they sometimes just settle into being.

One Hundred Days of Refusal – download