"The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair, Reading A Great Book Many Years Too Late!

 

 

 

 

Despite how much literature, and a great deal of the "great literature" I have read in my life, I had never read "The Jungle" or any other book by Upton Sinclair until just now.  A couple of months ago, my sister-in-law in Wisconsin suddenly mailed me a copy of "The Jungle" with a note that said "Roger, I tried to read this book, but got frustrated right away.  I think you'll have more patience with it."  On some levels I was surprised by the book and note and, on some other levels, I was not.  She is a pretty voracious reader, rather brilliant with near perfect scores on her college admission tests when she came out of high school almost 30 years ago.  But I have noticed over the years that her reading material tends to be a bit toward the general adult fiction level.  I had asked her about why she didn't like the book or "got frustrated" with it and never seemed to get a succinct answer.  

 

 

Anyway, my wife Candice decided when it was time for us to choose another book for our joint reading effort in which I read aloud while Candice washes the dishes each day and we alternate in who chooses the books.  When she finishes washing the dishes, I dry them and eventually put them away each evening.  I have to say I was also somewhat surprised that Candice chose this book but thought that it might have been curiosity about what her sister gave up on.  But she also tends to like more "great literature" when I do the reading aloud than she would usually read on her own.  

The first thing I noticed about the book is that it is a markedly dark novel, about as dark as anything I have ever read.  I don't cull much in literature and don't usually say anything is too dark for me.  But this novel is incredibly dark, moving consistently from one disaster among the central characters to another without ever having a bright spot or a lucky day last any longer than the next sunrise, if the sun rises at all the next day.  But it is a fine novel with excellent character development, plot and counter plot, and a couple of definite goals from the beginning to the end.  I would say that the primary goal of the novel, which I suspect is true of everything Sinclair wrote, is to promote socialism as the best form of government for the United States.  In Sinclair's defense, I would also say that his secondary goal was to write a good to great novel which would be accepted widely by the reading public.  I have no crow to pick with his first goal since I have known several devout socialists in my lifetime, and I would even agree that socialism is a far better form of government in its pure form (which can never be fully achieved) than several other forms of government.  As for his second goal, I came out of the novel firmly convinced that Sinclair had definitely achieved his second goal with flying colors. This is a fine novel!  Yes, it is as dark as the deepest corner of an underground coal mine, but it is also a fine novel.

The protagonist, Jurgis Rudkus, and his family are the central characters, native Lithuanians who emigrate to the United States and find themselves living, if that is  not too strong a word, in the meat packing neighborhood of Chicago.  The novel was published in 1905 and covers about a ten year period before and after the turn of the century.  Sinclair chose to give the neighborhood around the meat packing companies, slums, and railroad yards as Packing Town.  It is filled with immigrants from several different countries and cultures who struggle to survive on a daily basis in which the meat packing companies operate as the Meat Trust in conjunction with the Railroad Trust, two entities which are each comprised of several companies who work in a cohort in order to control and suck the lives out of their employees just as they take the lives of trainloads of cattle and hogs.  The book served to educate the American public about the outrageous practices of the meat packing industry and the multitude of ways in which those companies live off the lives of everyone they come into contact with, whether they are employees or customers.   They own the local public officials, judges, police, and nearly every human who comes into contact with the meat packing industry.  They are a predatory entity both as individual companies and as a loosely constructed conglomerate.  

Jurgis and his family suffer one debilitating event after another from the packing industry, local real estate companies, the police and courts, and each other.  His wife dies in childbirth because the family has no money for a doctor.  His only child drowns in the mud and water surrounding their home. He is jailed multiple times and eventually blacklisted because he beat his wife's supervisor who had lured her into prostitution.  Another child in the family is frozen nearly to death walking to work in a Chicago winter and eventually killed and eaten by rats after being locked into his work site at the end of the day.  But eventually, Jurgis is converted to socialism, gets a job in a hotel owned by a socialist with a social conscience, and become a devout evangelist for socialism. The novel ends with about 20 pages of a lengthy sermon about the virtues of socialism and the predatory nature of capitalism.  Yes, it's dark as hell, but it's a fine novel.  If you haven't ever read it, give it a chance and commit before you begin it that you won't give up, as my sister-in-law did, before you have read at least fifty pages. 

