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Title: Oil (California Fiction) by Upton Sinclair, Jules Tygiel ISBN: 0-520-20727-0 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: April, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.17 (6 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Oil!....a timely tale
Comment: Anyone who wants a vivid, first-hand account of Southern California life in the 1920's will love this novel. It captures the go-go energy of the times, peppered with jazz-era slang, which perhaps was so fresh at the time this novel was written that Sinclair chose to put these terms in quotations. (Modern readers will be surprised that most of this slang is in common use today). Of course, one can't ignore the larger political, social and cultural themes that explode upon these pages. The oil boom that grips everyone in Southern California is just the tip of the iceberg. The weirder aspect is how little has changed in the past 75 years, We are still grappling with the same issues of political corruption, wage inequality, excesses of capitalism, cult of celebrity, and lest we forget, the youth and car culture. Even more disturbing are the passing references to American oil interests in the middle east. There's some laugh out loud passages; one of the most memorable concerns an Oklahoma oil man who lays on the down-home drawl to intimadate European diplomats. Hmmmm, now that sounds familiar....
Rating: 5
Summary: you all missed the best part
Comment: Aside from all all the politics and Ideals, it tells a very good story of how Oil was drilled for in those days, Sinclair had seen it done or had some very good editors that had
Rating: 4
Summary: Generally entertaining
Comment: Unlike Sinclair's best-known novel, "The Jungle," with its bleak story and gloomy characters, "Oil!" is a fast-paced, lively and colorful story. Although Sinclair uses it to preach his political views, it is nevertheless a good piece of literature and an interesting historical testimony to the era in which it was written. Another striking thing is how Sinclair's descriptions of corporate manipulations tend to mirror very recent events. Interesting also is that Sinclair uses one of the oldest cliches in American literature, the coming-of-age story, as the vehicle for this epic; at the same time, there are indications that Sinclair seems to mock this manner of story-telling - from the main character's rather silly nick-name, "Bunny" to his perennial inability to make up his mind about where he wants to go with his life, i.e. he never really 'comes of age.' Other reviewers have noted Sinclair's apparently naive promotion of socialism/communism/the Bolsheviks, which is a valid criticism, although to me it seemed more a case of the author throwing out ideas to provoke readers into thinking rather than an attempt to persuade them. In this sense, his use of the family of a wealthy California oil baron as the main protagonists is quite telling: although Sinclair does take the opportunity to highlight the hypocrisy and greed of the moneyed classes, he also makes a genuine attempt to portray them as real people rather than just grotesque caricatures. I also noticed that many of his characterizations of the working class/poor are often less than flattering. Regardless, this is a really entertaining novel, probably Sinclair's best.
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Title: The Jungle: The Uncensored Original Edition by Upton Sinclair, Kathleen De Grave, Earl Lee ISBN: 1884365302 Publisher: See Sharp Press Pub. Date: 01 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Negroes With Guns (African American Life Series) by Robert Franklin Williams, Timothy B. Tyson, Gloria House ISBN: 0814327141 Publisher: Wayne State Univ Pr Pub. Date: June, 1998 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: The Moneychangers (Literary Classics) by Upton Sinclair ISBN: 1573929018 Publisher: Prometheus Books Pub. Date: May, 2001 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
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Title: Ramona: A Story by Helen Hunt Jackson, Michael Dorris ISBN: 0451528425 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: 02 July, 2002 List Price(USD): $5.95 |
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Title: Boston: A Documentary Novel of the Sacco-Vanzetti Case by Upton Beall Sinclair, Howard Zinn ISBN: 0837604206 Publisher: Bentley Publishers Pub. Date: December, 1978 List Price(USD): $32.00 |
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