I didn't finish this. I read about half. The reason? The reality was too harsh for me at the moment in life I was attempting to read it. Perhaps I would have gone further when I was younger, say, in my 30s or 40s. I did appreciate what I read of it. Sinclair's writing is vivid and clear. It paints a clear picture, although the picture is not what one wants to see, that of human misery. I found it to be very interesting in showing a place and a time in history. Like Charles Dickens, he is an advocate of the downtrodden. Unlike Dickens, he does not soften the blow with humor or heartwarming scenes. ( )

Here's what I wrote after reading in 1990: "Easy to see why the book caused a dramatic decrease in red meat consumption! Upton Sinclair exposed the digusting guts of the beef industry and strongly lobbied for socialism and rights of the worker. Jurgis, the pathetic hero, is tramatized by one "bad deal" after another. His honesty, integrity, energy, enthuasism are all driven from (him?) in the working man's America of the early 1900's / late 1800's." 2022 comment: This book deserves 5 stars for its positive impacts (Meat Inspection Act, Pure Food and Drug Act), if for nothing else. ( )

America was a different place in 1906 when Upton Sinclair published The Jungle. Teddy Roosevelt was President. The country was coming out of the Gilded Age capitalism into a new progressive era. Monopolistic trusts dominated the economy. Society resembled more of a two-class system and lacked a dominant middle class. Writing fiction, only realistically like a journalist, Sinclair showed how hard working class life was. A quick bestseller, this book led to national reforms, particularly in the meat-packing industry.

The protagonist Jurgis immigrated to Chicago from Lithuania. After moving, his family quickly fell into poverty. He worked as a meat packer, but seemed utterly unable to overcome the obstacles in front of him. His family fell into disrepair, too, and encountered death, prostitution, and drugs. Sinclair aptly named this book after the urban jungle that this family was trapped in.

The book ended in a jeremiad about the virtues of socialism. These opinions seem irrelevant and naive to twenty-first-century life, but are historically useful to understand the society and psychology of the time. No virtuous path to middle class life existed for this family. Understanding this points to its modern-day pertinence: People do desperate things (like Jurgis and his family did) when their lives lack economic stability. This lesson can explain some contemporary politics.

Though a fantastic success and insightful about American life in the early 1900s, this book has some shortcomings. In an instance of racism of the times, blacks were wrongly denigrated as an inferior race. The jeremiad ending the book seemed unnecessarily preachy. The answers to the problems were reductionistic as economics was portrayed as a catch-all solution.

Still, the historical value of this account remains. Working class life is accurately portrayed in a manner that resonated with the people of the time. Poverty and corruption – both in business and in politics – take center stage. These problems remain today. I hope that society has come closer to lasting solutions, but it is good sometimes to remember what going backwards can quickly turn into. ( )

Each successive page was an excruciating step closer to total despair. It's a relief when Jurgis finally stomps all over on the garden of his soul. By the end just reading the socialist revival section is almost an ecstatic experience when compared to the misery that precedes it, which I suppose was the point.

2008/05/31
It strikes me that religious nature of Jurgis' conversion is pretty apt and probably deliberate. Although the connections he makes help him find a job and the cause gives his life meaning and purpose, the movement itself is sustained by promises of a soon coming utopia that never actually arrives. The parallels to the commonly cited communist critique of Christianity are glaring. ( )

I was expecting to read a book that would gross me out of eating animals for a while. The description was there ... but can words really describe what was happening in the meat packer factories? One can only imagine the sounds in the factory and the smells.

It turned out that I was more disgusted by the exploitation of immigratnts who didn't know any better and really thought they were [b:on the road|6288|The Road|Cormac McCarthy|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21E8H3D1JSL._SL75_.jpg|3355573] to the American dream.

I was surprised to see this as such an anti-capitalist book .... with a conclusion preaching the virtues of socialism!! Well, at least it was a happy ending of sorts. ( )