The Jungle: A Signature Performance by Casey Affleck

By: Upton Sinclair

Narrated by: Casey Affleck

Length: 14 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

Upton Sinclair's The Jungle is a visceral and tragic story of immigrants trying to scratch out a living in the meatpacking plants of Chicago. The resulting public outcry led directly to the US government enacting changes in food and workplace safety practices still in place today.

With food production, business ethics, and immigration back in the news, Academy Award nominee Casey Affleck (Gone Baby Gone) taps into the emotion behind these issues to breathe life back into the struggling inhabitants of Packingtown. Affleck, a committed vegan and animal rights spokesman, delivers a moving performance that connects with the book’s enduring legacy.

The Jungle revolves around the life and family of Jurgis Rudkus, a Lithuanian immigrant whose dreams of a better life are crushed by punishing work in gruesome stockyards and an unforgiving city. Brilliantly written and vividly described, it provides a poignant and incredibly detailed snapshot of a striking point in American history.

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Caveat emptor: Powerful book, subpar narration

Somehow I never read this book in high school or even college. I can't believe what I missed! If you haven't read this book, you should. But while the text of the book is a truly powerful work, this audio version of The Jungle has been ruined by the narrator: Casey Affleck's reading was exceedingly uninspiring. (I believe another reviewer used the word "underwhelming" which is a very apt description!) Please find a paper copy or another audio version and save yourself a credit.

Interesting to hear

I liked this until the socialist propaganda begin. I probably would have enjoyed it more with a different narrator. To bad I never got the chance to read it in school.

Why did I wait so long to read this?!

It seems a lot of people said they didn't like this narrator but I loved him. It was a little strange at first but overall I think he read it with a sort of melancholic tone that perfectly fits the text. It is an incredibly sad book and just as grotesque and disturbing as I expected it to be. That's the reason I waited so long to read it. What I didn't expect though, was for the writing to be so well done. This is an incredible book. Highly recommended.

Great story, up to the last chapter

Any additional comments?

I recently joined Audible to listen on my commute. I am sorely lacking in the "classic" literature that I've read so I decided to start mainly with the classics. I already bought the Kindle edition of this book, so got the audio version for a deep discount.

I was amazed at the talent that Upton Sinclair possessed. His writing paints a picture in my mind like no other author is able. I could see the killing floor of the plant. I could clearly see the house. I was amazed with the telling of this story. It's an incredible piece of literature and I can see why it's a classic. At least until the last chapter or so. At that point it turns into a lecture about the merits of socialism and the failings of capitalism. As long as you can overlook this, it's a wonderful book.

However, Casey Affleck is horrible in this book. There is very little change to the inflection in his voice and it is difficult to tell the difference between various characters. Throughout the book, it sounds like he's on the verge of tears. If not for the fantastic story her was reading, I'd have never finished listening to this book.

I do feel it's well worth the time and money to listen to this story.

Wow!

One of the most moving books I’ve ever heard/read. Stellar performance by Casey Affleck

One of great social protest novels of 20th Century

One of the great social protest novels of the 20th Century. 'The Jungle' is at once an indictment on the treatment of immigrants, poverty, American wage slavery, and the working conditions at Chicago's stockyards and meatpacking plants -- and simultaneously an exposé on the unsanitary conditions of the meat produced in the plants and led to Federal real food reform. Did I like it? Well, it pissed me off, so I thought it was a great piece of writing. It reminded me of the time when I was 19 and lived next to the Swift stockyards and meat packing plants. The smells that seemed more terrestrial than dirt seemed to flood back into my brain. 'The Jungle' shows how persuasive fiction can actually lead to real world reform. The FDA was created largely due to the public outcry after the publication of this book.

Jack London said in his review at the time, that the Jungle was the Uncle Tom's Cabin of wage slavery. The interesting fact, however, is Sinclair was more concerned about the people, the exploitation of immigrants and children, but the power of this novel ended up being tied to the condition of the food, and not the people. Sinclair was quoted as saying "I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach." Regardless, Upton Sinclair throws a helluva punch.

Casey Affleck gives a strong performance in the Jungle. He is able to nuance through Lithuanian and Polish names and various emotions and tempos with ease and aplomb. He stays primarily in the background of the narration, but still gives power and emotion to his reading of this great American protest novel.

