The Grapes of Wrath
Ratings555
Average rating3.8
Some of the best prose that's ever been written and some very well-written characters that you truly come to care about help the novel overcome its few shortcomings. I've never read anything by Steinbeck that I haven't loved.
A depressing, but very engaging and interesting story. I loved Grandpa. I laughed and cried. I felt sad for the events that caused the family's journey. I didn't like the abrupt ending, without an idea of how things progress, which is why I gave it four stars.
One of the classics I wanted to read.
4.5 Stars
Every book I have read by this author has been been just fantastic, and this book was no different. Even the one small issue I had with it was because I am a grudge holding bitch and felt that Nico needed to do some serious grovelling after the second time he thought the worst about Ava. (lol)
Apart from the above mentioned issue, this was was a complete hit with me. The writing was excellent. I loved that it was on the longer side so the story felt suitably fleshed out. It was well paced. The plot was engaging. There were twists and turns. Murder and mayhem. Secrets and lies. Hot sex. No OW or OM drama. It was fairly light on secondary characters, but there were a couple I wouldn't mind reading more about. Ava was an AWESOME heroine. Smart. Feisty. Strong. Nico I liked a lot, but I never 100% warmed up to him. I think he thought the worst of Ava WAY too easily at times. That said, I wasn't expecting Mr. Rogers, and he DID have his moments, so it was just a small niggle for me. Last, it was all wrapped up in a sweet ending that put a smile on my face.
So yea, not much left for me to say. I loved it. I recommend it. I also what to thank Miz Kenborn for gifting me a copy of this book after a rather unpleasant run-in saw me being removed from the reviewer list for this series. She is a class act and a total sweetheart.
I started this book bored and finished it mesmerized. Steinbeck writes in such detail that only a very particular group of readers will enjoy, but everyone will be able to empathize with the story in the end. It is the strenuous characterizing and detailing of the scenes that, while at first seems unnecessary, really makes the reader feel alive in each line of the scenes.
I started this book in the midst of a poor family, experiencing the downfall of losing their house and land. I journeyed through family losses, money scarcity, famine - all that could go wrong, did. But Steinbeck surprised me: the family was so simplistic, that each tragic loss just felt like a regular Monday at some point. Things like hope and optimism were never lost, because they didn't have anything in the first place.
My 3-star review only reflects an overall adequacy to my reading preferences, but now I understand why Steinbeck deserved a Nobel Prize.
Late thoughts and consequently a little less coherent. Steinbeck gets polemical, but I don't fault him in the slightest. Honestly, I don't know the mindset that would be offended by this; I could only get guilt at my ignorance and complicity. I think the scary part is the recognition of the same capitalistic impulses around us today, the xenophobia, the sense of dignity and defeat that characterises the Joads and their fellow migrants. I've read some who thought the ending was abrupt, but I feel that betrays the desire for a neat conclusion, a happy ending, some grand finale. There was no real happy ending to the Dust Bowl and Great Depression, only war; people just died, and those who killed them spewed their indignation as they continue to do now. If there's one thing that bothers me, lacking the Christian fervor, it's that I don't think the hope and threat in the title came to pass, not in the novel and certainly not in real life. The grapes of wrath didn't grow heavy in the souls of the people, mine eyes have not seen the glory of the coming of the Lord, and deliverance from oppression will not be automatic.
Read this, build some empathy, and decide what you're going to do about it.
Rose of Sharon loosened one side of the blanket and bared her breast. “You got to,” she said. she squirmed closer and pulled his head close. “There!” she said. “There.” her hand moved behind his head and supported it. Her fingers moved gently to his hair. She looked up and across the barn, and her lips came together and smiled mysteriously.
Damn Steinbeck, why do you do this!
This is the second Steinbeck book for me, after ‘Of Mice And Men' and I'm absolutely welled up with emotions. Steinbeck always makes me struggle with fighting off my tears, after I finish reading his books. This one's a tragic yet beautiful tale of the Joad family who're living through the great economic depression. The writing style is classic Steinbeck, rich, raw and emotionally powerful! You don't read a John Steinbeck book. You live it!
This book taught me that no matter how worse the this world goes. How miserable the conditions are, humanity never dies. And probably it never will. The last paragraph literally blew off my mind! Steinbeck just took it to a whole new level. This book restored my lost faith in humanity and left me with a lump in my throat.
A must read indeed! Do not miss out on this classic.
“En las almas de las personas las uvas de la ira se están llenando y se vuelven pesadas, cogiendo peso, listas para la vendimia”.
Read in May 2010 and again in December 2014. It's even better the second time around. Utterly moving and relevant. This is, without doubt, my favourite book. An absolute classic.
I don't think I was ready to read this book the first time I read (part of) it, way back when I was 17 or so, for an english class. There is too much that would have been foreign to me (the past is another country and all that), and the themes of solidarity among poor folks, of the strength and weaknesses of family (which I will always say as “fambly” now, in my head, thanks to this book) were just as foreign to me as earning a dollar a day to feed one's family is.
