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andyb245's review
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
russrik's review against another edition
5.0
Wonderfully written, great message, and fun story. Has all the elements a classic work of fiction should have.
p0rkchop's review against another edition
Very slow and detailed, but I stopped reading when it started to feel like an explainer of labor unions and early 1900s labor-capital arguments.
trnolan's review against another edition
3.0
Unexpectedly interesting. Inspired to read by watching There Will Be Blood, yet this novel only shares a passing resemblance with the film. Upton Sinclair's politics seep into everything he wrote, yet this novel stands out for the characters within. It also illuminates a time period that is sometimes forgotten or swept up into a label of the roaring 20s. But this generalization forgets all those who built that extravagance and the suffering they endured. Sinclair never forgets the individual and gives even the poorest character the same degree of nuance as the wealthiest.
The story itself is only okay and Sinclair pads the page count with unnecessary detail. But a few of the characters (Paul, Bunny and Rachel in particular) will stick with me.
The story itself is only okay and Sinclair pads the page count with unnecessary detail. But a few of the characters (Paul, Bunny and Rachel in particular) will stick with me.
morvram's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
shetef's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I liked this a lot. Sinclair weaves a lot of historical events together in this book - it's not just a satire of the oil industry, it's looking at the birth and growth of global capitalism and corruption. There's some wonkiness surrounding gender and race in this but not at a level that's exceptional for the time period. A valuable read for any anti-capitalist in my opinion.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, and Antisemitism
onuryeats's review against another edition
4.0
Petrol!, Upton Sinclair’ın dünyasına girdiğim ikinci kitap oldu. 1926’da yayımlanan bu roman, özetle bir yolsuzluk romanı.
Upton Sinclair, Jacob Riis gibi “muckraker” yani “skandal ifşa eden gazeteci” olduğu için bizzat kendi tanık olduğu deneyimlerden yola çıkarak Petrol!’ü kaleme aldığı biliniyor.
ABD’yi kasıp kavuran kapitalist düzeni ve petrol sektörünü kimi zaman sert kimi zaman ironik bir dille exposé ediyor. Bu sektördeki büyük yanlışlar ve usulsüzlükler o kadar fazla ki. Emekçi ve işveren arasındaki çatışma, Hollywood’un “Kızılları” hedef alan propagandaları ve artistlerin gerçek yüzü, sosyalizm ve komünizm arasına çizilen sınırlar, romanın ele aldığı konulardan bazıları. Ayrıca, roman 1940’larda başlayan Senatör McCarthy’nin tarihe kazıdığı bir terim olan McCarthyism’in aslında 20’lerde bile varolduğunu gösteriyor. Cumhuriyetçiler, kendi fikirlerine ve hükümete destek olmayan her vatandaşa komünist etiketi yapıştırmak için çok hevesliler.
Fitzgerald’ın romanları ile aynı dönemde çıkan Petrol, Caz Çağı’nın aşırılıklarına, cinsel özgürlüğe ve 18. Yasa yani alkol yasağının nasıl çiğnendiğine de değiniyor. Petrol!, ABD tarihinin en çalkantılı dönemlerinin— Caz Çağı ve Büyük Buhran arası— belgeselini sunuyor adeta.
Petrol’ün aynı zamanda bir bildungsroman olduğunu ekleyeyim. Petrol devi Ross’ların veliahtı Bunny’nin ve fikirlerinin nasıl olgunlaştığına tanık oluyor okur.
Petrol!’ü “tam bir roman” olarak tanımlıyorum fakat beni Şikago Mezbahaları kadar etkilemediğini söylemeliyim. Yazarın natüralist bakış açısı, Şikago Mezbahaları’nda daha belirgin ve etkileyiciydi. Yine de Petrol! büyüğün küçüğü yediği düzeni başarıyla anlatan romanlardan biri. #SabitKalem kitap kulübüyle okuduğumuz beşinci kitap olan Petrol’ü büyük roman okumayı seven herkese öneriyorum.
Bu güzel çeviri için Kıvanç Güney’e teşekkürler!
