i recalled that i read this book after seeing the film 'There Will Be Blood', and finding out that the movie is based on an Upton Sinclair novel called Oil. i really want to review the movie here... and will, and will try and be brief.

There Will be Blood is just as stark, arresting and mesmerizing as reading a U. Sinclair novel. Be warned though, it is not for the squeamish. The film makes early oilfield workers' hardships come to life with brutal, unrelenting reality.

To the book:

This is one of those high school-assigned books that everyone reads and quickly forgets. (i forgot that i had read it until a sharp memory jolt at the movie theater.) This work should really be consumed by a more mature audience capable of digesting its message. Sure, high schoolers' eyes are open to some interesting ideas and brutal truths but, in the end the book works more as propaganda on the young mind; "Look how much better off we are now than we were..."

This election year may be a great time to re-read the book and let the propaganda become historical context. Sure we're better off than Jungle's turn-of-the-century meat-packing characters, at least at some quantitative level, but where are we headed? If we continue along the present course, how long before 16 hour days and 6 day work weeks are the norm and corporate interest has stripped every bit of soul out of our lives? And how about today's Asian (India/China etc.) laborers. To them The Jungle would read less like historical fiction and more like a timely expose...