Oil!
by Upton Sinclair
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Book Reviews of Oil!
Book Review: great read
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a novel about greed says the back cover. And it was. I thoroughly enjoyed it. This made my summer 2009. The print is small and the pages are numerous so it takes some time to get through it, but Upton Sinclair is a genius and like The Jungle : The Uncensored Original Edition this book is remarkable. Glad to have read it.
Ever wondered what it was like in California right after the dawn of cars that top out at 45 mph. This is the book for you. Beautiful descriptions of the countryside. This book is about business in its virulent form.
Book Review: A engaging story explore class, American History and human condition
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this book after watching P.T. Anderson's "There will be blood"
The movie is totally different from the book as expected. "There will be blood" is a story focusing on the main character. Yet the book takes us into the oil history through the fictional setup between a millionaire oil man and his son. We are carried through the story in H.W. perspective
Let the cover said, it's story about greed in very large scale. I found the structure is beautifully intervened with the modern American history.
A recommended read if you have the patience to appreciate what the writer tried to present.
Book Review: Disappointed with Updike's tale.
Summary: 2 Stars
There is often a lure to read a book that is the basis of a new movie, and that call has led to reading some outstanding works of fiction. I usually read the book first and often end up skipping the movie. "Oil!" however was a complete disappointment. The broad strokes of the book are engaging and the first third is inviting with dynamic characters in an urgent Southern California environment. And then nothing interesting happens from there... It becomes a poorly told story of a privileged young man's growing disdain for capitalism. If you read the book after seeing the film - you will be disappointed. Kasey CotullaBook Review: labor vs. capital
Summary: 5 Stars
I am enjoying this book. It's main character is the son of a rich self starter oil man. But how the oil man has become rich is the point of the book. He has become rich by taking advantage of the poor. The son befriends one of the carpenters who works for his father and learns what it is like to not have enough money. Then comes an inner struggle for the young man to figure out if he will take over the oil business and continue in the mode of his father, enjoying the wealth, or take care of labor and possibly not be able to sustain the business.Book Review: I enjoyed this book. But....
Summary: 4 Stars
I really did enjoy this book. But, I really enjoy more true to life historical books, and I think this book if done as historic rather then fiction based on history would have done just as good. Having grown up in the cities of Long Beach and Signal Hill, some of the locations used in this book with altered names, to me it would have been more interesting. And I am sure the real life adventures of oil exploration and drilling would have made this book still the page turner that it was. I have not seen the movie, and may not, this book holds it's own.