novels

I don't know if I can adequately express how wonderful I think this book is. Steinbeck writes with incredibly vivid imagery and passion in all his books but this is his best and affected me the most.

Grapes absolutely should be required reading, not only because it is Steinbeck or excellent literature but because it is a powerful story of human nature, social conscience, prejudice and classism. This book opened my eyes to the plight of yet one more minority group, migrant farm workers. I cannot drive by fields filled with people picking our fruits and vegetables without thinking of this book and the lives of these folks. Thank God for people like Cesar Chavez and the union he created to help. But I digress....

This is a heart-wrenching, sad story of a family's search for relief from the Dust Bowl of Oklahoma and a better life in California. The better life doesn't come by the end of the book but the reader is left a more compassionate person. Quite an accomplishment. Thank you Mr. Steinbeck.

There is so much to be said about this monumental work; as another reviewer mentioned, over four hundred amazon.com reviewers referring to it in the positive can't be a fluke---this is one of, if not the, greatest American novels ever written.

The story follows the journey of the Joads, a family from Oklahoma forced to leave their land and head west in search of a better life. This is by no means an uplifting, happy book---the Depression and the Dust Bowl are the two major factors at the time the novel takes place that influence the situations in the it, and much (at times depressing) havoc is wreaked on all the characters in the story.

Very similar to Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" in its background, intent, and message, The Grapes of Wrath is extremely well written. Steinbeck flows from poetic prose in one line to the conversations of the every-day, relatively uneducated man at the time in another with beauty and ease. The book is set up with every other chapter taking a somewhat "withdrawn" sense from the actual story to provide some of the author's perspective on what's being written and what is occurring, and although often times when writers follow a similar pattern it ends up being somewhat of a childish and inane soapbox from which they stand, I looked forward to the recapitulation of sorts after each section about the Joads ended, just to see what he thought.

There are times in the book that will make you cry (the very last page is one of the saddest, yet most heart-warming signs of goodwill I've ever read) and laugh, but the intent in Steinbeck's message and the way he makes it accesible and interesting will impress you the most. The book is even aesthetically pleasing---it's got a beautiful format, an easily readable typeset (I finished it in two days without devoting too much time to it), and although there is neither an introduction nor foreword, the story itself is easily worth the price. Buy this book, you won't regret it.

"The Grapes Of Wrath" is an American Classic. You've got to read this one. Although it isn't as colorful as much of Steinbeck's work, it is a wonderful story of a very important part of our nation's history. It's very much worth your time.