There's a lot going on here and a whole of that is super sad and depressing. It's fascinating to me that the staying power of this still discussed novel has been entirely focused on the food safety issues, when, from cover to cover, it's an full-throated indictment of capitalism and all its ills. And maybe, if that's where it all left off. Yes, it's virtually misery porn, but by the last chunk of the book, I would have preferred that to the intensely preachy pages full of speeches by socialist leaders (and I say that as someone who is down with what they were preaching) that the protagonist finds himself amongst after his journey through the labyrinth of American capitalist dysfunction. It's a rough conclusion that trades in narrative storytelling with didactic droning.