Book Review: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

Hello dahlinks!  How are we all holding up out there?  Reading and being your lovely, curious selves?  I've been reading, but not from my leisure selection, nor at what I'd call a leisurely pace.  I've been working around the clock- for reals.  Literally burned through both of the last weekends and am pulling some serious evening shifts, reading all about light subjects such as renewable energy technologies, solar tax rebates, combined heat generators, wind turbines and distributed generation, among lots of other things.  Not nearly as bad as it sounds- I'm really enjoying the info absorption and (at the risk of jinxing myself...yikes) it could lead to a SERIOUS new opportunity at work.  And that's all I can share about that right now because big brother is watching and I'm not trying to get my damn self in trouble.

Back to the book, which was a very thorough read though not the most brilliant collection of prose.  Upton Sinclair, socialist extraordinaire, painted a very detailed (and what turned out to be epic) snapshot of Chicago's meat packing industry during the early 20th century.  While he intended the book to bring light to the awful turn of the century labor conditions, an epidemic he called "wage slavery," most people (including yours truly) couldn't get past how completely and utterly GROSSED OUT they were after reading about the beef industry in the Chicago stockyards.  Very graphic and very nasty.  As a matter of fact, nearly one month later and I have finally dabbled back into red meat (beef stew in the crockpot on Sundee and it was delish if I do say so myself).  So, much to Sinclair's chagrin, this masterpiece inadvertently became a huge advocacy tool for exposing the lack of meat safety and incited enough public momentum to create today's Food and Drug Administration.  Who knew!  I'll have some nasty meat tales with a side of big government!

A little more about our main mang:  Upton Sinclair is buried in St. Paul's Rock Creek Cemetery (along with Tim Russert, interestingly enough), a stone's throw (well, a metro ride + a sketchy walk that I'd only attempt from the approximate hours of 12pm to 2pm) from chez moi.  Not to mention, his book "Oil!" was the basis for the film "There Will be Blood"- and we all know my hopeless adoration for Daniel Plainview and his son, H.W.

And that's a wrap, folks.  This book was a great choice for any Washington bureaucrat to mark off the 'ol bucket list, but aside from its historical significance, I thought the characters were too pathetic to strike any realistic empathy (though empathy has admittedly never been my strong suit), and the narrative was very average.  Onto my next read (sandwiched between a few renewable energy conference summaries), and I suggest you all do the same!  Because TV is getting worse by the day and we've got to do SOMETHING at home while we drink wine in our underwear!

xo