Upton Sinclair, Jacob Riis gibi “muckraker” yani “skandal ifşa eden gazeteci” olduğu için bizzat kendi tanık olduğu deneyimlerden yola çıkarak Petrol!’ü kaleme aldığı biliniyor.
ABD’yi kasıp kavuran kapitalist düzeni ve petrol sektörünü kimi zaman sert kimi zaman ironik bir dille exposé ediyor. Bu sektördeki büyük yanlışlar ve usulsüzlükler o kadar fazla ki. Emekçi ve işveren arasındaki çatışma, Hollywood’un “Kızılları” hedef alan propagandaları ve artistlerin gerçek yüzü, sosyalizm ve komünizm arasına çizilen sınırlar, romanın ele aldığı konulardan bazıları. Ayrıca, roman 1940’larda başlayan Senatör McCarthy’nin tarihe kazıdığı bir terim olan McCarthyism’in aslında 20’lerde bile varolduğunu gösteriyor. Cumhuriyetçiler, kendi fikirlerine ve hükümete destek olmayan her vatandaşa komünist etiketi yapıştırmak için çok hevesliler.
Fitzgerald’ın romanları ile aynı dönemde çıkan Petrol, Caz Çağı’nın aşırılıklarına, cinsel özgürlüğe ve 18. Yasa yani alkol yasağının nasıl çiğnendiğine de değiniyor. Petrol!, ABD tarihinin en çalkantılı dönemlerinin— Caz Çağı ve Büyük Buhran arası— belgeselini sunuyor adeta.
Petrol’ün aynı zamanda bir bildungsroman olduğunu ekleyeyim. Petrol devi Ross’ların veliahtı Bunny’nin ve fikirlerinin nasıl olgunlaştığına tanık oluyor okur.
Petrol!’ü “tam bir roman” olarak tanımlıyorum fakat beni Şikago Mezbahaları kadar etkilemediğini söylemeliyim. Yazarın natüralist bakış açısı, Şikago Mezbahaları’nda daha belirgin ve etkileyiciydi. Yine de Petrol! büyüğün küçüğü yediği düzeni başarıyla anlatan romanlardan biri. #SabitKalem kitap kulübüyle okuduğumuz beşinci kitap olan Petrol’ü büyük roman okumayı seven herkese öneriyorum.
Bu güzel çeviri için Kıvanç Güney’e teşekkürler!
diana_skelton's review against another edition
5.0
Written in 1926, this novel has a strong contemporary resonance. The backdrop to the plot includes oil magnates purchasing the election of Warren Harding to ensure that new oil fields will be awarded to them. US soldiers must remain in Russia long after World War I ends to fight for the financial interests of American businesses. Hollywood blockbusters have the clear ideological goal of defending capitalism against communism. And the invention of radio enables the growth of the first megachurches.
Some excerpts:
"Bunny--of course without any hint that he had ever had knowledge of such a thing--had asked the lady teacher about the possibility of a business man's paying a public official extra sums for his time and trouble in public matters; and the lady teacher had been shocked by such a suggestion, and had declared that it would be bribery without question. So now Bunny told Dad, and the latter explained. It was the difference between a theoretical and a practical view of a question. The lady teacher had never had to drill an oil well, her business didn't depend on moving heavy materials overs a sheep-trail; all she did was jist to sit in a room and use high-soundin' words like 'ideals' and 'democracy' and 'public service.'"
"And then the President himself came home, to declare that he had achieved a complete victory. In the name of 'self-determination' of all peoples he was giving the German Rhineland to France, and German Africa to Britain, and the German Tyrol to Italy, and a Chinese province to Japan, and to the United States a mandate over Armenia! Also he had made a perpetual alliance with France and Britain, whereby we bound ourselves to maintain this brand of self-determination forever! When this program had been thoroughly realized, a tone of hilarious cynicism became the correct thing among the young intellectuals of America; fashionable young matrons took to deceiving their husbands in the name of chastity, and college boys began toting hip flasks out of loyalty to prohibition."