I do wish I had read it fifteen or so years ago, though, when I was working in a straight-up retail environment, for fairly large companies–the book makes clear how, much of the time, “I'm just doing my job” is another way to say “the system is fucked up, I recognize that, but I'm trying to survive, just like you are”. “The owners” rig the game from the start, and that rigging includes a divide-and-conquer strategy that does much of the work of keeping people in line. A small example from retail: Most companies don't allow one to disclose how much one earns. This is ostensibly to keep things “private”, but really it is to ensure that folks don't band together, realizing that the game is rigged by looking at how much some folks make vs. what other folks make.
The central theme that will stay with me from the book, though, is how well Steinbeck communicates that people want to work–they want an honest day's pay for that work, but they would rather work than not work. This is something that folks who have never been poor often don't quite understand: Human beings like to feel like we are contributing to something, like we are building something bigger than ourselves. We like to work with other people–we are social animals. Creating, working, playing–these are all inextricably intertwined, and if they're not all engaged in a person, slow death happens. The Grapes of Wrath conveys this wonderfully.
Less clear is the theme that the workers will “rise up” someday, in anger, and take what they deserve–this theme runs deeply in the book, but also doesn't paint a picture that gives room in reality for this happening. By the end of the book, the little hope that exists seems to be eclipsed by the foundations of power that have already been laid by “the owners”.
ps: The book is not perfect, of course, and is a product of its time. Race and gender aren't dealt with much at all, and there are some glaring problems with how the family treats black folks and native americans (who are both almost nonexistent in the book, which also seems unlikely). That said, as a snapshot of one family that can be generalized in various ways, it's also a universalizable story.
“In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.”
It's a bad time for the Joads and it's a bad time for Oklahoma and it's a bad time for America. Finally, the Joads pack up or sell everything they have and take off for California. There are ominous warnings along the way that California may not be all it has been made to be, and all of the warnings come true, but the Joads have nowhere else to go and so they stay and try and do the best they can, as they slowly wither away.
I read this first in high school and loved it then, though I didn't understand a lot of it. Now, forty years later, it's as good as it was then, or maybe better. What a story. Life, death, work, hunger, pain, cruelty, kindness...it's all in this book.
If you want to pick one good book to read this year, I'd say for you to read this one. It will stick with you. So much so that you may want to read it again in forty years and see what you take away then.
Back when we were in college, I would come down to visit Matt a couple of times a semester. Whenever I could swing it — it was usually during finals week — I would try to come to Matt's Percussion Studio performances. It was great because I knew I'd get to see him performing something he loved and was proud of; but it was also a terrible decision to ever make the six-hour drive for that weekend, because it meant I wouldn't actually get to see him in person for most of the weekend, as the group would be busy with last-minute preparations and rehearsals, and then celebrating once the show was over.
So I would usually make plans with friends for the times when I wouldn't be able to hang out with him. But on a few occasions, plans fell through, and I was left with nothing to do. For most of his life, Matt wasn't much of a reader. When I would visit him on campus, he had a total of four books that weren't textbooks: two of them were Sherlock Holmes anthologies, one was some sports book, and one was The Grapes of Wrath.
On a couple of occasions, I picked up TGoW and started reading it in the hours before the show was to start, but inevitably I would leave it behind when I headed back home, only to forget everything I'd read and do the whole thing again the following semester.
This time I just kept reading.
I always forget how much I like John Steinbeck's writing, but I do enjoy his work. TGoW is about the Joad family and thousands of families like them who picked up and headed to California in search of work during the Dust Bowl right before the Great Depression. Except everyone else in the Midwest had basically the same idea, so there was very little work available and everyone was starving and the Californians were resentful that so many people were migrating in when they could barely afford their own farms anyway, much less good wages for workers.
In between the Joads' story, Steinbeck painted a vivid picture of life on the road and in tent camps called “Hoovervilles,” and of all the families that were struggling the same way as the Joads. It was sad, but I found it interesting because I have never read much about the domestic problems leading up to the Great Depression.
[note, listened to this as an audiobook, excellently narrated by John Chancer]
This is great writing and the themes in it are as relevant today as they were back then. Chapter 5 alone is worth it. For a book to retain such powerful themes that resonate well after their time is a sign of something special.
The structure of the book is interesting and works once you are used to it. I like the solid tempo of the writing. I love the characters, good people - not perfect - and the author brings out their humanity. How could you not feel for Tom and the various travellers they meet along the way? And how is the dynamic between Ma and Pa, where they openly talk about giving each other a “whuppin'”. And the language, the “fambly” (family) and “overhauls” (overalls) etc.
This is a dimension to the human cost of an aggressive capitalist system that I had not encountered before. It was startlingly powerful and moving.
The ending seemed a little weird at the time, but on reflection reminded me of the more recent, The Road, where you are delicately sandwiched in between hope and despair. I'd give this 4.5 stars if I could, but on deciding whether to round up or down, I went up to 5.
Un libro che merita di essere letto, soprattutto perchè è l'affresco di un epoca e perchè ti aiuta a capire alcuni meccanismi della società che potrebbero essere tranquillamente validi ancora oggi. Oltre alla realtà storica l'altra cosa che mi ha colpito sono i personaggi, descritti con una tale affetto e una tale simpatia che sembra quasi l'autore stia parlando della sua famiglia...
My book club read this book and then went to the world premiere of the opera production. The opera was... interesting. The book was great.
Really disliked this book when I had to read it for American Literature class. Might think differently of it now, but I doubt it.
