Oil!: A Novel. Upton Sinclair (original 1927; edition 2008)

I picked this book up (and I'm sure I'm not alone in this) because of the movie There Will Be Blood. And so my temptation is to write about the book in relation to the movie. I am thwarted in this, however, by the simple fact that there is no relation between book and movie.

Yes, there's a father and a son and a lot of oil and a charlatan preacher, but that's it. Like the Jason Bourne books and movies, there only connection is a very faint resemblance of character and setting that dissolves upon closer inspection. Strangely, I'm more fascinated than ever in how, exactly, the book became the movie.

But, the book. Frankly, it's tiring. Sinclair throws just about every social issue imaginable into the book, from the dangers of heavy petting to the dangers of socialism, and after a while it becomes more than a little overwhelming. It doesn't help that the main characters are hopelessly naive blank slates, so that they can be the reader's window into multiple sides of every issue.

I don't know why I didn't expect this, since Sinclair is pretty much famous for writing books with specific social agendas, but it's frustrating to read a book where plot and character are so subservient to the author's ulterior social motives.

The movie is better. ( )

Interesting as well as entertaining. About the life of a man from boyhood through adulthood as the child of an oil baron. Great example of money is power. Also how a child that is given whatever is asked for, money no object, can become an adult with no strong sense of purpose.

The usual preachy fiction from Sinclair, in wihch he manages to take on the oil industry and the over the top evangelists at the same time, in his usual turgid prose. This book creates some memorable and interesting characters, but is too long by half. ( )

A portrayal of southern California in the 1920s, covering the development of the oil industry, movie picture business, large-scale religious cults, labor unrest, conflicts (especially among the youth) over socialism and communism, and corruption at all levels of business and government. The book is long and the writing polemical, but it remains remarkably contemporary in its description of big business and government corruption, religious cults, greed, labor disputes, student activism, and class warfare.

The novel bears only slight resemblance to the movie, "There Will Be Blood," which is loosely based upon "Oil!," with the book's main oilman a likeable, compassionate figure, and doting father to his idealist son and society-obessed daughter. And while the novel begins in 1912, allowing Upton Sinclair to explore America's involvement in World War I and the impacts of the Russian Revolution, the big oil strikes in California did not actually occur until 1920 and 1923. ( )

still relevant almost a century after it was written, this book really is a "cavalcade of characters" as the book sleeve promises.

reading this in the present context is especially important, as sinclair very clearly traces the roots of economic/political corruption that emerged so long ago and which still hold on to this day.

a highly relevant and engaging story, i had to keep reminding myself that oil was set in the early 20's and not in the present day. ( )