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The Grapes of Wrath

3.85 of 5 stars 3.85 · rating details · 268,377 ratings · 7,716 reviews

John Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression follows the western movement of one family and a nation in search of work and human dignity. Perhaps the most American of American classics.

The novel focuses on the Joads, a poor family of sharecroppers driven from their Oklahoma home by drought, economic hardship, and changes in financial and agricultura...more

Paperback, 455 pages

Published January 8th 2002 by Penguin Books (first published 1939)

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May 17, 2013 Stephanie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, classics, favorites

If you are an American you need to read The Grapes of Wrath. It scares the poop out of me because, my fellow Americans, we are repeating history. If live anywhere else read it as well as a guide for what not to do.

In the Grapes of Wrath Mr. Steinbeck tells the tale of the first great depression through the Joad family from Oklahoma, who has been displaced from their family farm through no fault of their own. You see, there was a big bad drought which made farming impossible. In those days the fa...more

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Feb 26, 2012 Jason rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: for-kindle, 2012, reviewed

In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.

This book really gets my goat. Those poor, dirty Joads. So poor and so, so dirty. After being displaced from their Oklahoma farm following the Dust Bowl storms that wreck their crops and cause them to default on their loans, the Joads find themselves a family of migrants in search of work and food. They join a stream of hundreds of thousands of other migrant families across the United Stat...more In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.

This book really gets my goat. Those poor, dirty Joads. So poor and so, so dirty. After being displaced from their Oklahoma farm following the Dust Bowl storms that wreck their crops and cause them to default on their loans, the Joads find themselves a family of migrants in search of work and food. They join a stream of hundreds of thousands of other migrant families across the United States to what they believe to be the prosperous valleys of California. Only once they arrive, they discover that there is nothing prosperous about it—not only is there a serious shortage of work (mostly caused by an overabundance of labor that came with the influx of so many other migrant families), but they also have to contend with growing anti-migrant sentiment among the local population and wealthy landowners who think nothing of taking advantage of them in their state of vulnerability. Without proper labor laws protecting worker’s rights and no trade unions to represent their interests, the Joads are severely underpaid for whatever work they do manage to find, and they simply fall deeper and deeper into despondency.

The reason this gets my goat is ‘cause it doesn’t have to be that way. Yes, the Joads are uneducated and wouldn’t qualify for anything more than basic manual labor. Yes, it is the Great Depression and this is not an easy time to find a job even for skilled workers. And yes, they are a family of 47 and they probably look pretty ridiculous all crammed up in the back of their makeshift pickup truck. But gosh darn it, if only they had unions! If only they had fair labor standards to guarantee them a minimum wage! If only they had the protection of government legislation to prohibit wealthy landowners from colluding to keep prices high and wages low!

Which leads me to wonder… what would Ayn Rand think of all this? After all, aren’t labor unions and economic regulation precisely what she argues against? By that account, if Atlas Shrugged is the supposed Bible of right-wing thinkers, then I’d have to say that The Grapes of Wrath might just be its antithesis. But the real difference, as far as I can tell, is that while Atlas Shrugged represents a crazy woman’s vision of a whack job world that could never actually exist, John Steinbeck tells it like it is, and how it was, for so many hard working Americans who were taken advantage of under a system that did nothing to protect them. And what’s even more remarkable is that Steinbeck’s characters (whom, by the way, Rand would refer to as “moochers”—just thought we should be clear on that) make Dagny Taggart and Henry Reardon look like a couple of pussies. What is it Ma Joad says? That if you’re in trouble or hurt or need, to “go to poor people—for they’re the only ones that’ll help.”

This is a novel about the working poor, and it should serve to remind us what can go horribly wrong in an unregulated economy.(less)

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Dec 15, 2007 Malcolm David Logan rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people over the age of 30

Whenever I revisit a classic I'm struck by how much more I get out of it now than I did when I was 24 or 19 or, God forbid, 15. Giving a book like the Grapes of Wrath to a 15 year old serves largely to put them off fine literature for the rest of their lives. The depth of understanding and compassion for the human condition as communicated by a book like this is simply unfathomable to those who haven't lived much life yet, but after you've gotten a healthy dose of living, it comes across like fi...more

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Aug 11, 2012 Kim rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, all-time-favourites

The Pulitzer Prize winning novel of 1940, this is the story of the Joad family, Oklahoma tenant farmers displaced from their land by the combined effects of ecological disaster, rampant capitalism and the Great Depression. The narrative follows the family as they travel from Oklahoma to California in search of work, along with hundreds of thousands of others in the same situation. Woven into the story of the Joads are chapters dealing with issues such as the attitude of Californians to the influ...more
The Pulitzer Prize winning novel of 1940, this is the story of the Joad family, Oklahoma tenant farmers displaced from their land by the combined effects of ecological disaster, rampant capitalism and the Great Depression. The narrative follows the family as they travel from Oklahoma to California in search of work, along with hundreds of thousands of others in the same situation. Woven into the story of the Joads are chapters dealing with issues such as the attitude of Californians to the influx of migrant workers and the exploitation and mistreatment to which they were subjected.

