Oil
This novel originates from the 'Teapot Dome' oil scandal of President Warren Harding as oil barons bribe politicians. It is about greed and the oil boom of Southern California in the 1920's. It is wrapped up in evangelic crusades by shifty preachers and leftist labor activists. "Oil" is a provoking novel as a man and his son plunge into the oil drilling business ...more
Hardcover, 544 pages
Published
February 1st 2008
by Frederick Ellis
(first published 1927)
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Oil! is one of my favorite American novels, because Sinclair was fascinated and bewildered by the beginnings of mass-consumer culture here in the U.S., and his descriptions here of oil rigs, cars, radios, jazz music, and Hollywood are very perceptive and eye-opening. Sinclair knew that we were losing something of ourselves as we bought into high convenience--but at the same time he loved driving fast on the newly paved hills of Southern California. The opening chapter is a tour-de-force descri...more
Upton Sinclair drank my milkshake....he drank it up! I thought I was going to read a book about the oil industry in California circa 1920 but ended up with a book about World Communism. Oh well, at least it was interesting.
'There Will Be Blood' is LOOSELY based on this book; that is to say there is oil drilling in each and there's a creepy charlatan for a religious leader, but that's about it. The first half of this book was excellent and gives a real explanation of how oil drilling worked at the turn of the century. The second half of the book is really about socialism, as the main character (the son of the 'oil man') struggles between the greedy wealth of his father and his belief in worker's rights. I found...more
Like many of the other reviewers here I also read this book after seeing There Will Be Blood. Enough has been said about the differences between the novel and the film, so there's no need for me to chime in on that topic.
Sinclair definitely knows how to tell a story. The opening pages narrating Bunny's and "Dad's" high-speed drive through the hills of California en route to an oil lease signing, grabbed me and kept me turning the pages. It wasn't until about half to three q...more
Sinclair definitely knows how to tell a story. The opening pages narrating Bunny's and "Dad's" high-speed drive through the hills of California en route to an oil lease signing, grabbed me and kept me turning the pages. It wasn't until about half to three q...more
¡Petróleo! tiene un arranque muy enérgico, es decidido, con planes de atraparte desde el principio y pareciera que es una adaptación fidedigna la que hiciera Anderson del libro.
Hay que reconocer que el trabajo documental que despliega Sinclair es de altura. La perforación de los pozos, su explotación y el levantamiento del entramado industrial y social que se crea a su alrededor son descritos con detalle, ritmo e interés.
Sin embargo la solidez narrativa de Sinclair se de...more
Hay que reconocer que el trabajo documental que despliega Sinclair es de altura. La perforación de los pozos, su explotación y el levantamiento del entramado industrial y social que se crea a su alrededor son descritos con detalle, ritmo e interés.
Sin embargo la solidez narrativa de Sinclair se de...more
I didn't see the movie. And I had low expectations for Sinclair's work, as he's regarded as prolix and melodramatic, but this is good, surprisingly good--absorbing enough to make me ignore my surroundings and nearly miss my train stop.
While I'm only a third of the way into the book, it is something of a War and Peace set in Southern California. It's the story of Bunny Ross, a boy who follows his father, J. Andrew Ross, one of the more successful independent oil men, a self made m...more
While I'm only a third of the way into the book, it is something of a War and Peace set in Southern California. It's the story of Bunny Ross, a boy who follows his father, J. Andrew Ross, one of the more successful independent oil men, a self made m...more
This is a wonderful book on corruption and graft in the oil business and government of the early 20th century that is almost ruined a horrible ending. Before chapter XVIII, the book is great as we follow the main character, "Bunny" Ross, Jr., as he learns about the oil business and all of its corruption first hand from his father. We see Bunny struggle to convey truth to power, so to speak, and to stay good and honest in a world that is revealed to be more corrupt than the oil business...more
****SPOILER ALERT*******
Ever since first semester of junior year, I have wanted to read Oil!. The man reason I wanted to read it was because one of my favorite movies, There Will Be Blood, is loosely based off of this book. When I started the book, I knew that it wasn’t going to be like the movie, but part of me hoped it would be as awesome. Sadly, this was not the case.
Oil! tells the story of a man named James Arnold Ross, who is a self made oil millionaire. He has one son,...more
Ever since first semester of junior year, I have wanted to read Oil!. The man reason I wanted to read it was because one of my favorite movies, There Will Be Blood, is loosely based off of this book. When I started the book, I knew that it wasn’t going to be like the movie, but part of me hoped it would be as awesome. Sadly, this was not the case.
