Upton Sinclair
Having read The Jungle, I knew to expect a Socialist romp in this book, which I actually picked up on the author's reputation and out of a desire to learn a bit more about the era of Teapot Dome, about which I know admittedly little. This book, much like The Jungle, does an excellent job laying out its setting, in this case mainly the California oil fields. And, much to Sinclair's credit, even suspecting readers may find it hard to detect the Socialist philosophy early on in the book; though there are pink hints throughout, Oil! only becomes overbearingly political as it goes along and readers can immerse themselves in the plot for whole stretches. The plot itself is interesting even if it stretches the bounds of credibility quite thin, with its main character an oil magnate's son (the effeminately named Bunny) who- surprise!- becomes a convert to the workers' cause while enjoying the trappings of a privileged bourgeois life. I was quite shocked to find the book centered so fully and sympathetically on Dad, the magnate in question, and his lively young son; though Sinclair makes it clear that he trades widely in sarcasm, it is odd to be aware of the author while reading passages that extol the kind of exploitative virtues the book will (much) later openly denounce. Surprisingly, however, the focus on the exploiter rather than exploited suits Sinclair's expository motives quite well- the reader is led to sympathize with the tricks and underhanded deals until realizing gradually, with Bunny, what this kind of business does to the oil workers involved. Dad himself is not an evil man, which makes him easier to sympathize with: early on he makes concessions to his workers during a strike, but he comes to realize that there are bigger syndicates than his who would like to see him shut out of the oil field(s) and he begins to understand that he must play the game to survive.
This subtlety and nuance is the most happily surprising discovery in this muckraking book, which does seethe at time with Sinclair's trademarked Socialist rage. Oil!, however, creates a fuller and rounder portrait of big business and the oil industry, making the inevitable Socialist tirades that close the book seem much more sympathetic than if viewed only through the lens of the working class- Sinclair is able to successfully portray Capitalism as a wicked scheme by showing how good, honest business men become trapped in a system that forces them to buy, say, a presidency if they want to survive (I'm looking at you, Warren G. Harding). Oil! is, however, narrowly focused on the promotion of Socialism and Sinclair suffers for it a bit. While Dad and, to a lesser extent, many members of the supporting cast are portrayed with some nuance and skill, they still suffer from stereotypical behavior, motivations, interests, and speech. Most egregious are the most sympathetic characters in the book, the good pinks and reds whom we want to win the day. It is not hard to be easily and perpetually annoyed by Bunny's society-seeking sister or his odious suitor Eunice Hoyt, but Bunny himself is equally annoying by being such a pushover. He constantly flits from one ideal to the next: he starts as a content oil heir and is immediately swayed to strikers' point of view during the formation of unions and ends up a pinball bounced between his completely terrifying idolization of hard-core Communist Paul and moderate, but fierce, Socialist Rachael. Worse still, Sinclair revels in Bunny's lack of conviction and calls attention to the fact that he can't decide whether the Revolution should come through democracy or violent revolution.
This not only makes the book's viewpoint character perpetually frustrating, it clouds Sinclair's goal a bit and, unless he was intending to leave readers suspended between Communism and Socialism, he shockingly fails to make a coherent ideological point, except perhaps that Capitalism is rotten and needs to be overthrown. Even this point seems cloudy, however, and because Bunny's ideals are so flimsy the reader is likely to be annoyed by Sinclair's sudden and furious outporing of political rhetoric in the closing stages of the book. Everything, both in the plot and outside of it, falls apart drastically in the book's final two or three chapters, and readers realize that the characters are often flat stereotypes and that Sinclair is busily pounding away with the (pink) Obvious Hammer. Upton Sinclair lands many excellent punches against a capitalist system throughout Oil!, and has chosen his topic wisely and in a timely manner (the book was published just after Harding's death), portraying a national scandal thorugh the eyes of the perpetrators while eyeing, however awkwardly, the plight of the workers caught in a stranglehold. The book is, at heart, an interesting look at the oil industry in the days just before and during the Teapot Dome scandal, thinly disguised here, and Sinclair has a firm grip on his subject matter. Oil! is executed adequately and would be to the benefit of readers interested in the era or the kind of big time capitalism represented by its protagonists and it is a valuable historical document if not the best-executed novel.
Grade: B
This subtlety and nuance is the most happily surprising discovery in this muckraking book, which does seethe at time with Sinclair's trademarked Socialist rage. Oil!, however, creates a fuller and rounder portrait of big business and the oil industry, making the inevitable Socialist tirades that close the book seem much more sympathetic than if viewed only through the lens of the working class- Sinclair is able to successfully portray Capitalism as a wicked scheme by showing how good, honest business men become trapped in a system that forces them to buy, say, a presidency if they want to survive (I'm looking at you, Warren G. Harding). Oil! is, however, narrowly focused on the promotion of Socialism and Sinclair suffers for it a bit. While Dad and, to a lesser extent, many members of the supporting cast are portrayed with some nuance and skill, they still suffer from stereotypical behavior, motivations, interests, and speech. Most egregious are the most sympathetic characters in the book, the good pinks and reds whom we want to win the day. It is not hard to be easily and perpetually annoyed by Bunny's society-seeking sister or his odious suitor Eunice Hoyt, but Bunny himself is equally annoying by being such a pushover. He constantly flits from one ideal to the next: he starts as a content oil heir and is immediately swayed to strikers' point of view during the formation of unions and ends up a pinball bounced between his completely terrifying idolization of hard-core Communist Paul and moderate, but fierce, Socialist Rachael. Worse still, Sinclair revels in Bunny's lack of conviction and calls attention to the fact that he can't decide whether the Revolution should come through democracy or violent revolution.
This not only makes the book's viewpoint character perpetually frustrating, it clouds Sinclair's goal a bit and, unless he was intending to leave readers suspended between Communism and Socialism, he shockingly fails to make a coherent ideological point, except perhaps that Capitalism is rotten and needs to be overthrown. Even this point seems cloudy, however, and because Bunny's ideals are so flimsy the reader is likely to be annoyed by Sinclair's sudden and furious outporing of political rhetoric in the closing stages of the book. Everything, both in the plot and outside of it, falls apart drastically in the book's final two or three chapters, and readers realize that the characters are often flat stereotypes and that Sinclair is busily pounding away with the (pink) Obvious Hammer. Upton Sinclair lands many excellent punches against a capitalist system throughout Oil!, and has chosen his topic wisely and in a timely manner (the book was published just after Harding's death), portraying a national scandal thorugh the eyes of the perpetrators while eyeing, however awkwardly, the plight of the workers caught in a stranglehold. The book is, at heart, an interesting look at the oil industry in the days just before and during the Teapot Dome scandal, thinly disguised here, and Sinclair has a firm grip on his subject matter. Oil! is executed adequately and would be to the benefit of readers interested in the era or the kind of big time capitalism represented by its protagonists and it is a valuable historical document if not the best-executed novel.
Grade: B
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