Oil!

By: Upton Sinclair

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Length: 19 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

As he did so masterfully in The Jungle, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Upton Sinclair interweaves social criticism with human tragedy to create an unforgettable portrait of Southern California's early oil industry.

Enraged by the oil scandals of the Harding administration in the 1920s, Sinclair tells a gripping tale of avarice, corruption, and class warfare, featuring a cavalcade of characters, including senators, oil magnates, Hollywood film starlets, and a crusading evangelist. Sinclair's glorious 1927 epic endures as one of our most powerful American novels of social injustice.

©1954 David Sinclair (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Sinclair's 1927 novel did for California's oil industry what The Jungle did for Chicago's meat-packing factories." ( Library Journal)

Absolutely Engrossing and topical

A fabulous listen from start to finish. Although the excellent film, "There Will Be Blood" was based on this book it only used a tiny portion of the plot which seems to have a special resonance with the current economic climate. I always liked reading Upton Sinclair but listening was even better. Possibly not a good read for anyone with far right politics though.

To long

The story is entertaining. It presents capitalist as greedy, and socialist as kind. The whole premise of the story is capitalism is bad, but socialist wouldn't have anything to take from others if not for capitalism. A good capitalist knows that a good employee is a happy one.

So little change in 100 years...

Would you recommend Oil! to your friends? Why or why not?

I would and have recommended it. It is sobering how many of the observations made by Sinclair in the 1920's are still relevant today.

Was Oil! worth the listening time?

It is a long book and is peppered with Sinclair's socialist leanings but, his observations of social issues are spot on. 100 years since the story and over and over it rings current...except that we are FAR more addicted to oil than in 1920 and we seem to be willing to do anything to anyone to keep it flowing.

Excellent

A fascinating and accurate telling of American history. Sinclair, in many of his books, uses the "novel" form to make history interesting. This is a great story, read by a terrific reader.

Remember when Authors Actually Wrote?

Upton Sinclair equals Charles Dickens in weaving a tale with four or five active plots always giving the reader that anticipation we book hounds love. Do not let the the title fool you as this book shows you the caste system in America during the "Guilded Ages" and the starting of unions in this country. I doubt we will ever see writers like this again and we are poorer for it.

What a shocker!

Upton Sinclair is an excellent writer and I enjoyed his other books. I expected this book to be like the movie however nothing could be further than the truth. This is a statement of what our country and California was like 100 years ago. The theme development and the final outcome is an insight to socialism and communism. It is interesting to understand Upton Sinclair‘s opinion of what was happening in America. A lot of the bolshevik chapters drag on but it was still a great read. I would’ve liked one more chapter or an epilogue to tell what happened to Bunny.

An Education

All those things I never learned from my history teachers. Wonderful performance and essential reading/listening. Dont miss it!

Not like the movie at all (no one wants to talk ab socialism)

I tried reasoning this a few years ab and gave it up then I recently listened to the jungle and loved it and wanted to give this a second chance like the jungle there’s a lot of the same themes (socialism) but this story certainly takes a min to build and take in I think it’s v I interesting how different the movie is and just why they changed the center theme, could the capitalist slaves not take a story ab socialism and think the irony of v Tracey and all that clearly showing how much me singlcare hated Hollywood just fore his diatribe to be made into a movie that is completely different then the book

This book drinks my milkshake!

If you're interested in this because you liked "There Will Be Blood," definitely give it a listen. The story goes into much greater depth about the social, political, and economic issues of the day. The relationship between father and son is complex and more realistic. Also, this version is read by Grover Gardner, one of my favorites. Great book; great performance.

Spectacular

This book is not There Will Be Blood. It's a magnificent story of how American capitalism greased it's wheels 100 years ago, and in fact still functions today.

The writing style is journalistic, brisk, and highly effective in putting the reader/listener into the heads of the various characters.

The narrator was superb.