February Reads: The Jungle

Time for a new one! Why don't we make this a monthly thing? Then you can keep me in line with my goal to read more. ;)

A group of us were watching a documentary when they mentioned the book 'The Jungle' by Upton Sinclair, Jr.  Kelly's cousin said he thought it was a great read, so I decided to check it out.

Before penning the novel, the author spent two months working undercover in Chicago's meatpacking district. Working under this disguise gave him enough information to turn around and write a novel, one that would expose the disgusting conditions of the meat plants as well as the horrific labor practices. 

Have any of you read it yet? I'm going to try another book review when I'm done and would love to hear your thoughts if you read it with me. The kindle edition is just 99 cents, but the library will have it for free.  

Here's the inside flap:

'The Jungle'
by Upton Sinclair

An ardent activist, champion of political reform, novelist, and progressive journalist, Upton Sinclair is perhaps best-known today for The Jungle - his devastating expose of the meat-packing industry. A protest novel he had privately published in 1906, the book was a shocking revelation of intolerable labor practices and unsanitary working conditions in the Chicago stockyards. It quickly became a best-seller, arousing public sentiment and resulting in such federal legislation as the Pure Food and Drug Act.

The brutally grim story of a Slavic family who emigrates to America, The Jungle tells of their rapid and inexorable descent into numbing poverty, moral degradation, and social and economic despair. Vulnerable and isolated, the family of Jurgis Rudkus struggles - unsuccessfully - to survive in an urban jungle.

A powerful view of turn-of-the-century poverty, graft and corruption, this fiercely realistic American classic is still required reading in many history and literature classes. It will continue to haunt readers long after they've finished the last page. 

Excerpt from an unabridged Dover (2001) republication 

of a standard text of the work originally published in 1906.