There is nothing about this novel which I don't love: Steinbeck's wonderful use of language, his ability to create memorable characters, his descriptions of the natural world, his use of symbolism and - probably most of all - his passion. Steinbeck is not a writer who hides himself behind his words: his humanism, his left-wing political views, his compassion for those whose story he tells are all right there in the text. Listening to the audiobook - which is superbly narrated by John Chancer - I felt I was getting to know Steinbeck as well as his characters. One of the things I most like about Steinbeck's writing is the sense that he wrote what he knew, not just what he had imagined or researched. When Steinbeck writes about displaced people, the reader is sure that he knew such people personally. When he describes a land turtle, it's because he had observed how a land turtle moves. When he has his characters carry out repairs to their truck, he knows what they would do because he's carried out those same repairs himself. Steinbeck lives and breathes in his writing.

While this is the story of "Okies" in depression-era California, it's also the story of all those who have been forced to leave their homes - whether because of natural disaster, economic crisis, or conflict - and found themselves poor, hungry and desperate in a place where they are not welcome. It's a story which is repeated over and over, all over the world. The novel made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me angry and it made me sad. However, it also gave me hope. There is an essential humanity and a deep vein of hope in Steinbeck's characters: bad things happen to them, but they work hard to survive. And they know the power of love, of loyalty and of connectedness to each other.

I will be forever grateful that a stopover in Monterey during a drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles prompted me to finally start reading Steinbeck. I'd give this book ten stars if I could. It's quite simply a masterpiece. (less)

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Oct 02, 2011 Clif Hostetler marked it as to-read · review of another edition

REVIEW FOR Celebrity Death Match Review Elimination Tournament ONLY

My real (normal) review is at this link.

Grapes of Wrath (10) (a.k.a trampling vintage)
versus
Sound and the Fury (23) (a.k.a. soliloquy signifying nothing)

Over in this corner we have Grapes of Wrath (GW) with its clearly defined and understood message: workers unite, blessed are the poor, viva the revolution, his truth is marching on.

Over in the other corner is The Sound and the Fury (SF) in its smoky shadowy form: stream of con...more

15 likes · like · see review

May 03, 2007 Drew rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everyone

Shelves: fiction, favorites

This is by far my favorite book of all time for several reasons. Steinbeck always creates some of the deepest characters I've ever read. Tom Joad is my favorite character in any piece of literature. His growth from a self-serving ex-con to a Christ-like hero is an embodiment of the entire Joad family. Every time I read his lines to Ma when he says "Every time there is a cop beatin' a guy...look in their eyes Ma, You'll see me" or something like that, I think of that Rage Against the Machine song...more

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Jul 19, 2011 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars

My dad told me that reading this book when he was a young man made him a socialist. Of course, by the time he told me this the old man had shed many of those earlier convictions, as least as far as I could tell, but it gave me a good idea of what to expect when I finally got around to reading it at some point in the late nineties—a portrayal of the inhumane and selfish response of the capitalist minority to the widespread misery and desperation of the laboring majority during those terrible year...more My dad told me that reading this book when he was a young man made him a socialist. Of course, by the time he told me this the old man had shed many of those earlier convictions, as least as far as I could tell, but it gave me a good idea of what to expect when I finally got around to reading it at some point in the late nineties—a portrayal of the inhumane and selfish response of the capitalist minority to the widespread misery and desperation of the laboring majority during those terrible years of the Great Slump that touched upon enough personal threads to turn the reader's indignation meter up to white-hot. Who can read of the pigs being slaughtered in a ditch and then coated with quicklime—so that none may benefit from meat that wasn't purchased on the market—without spluttering inside? Or of the men who arm themselves with clubs to go a crackin' some noggins amongst those work-stealing indigents in their proto-hippie squatter's camp without a rage burning inside and a fervent wish that one could be there with a club of one's own to greet the thuggish bastards with a howdy-do? upside of the head?