Oil! tells the story of a man named James Arnold Ross, who is a self made oil millionaire. He has one son,...more
Oil! Review
Oil! by Upton Sinclair tells the story of the son of an American oil tycoon, and his ethical struggle between being loyal to his family, and to his personal morals. The main character James Ross Jr., also known as “Bunny” lives a plush life due to his fathers immense earning through mining oil in Southern California. As new mining sites and projects are developed, Bunny finally sees the mistreatment of workers, and begins to question his fathers ethics. Oil! is a decent book at ...more
Oil! by Upton Sinclair tells the story of the son of an American oil tycoon, and his ethical struggle between being loyal to his family, and to his personal morals. The main character James Ross Jr., also known as “Bunny” lives a plush life due to his fathers immense earning through mining oil in Southern California. As new mining sites and projects are developed, Bunny finally sees the mistreatment of workers, and begins to question his fathers ethics. Oil! is a decent book at ...more
Upton Sinclair's "Oil" is yet another in a long line of his progressive books. He is a well know reformer, with his most famous book,"the Jungle," bringing about many changes in the meat packing industry. Although not as widely read, this novel is just as effective at making it's point as his other works.
In writing this novel his purpose remains constant, an attempt to expose the greed that drives a capitalist economy. He shows the greed, corruption, and class warf...more
In writing this novel his purpose remains constant, an attempt to expose the greed that drives a capitalist economy. He shows the greed, corruption, and class warf...more
Like most people, I read this after the movie came out. Of course it has nothing to do with the movie. It is simple socialist propaganda out of the pages of the Appeal to Reason or some other periodical, just like the Jungle. I, of course, like that. Most people are as ignorant of America's participation in the Russian Civil War on the side of the Whites today as they were then. Why not get them thinking about it, whether in a serial in a socialist paper or a classic novel. Each episode, w...more
Don’t be deceived by the little byline on the front of new printings of this novel that says “The Inspiration for the Paramount blah blah blah movie ‘There Will Be Blood’.” From what I’ve heard from people who have seen the movie – this book is nothing like the film. In general theme, possibly, and they’ve stolen some of the characters’ names to use for their own purposes. But this is the extent of the similarity.
This is mostly the story of the rise and fall of the James Arnold Ross oi...more
This is mostly the story of the rise and fall of the James Arnold Ross oi...more
Oil! is one of those books that is diverse enough to appeal to a broad audience. On one hand, it takes a beautiful snapshot of life in Southern California in the 1920s - the landscape, the culture, the business, the film industry. On the other, it's a novel about politics, money, and economics.
The characters are just as diverse, and they are real people - complex and well developed. There are no villains in this book, even among the most corrupt and power-hungry characters. Everyone's...more
The characters are just as diverse, and they are real people - complex and well developed. There are no villains in this book, even among the most corrupt and power-hungry characters. Everyone's...more
This review is based on 3/4 of the book. As much as I tried, I just could not force myself to finish it. Upton Sinclair is a fantastic storyteller and the first half of the book is great. His opening scene of driving through So Cal is excellent. He has a nice mix of descriptive prose, humor and a keen eye for things. If you've seen the movie "There Will Be Blood", its nothing like the book. I don't know how it can even be said the movie is based on it.
Sinclair was also a f...more
Sinclair was also a f...more
Daniel Montgolfier
rated it
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
communists, socialists, marxists, and anyone else to the radical left
Recommended to Daniel by:
Jaron Gaier/ Hollywood
If you liked Grapes of Wrath, I think you'll like this one. Similar to Steinbeck's epic of the American West during the Great Depression, Sinclair's masterpiece is seasoned with political overtones, satire, heart-breaking realism, and a cold anger at the capitalist system that chokes the incomes of the hard workers of our young nation. However, what is most interesting about this work is how it differs from the film adaptation, "There Will Be Blood". At times Paul Thomas Andersen has d...more
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There probably isn't much to say about this book that hasn't already been said, but there are perhaps some really salient take-home points. Time Magazine said of Upton Sinclair that he was a man who possessed every gift except "humor and silence." That's true, certainly, of Oil!. This is probably going to read less as a book review than as a practical assessment of the book's veracity; that is, is Sinclair using fiction to tell the truth?
The main success of the book is going ...more
The main success of the book is going ...more
After the incredible experience of THERE WILL BE BLOOD, I had to read the inspiration for the movie. It's no less compelling, fascinating, nor epic. It's also completely different from the movie it "inspired" in terms of plot. "Oil!" is more political, more historical, more satirical, and best of all, it captures a time and place I knew very little about going into the book (even after seeing the movie twice). Highly recommended reading.
Historical fiction. Fascinating account of the oil boom in California in the early 1900's ,from the beginning of a few wells to the oil cartel's world wide influence. (Note: Upton Sinclair spends plenty of time making a case for pure Socialism) Sinclair was a master of visual description, similar to John Steinbeck. The reader is immersed in a father/son tale of greed, love, union organization, murder, WWI & revenge. The dad is a pure capitalist/self made oil tycoon with a harsh view of anythin...more
It's a little hard for me to fathom how this book "inspired" There Will Be Blood. The film narrative is dark and Daniel Day-Lewis's character is brooding, hateful and intense. Daniel Plainview's poisonous temperament and greed couldn't be farther from J. Arnold Ross, the optimistic, no-nonsense oil man in the book, father of Bunny Ross, his idealist "red" heir. The novel is really a vindictive account of president Harding's corrupt government, the penetration of Bolshevism in...more
A nice slice of social realism that still has relevance today being mostly concerned as it is with oil, money, corruption, the formation of trade unions and socialism. On one level this is beautifully layered and set up to show all the conflicts and emotions a son would have as he's torn between his rich old world dad and the idealistic world he envisions, but although there is turmoil I felt there was something missing. Father and son have one emotion which is that they love eachother, they don...more
This was a good book. However, its socialist, workers-of-the-world-unite message reads a little naive now that we actually know the facts of life in Leninist and Stalinist Russia. But as an indictment of primitive capitalism is was an excellent piece.