What Is A Scab?

 Recently on a social media group of which I am a member, I saw someone post a photograph of a group of scabs being guarded by Kentucky National Guard soldiers in order for them to cross a picket line in a historical Harlan County strike in order to assist the coal company to break the strike.  This person had described the scabs and their activity in this manner: "1939 Harlan County Kentucky. Miners being escorted to work by the National Guard. This is how the name Bloody Harlan mostly came about among other reasons."  This was obviously an attempt by someone with anti union sentiments to make the scabs appear respectable and normal as if they were ordinary coal miners which is the furthest thing from the truth.  I immediately confronted the anti union nature of the description in this manner: " You are partly correct but you forgot the most important word. Those were not miners. They were SCABS, the lowest form of life in the mining world."  I attached a link to Jack London's famous description of a scab from over a hundred years ago.  Jack London died in 1916, and I have no idea exactly when he initially published that beautiful piece of writing.  But it just as accurate today as it was when Jack London first sat down to write it.  I am including a small portion of London's description so none of you can ever say you haven't known about at least part of it.   

"A scab is a two-legged animal with a corkscrew soul, a waterlogged brain, and a combination backbone made of jelly and glue. Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten principles.  When a scab comes down the street, men turn their backs and angels weep in heaven, and the devil shuts the gates of hell to keep him out. No man has a right to scab as long as there is a pool of water deep enough to drown his body in, or a rope long enough to hang his carcass with. Judas Iscariot was a gentleman compared with a scab. For betraying his Master, he had character enough to hang himself. A scab hasn't." (Jack London, "Ode To A Scab")

 

This is a fine little story about a scab from a speech Mother Jones, the great female union organizer, told during a speech to striking miners in 1912.  

"An old Irish woman had two sons who were scabs. The women threw one of them over the fence to his mother. He lay there still. His mother thought he was dead and she ran into the house for a bottle of holy water and shook it over Mike.  “Oh for God’s sake, come back to life,” she hollered.  Come back and join the union.” He opened his eyes and saw our women standing around him. “Sure, I’ll go to hell before I’ll scab again,’ says he." (Mother Jones, "Autobiography", Chapter 11, from the website of The International Workers of The World)

 

Although John L. Lewis did not specifically use the word "scab' in the quote I am using below, he definitely was talking about scabs, gun thugs, all other forms of vermin which follow on the heels of corporate managers hoping to pick up some small bone or crust which these greater vermin leave behind for doing their bidding all the way up to murder and robbery, and they know in their small, black hearts that they are unfit to sleep in an honest woman's bed, eat a meal at an honest man's table, or father a child capable of becoming a decent, hard working human.  

“No tin-hat brigade of goose-stepping vigilantes or bibble-babbling mob of blackguarding and corporation paid scoundrels will prevent the onward march of labor, or divert its purpose to play its natural and rational part in the development of the economic, political and social life of our nation.”  (John L. Lewis) 

 

I must say here, in the interest of total honesty, that I have never spent one day as a member of  a labor union.  But I grew up in a home and a community where nearly everyone knew the important work that labor unions have done and will always continue to do for the good of all working men and women.  The hundreds of benefits which have been won for the working class have been won by the blood, sweat, and tears of good, fearless union men and women who have faithfully stood their ground against corporations, their officers, and their scabs until all those parties realized the error of their ways and stopped resisting union efforts to improve the world.  Several members of my extended family have spent their lives as union members.  As child by the time I was 9 or 10, I was allowed to read the "United Mine Workers Journal" each month after my uncle Mabry Hicks, an electrician at a tipple in Wheelwright, Kentucky, was done with his copy.  I often spent long winter evenings sitting in my parents' grocery store listening to the union members in our community talk about their efforts to organize, and how much they benefited from union membership.  As an adult, I came to know several men and women who had spent their lives fighting as union organizers all over Central and Southern Appalachia.  They served as my mentors and professors, teaching me on a daily basis just how important trade unions are to the success of America. I came to know at least four people who had been hauled in front of Fascist Senator Joseph McCarthy's committee in the 1950's and who stood their ground against his efforts to destroy their lives.  I attended the funeral of my brother Hewie Hicks who was killed in a nonunion punch mine in Floyd County Kentucky and knew full well that he might have lived a much longer life if he had been working in a union mine.  I know full well the danger that scabs have helped coal operators perpetrate against the working class of  Appalachia and other coal producing states.  I also know that labor unions all across America, in all forms of industry, have saved thousands of lives with the contracts they have won and the laws and government regulations they have brought into existence.  You should recognize these truths also and support unions wherever they are working for the betterment of working conditions for men and women in America.  Union, Yes!  

