John Steinbeck: Grapes of Wrath (2017, Penguin Books, Limited)
544 pages
English language
Published Nov. 8, 2017 by Penguin Books, Limited.
little known fact: during the Great Depression hundreds of thousands of Americans have emigrated to the Soviet Union
Read this originally in high school, like many other Americans, I'm sure. I didn't recall much about the book 40 years later, so I decided to read it again.
This is an amazing slice of life story from the Great Depression. It follows the Joad family from their farm in Oklahoma, where they lost the land due to the Dust Bowl and corporate farming, to California, where they struggled to find work, empathy, food, or any sense of stability or worth. The story is simple in its premise and stunning in its execution.
As a country, we failed our people in the lead up to the Great Depression, allowing for the 1% (as we say now) to move all the money to them and ignore the plight of the rest of the country. As a country, we are doing the same now. The rich pile more money into their coffers, …
Read this originally in high school, like many other Americans, I'm sure. I didn't recall much about the book 40 years later, so I decided to read it again.
This is an amazing slice of life story from the Great Depression. It follows the Joad family from their farm in Oklahoma, where they lost the land due to the Dust Bowl and corporate farming, to California, where they struggled to find work, empathy, food, or any sense of stability or worth. The story is simple in its premise and stunning in its execution.
As a country, we failed our people in the lead up to the Great Depression, allowing for the 1% (as we say now) to move all the money to them and ignore the plight of the rest of the country. As a country, we are doing the same now. The rich pile more money into their coffers, the poor slide further into poverty, and the middle-class is losing ground while being expected to carry the tax burden.
The parallels to today are numerous and frightening. We can only survive if we band together, and then only if we can get the government to focus on supporting the workers. I don't have a lot of hope.
Epic. Came here from Rage Against the Machine’s cover of The Ghost of Tom Joad, captures Tom’s speech to his ma near the novel’s end. If anything it’s a little long, but the writing is fantastic.
Certainly lives up to its hype. And the ending is a hard kick to the genitals.
Depressing, strong reminders of The Jungle in tearing at the American causes of poverty and desperation to retain one's humanity. Unabashedly pro-collectivism in the face of banks and capitalist landowners, and a darkly felt portrayal of "economic migration" and oppression whether you stay or go, perpetually relevant.
Steinbeck makes you really feel that you are on the battlefield. Some of his descriptions were repetitive, but I almost think that was on purpose... as the soldiers likely felt that way. The infantrymen very much felt they were small cogs in a large machine that just needed to keep moving without knowing where the machine was going. Some of the dialog was a little hard to follow, with the accents and slang.
A dark and haunting portrayal of the dust-bowl era in America, with strong character arcs and a thoroughly engaging story. A real classic.
