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Title: The Jungle by David Schwimmer, Davi Schwimmer, Upto Sinclair ISBN: 1-58081-101-9 Publisher: L. A. Theatre Works Pub. Date: April, 1992 Format: Audio Cassette List Price(USD): $22.95

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Average Customer Rating: 3.85 (182 reviews)

Rating: 4
Summary: A wonderful and accurate historical portrayal of immigrants.
Comment: This book is a wonderful look into the lives of an immigrant family in the early 1900's. Upton Sinclair was assigned to do an expose on the meatpacking industry in Chicago. The amazing part, what some people do not realize, is how factual the book really is. Since the book was published, only one discrepancy from the truth has been found; the inspector wore a different uniform. Sinclair's original topic was to inform the world of how "workingmen", as called by Sinclair, of the time were treated in the meatpacking plants of Chicago. Instead, the public centered on his description of how the meat was processed and reacted to that part of the story. This is one of the direct causes of the passing of the Pure Food and Drug Act. Sinclair is noted as saying, "I aimed for [the public's] heart, and hit their stomach."

The novel itself chronicles a Lithuanian family who immigrates to America in an effort to make a better life. Though this is not a factual family, many of it hardships were shared by families of this time period. The story is told through the experiences of the protagonist, Jurgis Rudkus. Jurgis is a good man at heart and tries his best to support his family. His efforts are met only with defeat. In many instances his family is taken advantage of because they cannot speak the language and do not understand the culture. Sinclair did a wonderful job describing the horrific conditions of immigrants and the "workingmen" in this time period.

The scenes in the meatpacking facilities get quite graphic and gruesome at some points. Though this may disturb some, I believe it does a good job of giving the story some meat, no pun intended. The original basis of the story was to expose bad working conditions. These horrific incidents suffered by workers are described quite well, from losing of fingers while working, to falling into the vats of cooking meat and never being retrieved. I believe that all the gory details were described very well and were written in a realistic way that added to the story's purpose, which was to expose the meatpacking industry.

It seems Sinclair had a hard time ending the book. In the last few chapters, Socialism is advocated as the answer to all wrongs. Sinclair, being a Socialist himself, may have wanted to add some of his own ideas to the end in order to try to sway the public's belief. I believe this detracted from the book and left the story dangling. Other than this fact, the entire book is well written, and I highly recommend it. The Jungle kept me intrigued, which many classics do not do, and I do not regret reading it in the least.

Rating: 4
Summary: Important historical novel
Comment: I am an attorney, and by coincidence I read this novel about a month before I was hired by a labor law firm, where I represent labor unions. In our current extremely politically conservative climate, I hear a lot of anti-Union sentiment. To all the people who regularly tell me that they do not see the need for labor unions in this day and age, I would recommend this book. This book shows what happened to unskilled workers in the days before collective bargaining or minimum wage laws. It's funny that what this book is remembered most for is the resulting food sanitation laws--when it was Sinclair's attempt to display what is wrong with laissez-faire economics. He succeeds tremendously.
No, this book's prose is not beautiful. But the story is gripping. It is the story of a family who has immigrated to Chicago from eastern Europe. They cannot speak the language and do not have job skills. The family members are forced into hard labor under horrific conditions, when they are lucky enough to get work. What little money they are able to earn, they are tricked out of by unscrupulous landlords and lawyers.
This novel is memorable for its message and resulting reforms, rather than for its prose or characters. However, it is a wonderful book that I know I will never forget.

Rating: 4
Summary: Overall
Comment: The Jungle was a powerful tale about an immigrating family with high hopes and dreams that come crashing down on them. Written at the turn of the century, this book tells the real truth. Upton Sinclair captures the truth about working in the meat packing factories called "packingtown" and what life at homes was like. The Rudkus family has high hopes of living in riches as they travel to America. When they arrive they realize America is anything but what they had dreamed. They try to survive from paycheck to paycheck, and when they do get paid they usually spend it quicker than the last trying to make a good life for themselves and their families. If something good happens you can only expect something bad to come up in their path. The socialist type of government is really brought out in this story too. It is hard to imagine this really did happen in America only about 100 years ago.