Гномобил

by Upton Sinclair, Александър Бояджиев (Translator), Людмил Чехларов (Illustrator)

Приказна повест

Гнова гневероятна гнебивалица, гно без гнищо гнередно.

Genres: Fantasy, Childrens, Fiction, American, Classics

148 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1936

About the author

Upton Beall Sinclair, Jr. was an American author who wrote close to one hundred books in many genres. He achieved popularity in the first half of the twentieth century, acquiring particular fame for his classic muckraking novel, The Jungle (1906). To gather information for the novel, Sinclair spent seven weeks undercover working in the meat packing plants of Chicago. These direct experiences exposed the horrific conditions in the U.S. meat packing industry, causing a public uproar that contributed in part to the passage a few months later of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act. The Jungle has remained continuously in print since its initial publication. In 1919, he published The Brass Check, a muckraking exposé of American journalism that publicized the issue of yellow journalism and the limitations of the “free press” in the United States. Four years after the initial publication of The Brass Check, the first code of ethics for journalists was created. Time magazine called him "a man with every gift except humor and silence." In 1943, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Sinclair also ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a Socialist, and was the Democratic Party nominee for Governor of California in 1934, though his highly progressive campaign was defeated.

Reviews

[Gina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muckraker extraordinaie, Upton Sinclair who exposed the meat packing industry in The Jungle & is the source behind the film, There Will Be Blood (loose adaptation of Oil!) wrote a children's book (which then was adapted into the 60s Disney musical of the same name)! Who would of thought Sinclair would or could write for kids. Dude was steadfast vehement in his vitriol toward all that was/is wrong in the world, beginning with capitalism. The Gnomobile is a great little book. A little girl comes face to face with a gnome in the Redwoods & he is alone with only his grandfather who is unwell. They want desperately to find & live among their fellow gnomes again but the others have disappeared. The girl, Elizabeth, teams up with her eccentric Uncle Rodney - whose family is in - you might have guessed it - the lumber industry on an almost cross country adventure to find the rest of the gnome population. Along the way, they have many adventures & it all reads very fast-paced. Sinclair miraculously imbues humor & silliness. I was impressed! Essentially, though, this is a story about environmentalism & an attack on the lumber industry & deforestation and while there are moments he points out our collective lack of values as a society, the end result is light-hearted without becoming preachy. I get the feeling that Sinclair tapped into 2 sides of his personality in order to write the characters of Rodney & Glogo. Rodney, the young lumber scion who goes against his family's wishes believes in hope & believes that, yes!, we can make a difference! Glogo, the elderly gnome with neurasthenia, on the other hand feels powerless over any challenge presented to him. I heartily recommend this book. It's a damn shame it's no longer in print.

[Metodi Markov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Чудесна книжка!

[Szili Dániel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice but sometimes slow and dumb storytelling. Nothing happens with Glogo until the end...

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

David kept hoping that this dorky little story about gnomes, having been written by Upton Sinclair, would at some point give way to some great, deep thoughts. It doesn't. It is a book about gnomes. And one that Disney apparently made into a movie (haven't seen it). There is some commentary of the destruction of logging and it's environmental disasters (mudslides, loss of precious topsoil, creation of deserts, flooding, etc) but even then the scion of the lumber industry gets a pass while the media doesn't. Kind of lame.

Ok, I picked it up for 25 cents at DI, thinking I'd give it to my dad who loves tacky yard gnomes but instead it's on my bookshelf and not his. And it made a passable bedtime/nursing session read.

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

One might call this a lesser-known Sinclair masterpiece. Technically for a younger audience, but when it billed itself as "A Gnice Gnew Gnarritive with Gnonsense but Gnothing Gnaughty," I knew I would be reading it. I did think that the story drug a bit and wrapped itself up in a hurry at the end, but I was reading a children's book. I do think it would have been entertaining to a couple young readers I know.

[Jessalyn]

I loved this movie when I was a kid, JUST found out that it's based on a book. Must read!

[Heather L · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun read, but not at all like the movie (or what I remember of the movie).

[Kookie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful and weird with a still important environmental message.

