Search - The Jungle

I read this book after reading Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. I had always thought this book was mainly about the meatpacking plants and how disgusting they were AND, while this was a part of the book and the plants are definitely disgusting, this book is much more than that. It follows an immigrant family from Lithuania as they try to make their way in America. Sinclaire really reels you in with his narrative and you can't help but feel for this family that quickly finds out that the American dream is not quite what they imagined.

Starts slow, but after awhile the grisly descriptions of the food industry in old America becomes powerful and gripping.

This book is a tough read. it's easy to understand why it has become a classic. Definitely not a casual book to take to the beach, but more a cold fisted commentary on urban life at the beginning of the 20th century. The book hits hard at the plight of the emmigrants and could apply to our current culture.

By putting faces via the characters of Jurgis and family to the plight of the workers suffering at the hands of greed and the imbalance of wealth, Sinclair sets the stage for the most eloquent argument in favor of socialism I have ever read.

It is also an early work arguing in favor of vegetarianism, although this is a secondary cause in the book and thus easily forgotten if one is not on the look-out for it.

This book profoundly demonstrates how fiction can work for a cause and humanize, familiarize, and bring to home the faces and reality behind the issues of the day. I highly recommend this powerful work to all.

Check out my full review.

What a trap the immigrants fell into as they moved to the promising city of Chicago. It explains why the city burned even across the river, and illustrates the gap between the classes. We have it so easy now! And this is why the USDA came about...