World's End (1940)

I have often wished to read Sinclair book but had not done so until now. While it is a long volume, much of the text is history, not drama, The reader sees pre-war Europe mainly through life in France as seen through the eyes of Lanny Budd, the son of a munitions manufacturer.
The story continues through the War years to the peace negotiations in Paris to which Lanny has access via a job as a secretary to one of the researchers. Whole there is a drama especially involving Lanny's Bohemian mother and her lovers/husbands, the real pleasure of the novel is the amount of behind the scenes history Sinclair allows us to be privy to. We are also exposed to the horrors of war in the trenches by what happens to some of Lanny's friends. I researched some of the characters Lanny meets during the Paris peace talks and Sinclair has them accurately nailed warts and all.
The author does include much criticism of capitalism and its exploitation of the workers. The workers revolution in Russia that is concurrent with the peace talks is not seen as the perfect solution to the problem but through one of the characters, Lanny's Uncle Jesse, we are warned that the privileged classes are in for some change because the exploited are not going to put up with it any longer.
As I am a history buff, I enjoyed the history much more than the story. I am looking forward to my next Upton Sinclair novel. ( )

Good information about upper class France away from the war. The characters interacted occassionally with the war but most of them were "above" the danger. They could look at the war as an opportunity for making money or a terrible inconvenience because they had to stay clear of Paris. Lanny Budd's father was a weapons merchant who held a very prosaic view of his line of work. Someone was going to make and sell guns so it might as well be him.
The characters were 2 dimensional.
I learned a lot about the peace process at the end of the war and the rise of Bolshevism. As a history text is was very informative. As literature it fell short. ( )

The characters are so-so, but overall it is a good vivid picture of the period of the First World War ( )

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