[Jefferson Fortner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full title: The Gnomobile: A Gnice Gnew Gnarrative with Gnonsense, but Gnothing Gnaughty

I’ve wanted to read this book since the late 60s when I was a child and the Disney movie came out. I was fascinated by the movie. Then, a version of the novelization of the movie appeared in our house (Not this book; a novelization of the movie) which I read over an over again. [The Gnome-Mobile, by Mary Carey Whitman]. When I learned that the movie and her book were based upon Upton Sinclair’s earlier novel, I began to look for it in used book stores, but copies where very expensive. When I found this 1966 paperback reprint for a very affordable two dollars, I nabbed it.

Because I am very familiar with the storyline of the Disney tale, even after all these years, I quickly realized how very different this book is from the movie. Even the names of the gnomes have been changed! Drastically changing details from book to movie, of course, is not a surprise. What is a surprise is that I actually think that some of the changes made the overall story much stronger. The novel centered around a young girl and her uncle who find two gnomes. The girl’s grandfather barely appears in the first chapter. In the movie, the uncle becomes her younger brother (this character could have just been left out) and the adult driving the car is her grandfather. In the book, the uncle is the heir to their family’s lumber business (which is destroying the forests that the gnomes call home), and he is dismissive and ambivalent about the source of his wealth. In the movie, the grandfather is the man who started the lumber company, and he is forced to recognize the impact of what his business has done. Maybe a little too neat and heavy handed in message, but it does bring the idea full circle. Still, there are changes that enhance the silliness for the movie that are not in the book and did not need to be. I especially remember a car chase in the movie where the gnome-mobile and the pursuers’ car went off-road through the forest, and the pursuers’ car is jolted apart, bit by bit, while the gnome-mobile is unscathed. In addition, there is a very funny bit at the end of the movie where the young male Jasper (whose quest from the beginning was to find other gnomes because he needs a bride) is lathered up in soap and then chased by a pack of pretty girl gnomes in want of a husband, like chasing a greased pig. The one who can catch and hold him gets him. As things do happen in Disney, the one who gets him is the one that Jasper is in love with. I am sticking with the idea that the movie is better than the book even if the movie has silliness in it for the kids that wasn’t in the book. Maybe that assessment is nostalgic on my part, but if you think so, convince me.

Overall, I’m glad I found this book (finally) and I’m glad that I have closed the circle on my fascination from when I was eight.

[Sally · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m a fan of Upton Sinclair and between that and recently seeing the Disney movie with Walter Brennan and the children from Mary Poppins, I thought I’d give the book, from 1936, a try. Outside of the premise the novel doesn’t have much in common with the film. While traveling with her mother in redwood country, twelve-year-old Elizabeth makes the acquaintance of two gnomes, Bobo, a young one of hundred years, and his depressed grandfather Glogo, who is sad at the despoliation of the forest and that they seem to be the only two gnomes left in the world. Elizabeth gets her 23-year-old cousin Rodney to take her and the two gnomes to look for others. They travel through many national parks and eventually the two gnomes are kidnapped by someone in show business. Glogo dies of despair, but although Bobo enjoys being in show business, he gives it up to marry a female gnome they find in western Pennsylvania. Apparently there’s a gnome city with a coal business and clothing made out of synthetic coal. It’s mostly an eco-novel for children but rather plodding. Style was not Sinclair’s strong suit.

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amusing fantasy read. I'm glad I did the repeat read because I did not remember anything about the story! There are some warnings about taking care of trees and the environment and natural resources that Sinclair managed to put in this book he wrote for his niece in 1936. Overall, a charming story where two gnomes trust two "big people" and a somewhat happy ending.

[Stacie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun little story about a couple of gnomes who step out of the forest and into the troubles of big people. Quite silly and delightful.

[Leilani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it! It really did not follow along with the Disney movie. I grew up watching it over and over. I actually like the book more.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book Riot Read Harder Challenge 2024 Task #1: Read a cozy fantasy book.
While the source material for the 1967 Disney adaptation, it has almost nothing in common with it. More of a middle-grades eco-novella with a fantastical spin.

[Anne]

Curiousity piqued when we saw the reference to Upton Sinclair at the end of the Disney video, I checked and sure enough he wrote the original! It took quite awhile to track down a copy, which turned out to be quite different from the movie (not surprisingly). Instead of two children and their grandfather we have a little girl and her uncle, the black sheep of a lumber magnate’s family, traveling all the way across the continent. An anti-lumbering tract basically, although Sinclair’s alternatives would not necessarily be ecologically desirable today. Ends with the old gnome dying. Had to get this through interlibrary loan from Merced County.