What makes me recommend this book is the story. Though mawkish in places and a plot that is more than a little predictable it remains a very compelling story about the oil industry at the beginning of the 20th century in southern Californi...more
What makes me recommend this book is the story. Though mawkish in places and a plot that is more than a little predictable it remains a very compelling story about the oil industry at the beginning of the 20th century in southern Californi...more
Sinclair wrote with the fervent energy of a true believer, but the entire time I read the book, I approached it with the perspective of history in mind. History has basically shown Sinclair, and those who subscribed to his idealistic view of the "workers", to be wrong. The camps that he describes for (basically) a good Socialist society at the end of the book were tried, with great success. The problem is, the Nazis and Stalin were the ones that pulled it off.
This book...more
This book...more
Because P.T. Anderson's excellent 2007 film, There Will be Blood (one of my absolute favorites of all time), is loosely based on this 1927 Upton Sinclair novel, I was pretty stoked to tackle Oil!. When I realized early on exactly how loose of an adaptation it was, I lost interest pretty quickly. There Will be Blood is a brilliant, stark, intense satire on American religion and the oil industry in the early 1900s and a character study on a truly evil oil tycoon (superbly played by Daniel Day Lewi...more
This was quite a readable (listenable) story for a novel set (and written) in the Twenties. Upton Sinclair was a prolific author who knew how to spin a tale, even while he was trying to expose the evils of capitalism. Sinclair's socialist beliefs are very much in evidence, but don't let that put you off -- he doesn't get up on a soapbox so much that it distracts from the plot (though it's obvious that the plot is there in order to push his agenda), and the setting, the situations, and the charac...more
Despite the novel clashing with my political belief system, this was a great book and completely different from the recent movie based upon it ("There Will Be Blood"). The characters in this novel were realist and likable - Sinclair did a great job make even the antagonists seem human and not evil - they were simply motivated by different opinions. It was obvious whom Sinclair sided with, but the book read less like a treatise than an enjoyable novel. The research and detail applied to...more
The second striaght novel dealing with the same period and, more or less, the same subject matter....written 80 years apart. I must admit that I enjoyed Mr. Sinclair's offering much more.
The scope of the novel is much bigger, but that's not the reason for its superiority. While his political leanings are obvious, Mr. Sinclair's characters are less cardboard-like and you are left with a choice -- of right and wrong in the matter. Perhaps historical perspective lends us a greater op...more
The scope of the novel is much bigger, but that's not the reason for its superiority. While his political leanings are obvious, Mr. Sinclair's characters are less cardboard-like and you are left with a choice -- of right and wrong in the matter. Perhaps historical perspective lends us a greater op...more
upton sinclair is one of my favorite authors with The Jungle at the top of the list, but this one though very good does not seem to be the same caliber. The movie is TERRIBLE and does not do the book justice.
Very intersting history of worker's movements that arose from early development of the oil industry. The story develops thru the protagnist, Bunny, the son of an early oil magnate in California at the start of the 20th century. I was interested in reading Upton Sinclair, because of his strong interest in the American labor movement. The book is quite lengthy, and some of it concerns the rise of communism in Russia via Bunny's friendship with the eldest son of a poor family who Bunny's father tri...more
2009-06-08 -- Started today. I freely admit that I am mostly reading this because of how taken I am with the film _There Will Be Blood_. Since Sinclair is already on my booklist for _The Jungle_, I figured I could justify it.
2009-07-06 -- Finished this over the weekend. First of all, this book has absolutely nothing to do with the aforementioned movie. A few story elements in the beginning are the same and that's about it. That having been said, I am glad I read it. This ...more
2009-07-06 -- Finished this over the weekend. First of all, this book has absolutely nothing to do with the aforementioned movie. A few story elements in the beginning are the same and that's about it. That having been said, I am glad I read it. This ...more
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Prolific American author who wrote over 90 books in many genres and was widely considered to be one of the best investigators advocating socialist views and supporting anarchist causes, he achieved considerable popularity in the first half of the 20th century.
He gained particular fame for his novel, The Jungle (1906), which dealt with conditions in the U.S. meat packing industry and c...more
More about Upton Sinclair...
He gained particular fame for his novel, The Jungle (1906), which dealt with conditions in the U.S. meat packing industry and c...more
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