And yet, I came to the book aware of things that local and state governments and business owners did—loathsome, insensible things—in an effort to maintain some semblance of capitalist order; and perhaps being forewarned in this manner, and living in the era that we do with all that has gone on since those times, some of the original emotional power of Steinbeck's novel has been drained or diminished. It will be interesting to see if the emerging generation—threatened as it is with economic disruption and the perennial prospect of slippage into depression, along with a gloomy potentiality for a recovery back to national prosperity and rising income levels—will find more to inspire or ignite them in Steinbeck's pungent glimpse at the Dirty Thirties; maybe my niece will reveal to me one day that Steinback made me a socialist.

I consider the Salinas Scribe to be a fantastic writer—I love the opening description of how the farmlands of the mid- and southwest were turned into dust bowls, the red earth made dry and lifeless. For my money, the gathering up of the Joad clan and their trip to California—with the intervening snapshots Steinbeck provided of human touches between strangers along that sunset-bound highway paved with injustice—was the best part of the book. Once the journey brought them across the Colorado River—less two crazy-ass grandparents—and into a California that had promised work while delivering servitude, I felt that the story lost some of its tightness—though it allowed the mother's strength to shine—and it was apparent to all heading in that Tom was going to end up spilling more blood and bringing himself once again into the bad graces of the law; the return of the sacrificial prodigal son. Mind you, this is fairly inconsequential stuff, what with all of the book's strengths: in particular, that Steinbeck's earthy and potent prose and hard-bitten characters, his portrayal of a lean and desperate pride, are indelibly done.(less)

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Mar 06, 2013 Chrissie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, hf, usa, favorites, alt

Anybody wanting to understand what life was like during the Depression should read this book. My maternal grandmother survived it. They lived in Kansas. They ate grass. Those years changed my grandmother forever. I think I finally understand why she was who she. Steinbeck's novel is based on solid and extensive research, even if it is a book of fiction.

I am in a pickle. I cannot tell you whether by the end I found it to be depressing. That would be a spoiler. I will say instead that how ever it...more

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Dec 29, 2008 Tom rated it 5 of 5 stars

Mr Stienbec has writ a remarkable tale His story leaves a feller and a gal sad and disheartened anda appreciaten oftha dtermnation, courage n stenth of da dus bowl Okies. I fel a conect to dare struggles wit what life sometime dishes out to folk. I growed to like tha Joad family like day was my own. Grandma, Grandpa, Tom, Al, Pa, Ma, Rose ASharon, Ruthie, Wimfiel, Connie,preacher became like kin. I kepta wishin and hopin for the famly through all thiere difculties and setbacks I would give this...more

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Jun 21, 2012 Angus rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: pulitzer-prize, all-time-100-novels, modern-library-100, radcliffes-rival-100, the-novel-100, nobel-laureates, reviewed-and-blogged

Original post at Book Rhapsody.

***

The Jalopy of the Joads

Let me tell you why this book is important to me. Let me tell you first how I came upon my copy. When I first attended the meetings of our book club, I brought an Anais Nin book with me for the book exchange. One of them, the moderator Jzhun, expressed interest in it. He showed me the little stack of books that he brought for the exchange, then I chose this.

Tina, now one of the moderators, heard my choice and said, oh, serious books. Well,...more

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Jun 12, 2008 Jennifer rated it 5 of 5 stars

*Review contains a partial spoiler*

If you read enough reviews, you'll notice that most of the people who gave this book 1 or 2 stars had to read the book for a high school class. Most of the 4 and 5 star ratings came from those who read it as adults. I recommend listening to those who read it as adults.

Many people hate the ending, but I thought it was great. Creepy? Yes, but there was an immense amount of beauty and generosity in that creepy little ending. At one point in the story, Ma tol' Ros...more *Review contains a partial spoiler*

If you read enough reviews, you'll notice that most of the people who gave this book 1 or 2 stars had to read the book for a high school class. Most of the 4 and 5 star ratings came from those who read it as adults. I recommend listening to those who read it as adults.