It might make you a vegetarian, if not a socialist

With a hundred years of hindsight, we've learned so little.

Upton Sinclair's The Jungle is famous for disgusting America with its tales of meat packing workers falling into vats and rendered into lard, and all the things that went into sausages and tinned beef. (Cigar butts and poisoned rats not even being the most disgusting ingredients...) But as Sinclair said about his most famous book, "I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach." The Jungle is not primarily about the problems of an unregulated meat industry. It's about the crushing brutality of capitalism, and the problems of unregulated accumulation of wealth. No wonder that Americans prefer the less political vegetarian version.

Although Sinclair was a muckraking socialist with an obvious agenda, The Jungle is still a compelling novel in its own right. Jurgis Rudkus is a Lithuanian immigrant who comes to America with his young wife Ona and his extended family of in-laws. Initially believing they have found the promised land of opportunity and plenty, they are quickly taken in by various schemes meant to impoverish, indebt, and enslave immigrants like them. At first only Jurgis has to work in Chicago's meatpacking district. He is young and strong and believes hard work will be rewarded, and those who warn him of how the meatpackers will use him up and dispose of him are lazy whiners. Of course, he soon discovers otherwise. The family undergoes one mishap after another, until within a year, even the children are reduced to selling newspapers on the street and still they are all barely staying alive.

Then things get worse, and worse, and worse. Jurgis is a modern-day Job, with no God to blame his troubles on, only capitalism. He has several ups and downs, but every time he catches a break, it's quickly followed by yet another brutal smackdown. Sinclair was trying to make the reader feel sorry for Jurgis and his poor family, all of whom end up dead, prostituted, or beggars by the end of the book, and you will. The poor man just cannot win, and if he makes mistakes and chooses the less noble path when given a choice, it's pretty hard to judge him if you've never been homeless on the streets of Chicago in the wintertime.

The Jungle is a grimly detailed look at early 20th century America. Sinclair was muckraking, so obviously he's showing the ugliest bits of America he can, but history proved that most of what he was alleging was true, even if his conclusions were questionable. Even if you are strongly anti-socialist, The Jungle is an eye-opening story, and still relevant after all these years. If you think that the horrors depicted in this book are relics of a previous era, just remember that to the extent that the very worst of these abuses are now curbed (somewhat) by government regulations, those government regulations are exactly what "free market" advocates hate and want to abolish.

4 stars. Knocking one star off because while Sinclair mostly kept his didacticism in check throughout the book, using gripping drama and only a little bit of exposition to arouse the horror he intended, the last chapter was nothing but socialist sermonizing, making it less a climax than the author climbing onto a soapbox to deliver his moral.

I have to ding this version for the unfortunate choice of narrator: I've enjoyed several of Audible's Signature Performances, but Casey Affleck's reading was monotonous and completely lacking in passion. His voice lacked distinction, and he sounded like a schoolboy reading a book aloud to the class. Not every celebrity actor makes a good audiobook narrator.

Great Book, so-so narration.

What did you love best about The Jungle: A Signature Performance by Casey Affleck?

It brought back many fond memories, as it was required reading in high school. Sorry I didn't put more effort into the actual story back then.

What did you like best about this story?

The insight into the meat packing industry was interesting, as were the struggles of the workers and the corruption angles.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

Not really. The narrator was somewhat monotone at times, and seemed to struggle with pronunciation.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Nothing really stands out. The book was really good though and I would definitely recommend it.

Scary Stuff

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, I would. This is an excellent book, both about the meat industry and government. It's frightening how little has actually changed

What did you like best about this story?

The humanity of the story

Great book, but look for a different narrator

Would you listen to The Jungle: A Signature Performance by Casey Affleck again? Why?

What a great American story. I think I read excerpts in a high school anthology textbook, but the novel is well worth a read/listen.

What didn’t you like about Casey Affleck’s performance?

Affleck is an earnest narrator, but he reads as an amateur. There are mispronounced words (adjourn pronounced ad-giorn rather than uh-jurn) and awkward pauses before prepositional phrases. It's on par with the sort of cold reading you might get from your uncle rather than a polished Audible-worthy performance. It's ok for a sale book but not worth a full credit.