"Under Fire" by Emily Steiner---Book Review

This book is the second volume in Emily Steiner's "Lilly Of Appalachia" series.  I reviewed the first, "Under The Bridge" on this blog on July 30, 2018.  These books are self-published through Haines Printing in Northeast, Pennsylvania, but that company does not sell the books.  They are available only from Emily Steiner and I will place her contact information at the bottom of this review.  Unlike many self-published books, the printing work is well above average and they are high quality volumes which are only $10.00 each directly from the author.  The stories follow an Eastern Kentucky Appalachian family as they and their relatives are involved in a coal mine strike and the minister husband of the protagonist, Lilly Burchett Sherman, refuses to join the union based on his interpretation of the New Testament admonitions against violence. The father and brothers of Lilly Sherman are union members and one of them is actually shot and paralyzed late in the work as a result of his union activity. I was lucky enough to read much of this book in manuscript and provided my suggestions about it directly to the author who is a friend of mine.  We met shortly after the release of the first book in this series, "Under The Bridge".  The writing in this book is more mature from a professional standpoint than in "Under The Bridge".  It is well-plotted.  The characters are believable, real people, and show the many hours of research which the author has put into the book.

 

Emily Steiner accepted some of my suggestions about the book and flatly refused to take a position in the book in favor of trade unionism which I strongly support.  But, like the characters in the family of the protagonist, Emily Steiner and I have managed to remain friends.  Her objections to supporting unionism are based on her interpretation of the Bible and she is devout Mennonite woman living in our local Mennonite community where I also have numerous other friends and sometimes attend events and write about them on this blog.  I know many of these people well enough and understand their beliefs to a degree that we can disagree and still remain friends.  Emily used one of my suggestions, provided as a copy of the wonderful Jack London description of a scab in a way in which I would never have used it.  But I can say that she at least read it and inserted it in the book with a statement of attribution at the end of the book.    

The book moves along as the strike deepens in a community set in Harlan County Kentucky.  Emily accurately portrays the poverty, destitution, and desperation of the miners and their families and I have to say I like this book.  It is simply not the kind of book I would write or wish to write about a union struggle in Appalachia.  But, like everything Emily Steiner writes, it is well worth reading.  I also suggested to Emily during the completion of the book that she read Davis Grubb's wonderful union struggle book, "The Barefoot Man", which I consider to be the best union novel I have ever read.  I have never heard from her that she found a copy and read it.  I suspect that if she had she might not have ever discussed it with me due to her religious opposition to some of the language and scenes in that book.  But I wish she had read it before she finished this book.  I understand fully that having read "The Barefoot Man" would not have changed her perspective on trade unionism.  But it would have broadened her understanding of the union struggle and given her a deeper knowledge base about trade unionism, the coal fields in Appalachia of the early twentieth century, and the irreplaceable role trade unionism has played in the social development of both Appalachia and the country as whole.  

But, do not allow my difference of opinion with Emily Steiner deter you from reading "Under Fire".  It is an excellent book in many ways.  It is a fine addition to Emily Steiner's ever growing body of work.  She will continue to write and publish novels.  She will continue to mature as a professional writer.  She will come to establish herself, quietly in her own deeply religious manner, as one of the better young writers in Appalachia.  She describes herself in the biographical statement within the book as "...born and raised as a mountain girl in Eastern Kentucky."  I agree with that statement.  However, any description of Emily Steiner must begin with a clear understanding that she grew up in a religious based subculture in Eastern Kentucky which consciously separates its members from the mainstream to varying degrees and her understanding of the primary culture of Appalachia is affected by that separation.  I value her friendship.  I value her ability.  I value this novel.  You will also value this novel regardless of the personal position you take on trade unionism and the way it is deeply ingrained in Central and Southern Appalachia.  