Many people hate the ending, but I thought it was great. Creepy? Yes, but there was an immense amount of beauty and generosity in that creepy little ending. At one point in the story, Ma tol' Rosasharn that it ain't all about her (most high school kids think everything is all about them, which is probably one reason they couldn't enjoy this book or most other classics they are forced to read). Realizing this at the very end made Rosasharn crack her first smile in ages (at least that's my take on the mysterious smile). I wasn't disappointed in the lack of closure at the end, because the closure came in the middle when Ma said, "Rich fellas come up an' they die, an' their kids ain't no good an' they die out. But we keep a'comin'. We're the people that live. They can't wipe us out; they can't lick us. We'll go on forever, Pa, 'cause we're the people." So you know they will be fine whether life continues to be a struggle or not. They will be better off than the rich man with the million acres they talked about - "If he needs a million acres to make him feel rich, seems to me he needs it 'cause he feels awful poor inside hisself, and if he's poor in hisself, there ain't no million acres gonna make him feel rich, an' maybe he's disappointed that nothin' he can do'll make him feel rich." Another good quote is "I'm learnin' one thing good...If you're in trouble or hurt or need - go to the poor people. They're the only ones that'll help - the only ones." I saw a special on 20/20 around Christmas time about how the lower class are more generous overall than the middle and upper class, so this still applies today. Would anyone like my savings account? I think I'm going to give poverty a shot : )(less)

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Mar 19, 2013 [P] rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Prologue

A couple of years ago my best friend and I spent an entire evening, something like 7 hours, accumulating, and listening to, every single song by the band Guided By Voices [and associated side and solo projects]. GBV, for those who don’t know, were a band [still are, in fact, as they’ve recently reformed] who made a hell of a lot of records [we’re talking about thousands of songs] and whose output was extravagantly uneven in quality. We had decided, my friend and I, that we were goin...more

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Sep 20, 2012 Alex rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: reading-through-history, 2012, particularly-drunk-reviews

I was prepared to compare Steinbeck to Faulkner and Hemingway, because those three tend to get discussed together - but what he really reminds me of is Upton Sinclair. Same powerful expose of the conditions of the poor and exploited, but you know how the problem with The Jungle is that the story itself is pretty awkward? Well, this is better.

So I hadn't realized what a screaming Commie Steinbeck was. That was a fun revelation. And he's sadly prophetic here. He describes how small farmers get pus...more I was prepared to compare Steinbeck to Faulkner and Hemingway, because those three tend to get discussed together - but what he really reminds me of is Upton Sinclair. Same powerful expose of the conditions of the poor and exploited, but you know how the problem with The Jungle is that the story itself is pretty awkward? Well, this is better.

So I hadn't realized what a screaming Commie Steinbeck was. That was a fun revelation. And he's sadly prophetic here. He describes how small farmers get pushed out by larger farms, and then the larger farms buy, for example, canneries, and sell their own peaches to their own canneries at under market, to make the profit back with the canned final product, and the smaller farms can't compete and even more of them go under, and eventually there'll be nothing left but huge farms. And that's exactly what happened: nobody stopped it and now it's done.

So I really, really liked this book. I thought the characters were great, the plot grinding. For a while I wondered (back to the Faulk/Hem comparison) whether the writing style was a little simplistic, compared to the very stylized techniques those two used - but then, those self-conscious techniques can get pretty annoying in both cases. In the end it's maybe not so bad to have a guy who can just write a sentence without getting too caught up in doing it either the simplest or most confusing way possible.

(And it's not like the writing is graceless, of course. Just check out the first chapter: we open on a universe of dust that has to be consciously recalling Dickens' description of fog in the opening of Bleak House. Beautiful, bleak stuff.)

Tom Joad is a character for the ages. Steinbeck is leaning on the mythic here: "Whenever they's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there." but it works because Steinbeck's good enough to make it work. Tom Joad's built for Bruce Springsteen to pick him up 70 years later: Steinbeck is creating a protest, and he succeeds.

And Ma, the unbending matriarch: "'You get your stick, Pa,' she said. 'Times when they's food an' a place to set, then maybe you can use your stick an' keep your skin whole. But you ain't a-doin' your job, either a-thinkin' or a-workin'...you jus' get you a stick now an' you ain't lickin' no woman; you're a-fightin', 'cause I got a stick all laid out too.'" That's some shit right there, huh? That's expressed in foreign terms, but we get the idea.

And check out my favorite character, Ruthie. That's a really sharp, fine, careful character description there, this little girl slowly going feral under circumstances that could take her no other way. It's beautifully done. Check out that allegorical croquet match. It's here where Steinbeck pulls away from Faulkner and Hemingway: Ruthie is a minor character, but Steinbeck draws her perfectly. Hem & Faulk don't have that attention to minor characters: they have more precise narratives. They wouldn't think to include someone who scuttles away and burrows under the story like Ruthie does.

