Posted in: Comics, Review | Tagged: adaptation, American history, graphic novel, judus rudkis, kristin gehrmann, labour, labour relations, labour unions, penguin books, socialism, ten speed press, the jungle, Theodore Roosevelt, upton sinclair

Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle": Kristin Gehrmann's Visceral Graphic Novel Adaptation of an Important American Novel (Review)

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The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is considered one of the most important American novels of the early 20^th Century. So does it need a graphic novel adaptation by German artist Kristin Gehrmann?

First, Some History

Published in 1906, it's an account of the plight of immigrants in Chicago as they try to make a living but fall prey to inhuman conditions, corrupt bosses and exploitation. Its exposé of the horrors of the meatpacking industry and its lack of hygiene shocked the public. The outcry forced the US government to pass the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. This paved the way for the formation of the Food and Drug Administration.

Most people who were forced to read the book in school talk about how horrible and gross the scenes set in the meatpacking factories were. Two-fisted president Teddy Roosevelt reportedly loathed Sinclair for his socialist muckraking leanings. He refused to believe Sinclair's accounts  despite Sinclair working in the meatpacking plants of the Chicago stockyards undercover for weeks to experience them firsthand. The more important part of the book was its depiction of labour relations and advocacy for unionization and protection of workers.

From Novel to Comic

The new graphic novel adaptation by German artist Kristina Gehrmann is a thick, ambitious, visceral interpretation of Sinclair's novel. Gehrmann uses greyscale art and collages of newspaper advertisements from the period to create a sense of atmosphere. As a graphic novel, the plight of Lithuanian immigrant Jurgus Rudkis and his family becomes more immediate – you're not just reading about it and imagining it in abstract. You're seeing it happen – all the horrors, the exploitation, the corruption, the injustices. You see the gradual disintegration of Kurdis' family as the system grinds them down one piece at a time.

This is a quintessential novel of the early 20^th Century American immigrant experience. Life sucked for poor immigrants at the mercy of the system. The jungle of the title isn't the city or America but the capitalist system itself. Its predators are the bosses, the factories are the abattoirs. The meatpacking factory is a brutal metaphor for the machine that maims and destroys the people in it. Why, it's enough to drive one to socialism!

A Massive, Painstaking Adaptation

Gehrmann doesn't just adapt the novel. She interprets it with a clear vision rather than make a dry translation. It charts Rudkis' redemption in his discovering new purpose and community in socialist activism and comradeship. She also places Upton Sinclair in the context of the story to bring it full circle at the end.

That The Jungle is an important piece of social and political history is beyond doubt, but it's a book that's easier to respect than to like. Gehrmann's graphic novel helps make it a lot more palatable. At nearly 400 pages, she takes her time to let the story speak for itself.

Kristin Gehrmann's graphic novel of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle is published by Ten Speed Press and now out in bookstores. 

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