Upton Sinclair has an outstanding eye for people and situation. I doubt his wisdom, and his eye for beauty.
His diction is outstanding, it's a rare quality for a writer to find the appropriate word to describe the appropriate phenomena, but he does so again and again. I'm going to read a few of his other books for that reason alone. The opening wedding scene and the discription of the music and musicians was outstanding. The family had color and charm and class, and as their misfortunes were piled on, and as we followed Jurgis through his trials, Sinclair is a telling narrator of this man's life.
My problem with "The Jungle," is that while Sinclair nailed the people's motivations as they are, he did not take as much time to write about people as they could be, if they had conscience. Sinclair became so wrapped up in explaining the system, I think he forgot that the story is about good people in the world. Steinbeck was better. In the Grapes of Wrath, we see the best and the worst of America, but always with a keen eye for beauty in the world and how we relate to each other.