Oil!
by Upton Sinclair
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Book Summary Information
Author: Upton SinclairEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-12-18
ISBN: 0143112260
Number of pages: 560
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Book Reviews of Oil!
Book Review: A GOOD MUCKRAKING YARN
Summary: 5 Stars
THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE THE OIL BUSINESS, LIKE NO BUSINESS YOU'LL KNOW.
A bit different from the movie, "Oil" is a story written from the third person narrative of Bunny Arnold Ross Jr, son of oil tycoon, Arnold Ross. The story follows Arnold Ross from scroungy wildcatter to oil tycoon.
"Oil" was written at the turn of the century by "muckraker" Upton Sinclair. I've read a lot of Sinclair novels and have come to own many of his first editions, but his appeal to me was not immediate. The Jungle, for example, was written about the Chicago meatpacking industry. It's publication-first as a special edition for members of the Communist Party- provoked the government to pass the meat inspecting standards that we now have-"USDA Inspected". Sinclair novels often lack denouement and the plots are thinly disguised vehicles for presenting a litany of horrors perpetrated against the poor by greedy capitalists. The list of horrors can be shocking-workers lost limbs in vats of meat and production was not stopped to recover the limb or help the dying man-but even lists of horrors need to be presented with strong plots.
What is present in "Oil" the novel that is not present in "There Will Be Blood" is that Bunny argues fervently with his father on behalf of his father's oil workers. In the movie, we see Daniel Day Lewis stopping work for a day when an oil worker is crushed at the bottom of a well. In a Sinclair novel, the worker would have been left at the bottom of the well as long as he wasn't clogging flow. Or you see Daniel Day Lewis tenderly adopt the orphaned child of a friend. In a Sinclair novel, an orphaned child that needed feeding and couldn't work would have been left to die in the desert. Sinclair presented the difference between capitalists and socialists starkly. Capitalists were always and completely without humanity.
The novel actually explains a lot of holes in the movie. The parting of Arnold and his son when Arnold is grown didn't make a lot of sense to me in the film. Arnold writes off his adopted son indifferently and there isn't anything in the movie which predicates that kind of reaction. We see Arnold grooming his son, sending him to a special school after his eyes are burned, yearning for him when he is gone. Writing him off when he's 20 seems to make no sense at all. But in the book Bunny and Arnold have spent a lifetime arguing the socialist agenda and Arnold feels that a man with Bunny's convictions can't be his son and lets him go. What is also missing in the film but explained in the book is the sudden and unexplained disappearance of Arnold's best friend. I guess the film didn't want to risk appearing socialist but I'm not sure the script makes sense without the presence of socialist ideals in it.
No socialist portrayal of the world would be complete without running down the opiate of the masses, religion. Sinclair's novel depicts religion as hoodwinking the oppressed rather than helping them. Arnold's struggle in the movie isn't just against the socialists who have claimed his son, but against religion which is threatening to claim existence.
Sinclair novels are historically important if not always the greatest page turning reads. In a day and age when the media is manipulated by corporate sponsors and free speech is suppressed by the government, it's interesting to read novels from 70 years ago that changed the course of American life. Novels like these will make you yearn for honest publishers who were willing to take a chance on something that might change the world. But be prepared to shift your expectations when you go from modern literature to a Sinclair novel. Read it from the point of view of someone that lived a hundred years ago and you'll appreciate it. If you compare it to your page turning novels of today, you'll be disappointed.
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