 

"Under Fire" and "Under The Bridge" are both directly available from Emily Steiner at $10.00 each.  She will autograph them and mail them to you.  You can contact her at Emily Steiner, 155 Memorial Gardens Road, West Liberty, KY 41472.  You can call her at 606-495-8090.  She will personally answer her phone and actually talk to you.  When have you known another published author who would do that?  

 

 

"The Barefoot Man" by Davis Grubb-- Book Review

As a lifelong student of Appalachia and Appalachian Literature, I have known about Davis Grubb and his work ever since the early 1970's. But I had never read a single word of his work until this month.  I had mistakenly arrived at the conclusion that all Davis Grubb wrote was suspense and thrillers.  Damn, was I mistaken! Davis Grubb set nearly all his work in the heart of Appalachian West Virginia even though he lived for many years in New York and wrote several scripts for Hollywood productions. His most famous novel, "The Night Of The Hunter", is based on the life of a West Virginia serial killer although it can be described as a thriller.  I deprived myself for all those years of reading his work and finally realized one day that "The Barefoot Man" is a novel about an ongoing coal strike in the coalfields of West Virginia in the fictional town of Glory and that is much more in my bailiwick.  I picked the book up somewhere a few years ago and actually listed it for sale on a website where I marketed used and rare books for several years.  It never sold and I finally picked it up a few weeks ago and read it.  Damn, what a nice surprise!  This man could write and not in an ordinary, functional kind of way. His work can survive comparisons with any major American novelist and I will leave the choice of particular writers to you. "The Barefoot Man" well above average literature and teeters on the edge of greatness in my opinion.  It is worth the time of any student of exceptional fiction whether or not you give a hoot about unionism, the coal mines, West Virginia, or Appalachia.  

The language in this book flows, rolls, sneaks around corners, whispers, shouts, surprises, pleases, and uplifts the reader.  Davis Grubb was an exceptional writer who apparently never received the critical attention he deserved.  "The Barefoot Man" title comes from a coal mine and union term for the person who is likely to become a strikebreaker and scab.  For those of you who don't know the term scab, the best way to learn what it means is to read the timeless description Jack London gave us.  A scab is a scurrilous, scrofulous, scabrous individual who is willing to cross union picket lines to work for a company in order to break a strike.  A "Barefoot Man" is a person who is literally poor and hungry enough to become such a despicable person.  Early in the book, the protagonist, Jack Farjeon, and his eventual lover, Jessie, both lose their spouses to strike breaking gun thugs on the same night as Farjeon and his blind, heavily pregnant wife are fleeing to no place in particular after having been evicted from their farm which has been lost in a foreclosure auction.  The bodies of both spouses and the murdered, stillborn child are all swept up by the county and buried in unmarked graves.  The surviving spouses seek each other's company as Jack Farjeon falls into pneumonia and delirium.  The ensuing sex scene is powerfully, emotionally, and lastingly written.  While it, and one other sex scene, are both clearly about sexual encounters, they are also about mutual suffering, bonding, and redemption for the two characters in the book.  Do not make the mistake of letting a few sexy words keep you from reading a wonderful and wonderfully written book!  

Davis Grubb photo by The Grubb Family

The book is also graced by the presence of a third very important character, Mother Dunne, the mother of Jessie's dead husband.  This character is based loosely on the highly important union organizer Mother Jones although the historical figure is never clearly named.  But her most important historical quote is used in the ending paragraphs of the book: "Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living."  For me, the one noticeable weakness in the book is the under utilization of this wonderfully gritty, and realistic character.  The characterizations of both the protagonists and the villains are  artfully constructed.  The characters are realistic, believable, and follow you to bed at night after an evening of reading this book.  Go buy it!  Read it!  Reread it!  It is well worth the time and effort.