The Jungle

Each successive page was an excruciating step closer to total despair. It's a relief when Jurgis finally stomps all over on the garden of his soul. By the end just reading the socialist revival section is almost an ecstatic experience when compared to the misery that precedes it, which I suppose was the point.

2008/05/31
It strikes me that religious nature of Jurgis' conversion is pretty apt and probably deliberate. Although the connections he makes help him find a job and the cause gives his life meaning and purpose, the movement itself is sustained by promises of a soon coming utopia that never actually arrives. The parallels to the commonly cited communist critique of Christianity are glaring.