"Perhaps would come another car, and again it would be necessary for you to leave the comfortable centre of the concrete ribbon, and content yourself with a precisely estimated one half minus a certain number of inches. Each time, you were staking your life upon your ability to place your car upon the exact line--and upon the ability and willingness of the unknown other party to do the same. You watched his projectile in the instant of hurtling at you, and if you saw that he was not making the necessary concession, you knew that you were encountering that most dangerous of all two-legged mammalian creatures, the road-hog."
"Gregor was the very picture of what the students called a 'Bolsheviki.' As it happened, Gregor's father belonged to one of the revolutionary parties whom the Bolsheviks were now sending to jail; but how could you explain that to a student body which dumped into one common garbage can Socialists and Communists and Syndicalists and Anarchists, Communist-Anarchists and Anarchist-Syndicalists, Social Revolutionaries, and Social Democrats, Populists, Progressives, Single-taxers, Nonpartisan Leaguers, Pacificists, Pragmatists, Altruists, Vegetarians, Anti-vivisectionists and opponents of capital punishment. Also there was Rachel Menzies, who belonged to a people that had been chosen by the Lord, but not by the aforesaid student body."
"Bunny replied by telegram, inviting one old and four young Jewish Socialists to have dinner with him before the meeting. He took them to an expensive restaurant--thinking to do them honor, and forgetting that they might feel uneasy as to their clothes and their table manners. Verily, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the feelings of the disinherited."
Some excerpts:
"Bunny--of course without any hint that he had ever had knowledge of such a thing--had asked the lady teacher about the possibility of a business man's paying a public official extra sums for his time and trouble in public matters; and the lady teacher had been shocked by such a suggestion, and had declared that it would be bribery without question. So now Bunny told Dad, and the latter explained. It was the difference between a theoretical and a practical view of a question. The lady teacher had never had to drill an oil well, her business didn't depend on moving heavy materials overs a sheep-trail; all she did was jist to sit in a room and use high-soundin' words like 'ideals' and 'democracy' and 'public service.'"
"And then the President himself came home, to declare that he had achieved a complete victory. In the name of 'self-determination' of all peoples he was giving the German Rhineland to France, and German Africa to Britain, and the German Tyrol to Italy, and a Chinese province to Japan, and to the United States a mandate over Armenia! Also he had made a perpetual alliance with France and Britain, whereby we bound ourselves to maintain this brand of self-determination forever! When this program had been thoroughly realized, a tone of hilarious cynicism became the correct thing among the young intellectuals of America; fashionable young matrons took to deceiving their husbands in the name of chastity, and college boys began toting hip flasks out of loyalty to prohibition."
"Perhaps would come another car, and again it would be necessary for you to leave the comfortable centre of the concrete ribbon, and content yourself with a precisely estimated one half minus a certain number of inches. Each time, you were staking your life upon your ability to place your car upon the exact line--and upon the ability and willingness of the unknown other party to do the same. You watched his projectile in the instant of hurtling at you, and if you saw that he was not making the necessary concession, you knew that you were encountering that most dangerous of all two-legged mammalian creatures, the road-hog."
"Gregor was the very picture of what the students called a 'Bolsheviki.' As it happened, Gregor's father belonged to one of the revolutionary parties whom the Bolsheviks were now sending to jail; but how could you explain that to a student body which dumped into one common garbage can Socialists and Communists and Syndicalists and Anarchists, Communist-Anarchists and Anarchist-Syndicalists, Social Revolutionaries, and Social Democrats, Populists, Progressives, Single-taxers, Nonpartisan Leaguers, Pacificists, Pragmatists, Altruists, Vegetarians, Anti-vivisectionists and opponents of capital punishment. Also there was Rachel Menzies, who belonged to a people that had been chosen by the Lord, but not by the aforesaid student body."
"Bunny replied by telegram, inviting one old and four young Jewish Socialists to have dinner with him before the meeting. He took them to an expensive restaurant--thinking to do them honor, and forgetting that they might feel uneasy as to their clothes and their table manners. Verily, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the feelings of the disinherited."
frozendecembermoon's review
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
noswadyllib's review against another edition
dark
emotional
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0