Not sure where all the black folks went - this is almost entirely a white world - but for what it's about, it's got its shit together. Yes to this book and yes to Steinbeck. He's compulsively readable; he's about something useful and important; this is a great book.(less)

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Jul 11, 2012 Jonathan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classic-literature, 1001-books-to-read-before-you-die, popularity-contest

This novel was at first only a four star read for the following reasons. However it is after reading earlier in the year that now I realise how powerful this book was.

1. The way of speaking was frustrating reading. With all the conjunctions and the shortening of Rose of Sharon to Roseasharn and with the characters all jumpin' around and being part of a fambly. That was slightly annoying to my grammar sentiments...

2. The book made me angry (okay this is a good thing this time about the book and...more

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Oct 01, 2010 Gary rated it 5 of 5 stars

Isn't THE GRAPES OF WRATH just wonderful!!!!???? You've not read it??? Shit!!!! You don't know what you're missing!!!!!!!! If you've read it, then you will know exactly what I am talking about.

I have lived on, or close to old route 66 for over 20 years of my life. I love the history of THE MOTHER ROAD. However, believe it or not, it was only in the past few years that I finally read this book! I had read other Steinbeck,and loved it,and for some reason, after owning a copy of the book since the...more Isn't THE GRAPES OF WRATH just wonderful!!!!???? You've not read it??? Shit!!!! You don't know what you're missing!!!!!!!! If you've read it, then you will know exactly what I am talking about.

I have lived on, or close to old route 66 for over 20 years of my life. I love the history of THE MOTHER ROAD. However, believe it or not, it was only in the past few years that I finally read this book! I had read other Steinbeck,and loved it,and for some reason, after owning a copy of the book since the 1980's, I just never got around to reading it. One of my life's regrets. Once I plowed in, I did nothing, but read till I finished it.....totally spellbound! I love the story of the Joads, with chapters mixed in on life,and history on the highway. The way he describes everything just makes me feel like I was an Okie myself, living it, breathing it, I was on that truck!

After reading it for the very first time,and being totally blown away by the ending, I had to finally see the movie. However,after I finished that last page, for the very first time, I immediately turned back to the front of the book,and started reading it again, a 2nd time! Then ,not surprising to me, was the movie's ending is not at all like the book, but the movie is awesome as well. Nobody could have portrayed Tom Joad better then Henry Fonda. I have since read the book numerous times,and then we did it for our bookclub one month. I've rewatched the movie. I've traveled parts of the mother road. I can also recommend to you a fantastic history book on the history of Route 66. I've seen people at Ted Drews in St. Louis with copies of the history book clutched to their chests, because they are doing the route 66 vacation. I will ask them if they have been doing that type of vacation,and if they say yes, the next thing out of my mouth is... "Have you read THE GRAPES OF WRATH??" In most cases their response is yes. If it's no, I tell them they must rush to the nearest bookstore,and get a copy,and read it while on the road. I've had people ask me directions to the nearest bookstore so they can get a copy of the book.

I had to buy a 2nd copy of the book because my original copy is about in shreds. I can't bring myself to throw it away, because when my eyes first experienced this mouth watering, rebel rousing story, it was that copy of the book!!

There's also a book on the history of the novel,and how people in California burned it , if you'd like to know about that other book to read.

Take care! Thanks for putting up with my enthusiasm for a classic piece of literature , such as this!

Gary(less)

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Mar 13, 2008 Jeff rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book was quite a read. It follows a fictional family, the Joads, through some of the darkest days of the depression. The Joads are a family of sharecroppers who have been in Oklahoma for three generations. But now the bank owns the land and due to years of dust storms which caused repeated crop failure the bank has taken possession of the land and the family now has no way to make a living or even a home. They decide to move to California following a handbill that has promised jobs and fort...more This book was quite a read. It follows a fictional family, the Joads, through some of the darkest days of the depression. The Joads are a family of sharecroppers who have been in Oklahoma for three generations. But now the bank owns the land and due to years of dust storms which caused repeated crop failure the bank has taken possession of the land and the family now has no way to make a living or even a home. They decide to move to California following a handbill that has promised jobs and fortunes to all who come. The only problem is that they are not the only family heading to California. As they arrive in California they are met with extreme poverty and prejudice from the "native" Californians. Labeled "Oakies" and treated as a new generation of serfs, the migrant workers were treated as little more than animals. If you like endings that tie up all the loose strings and leave you with a sense of closure, you are not going to like this book. The ending is very open and you get a sense that you are only seeing a very short window into the family's life.

The main point of the book seemed to me, to be that problems on this scale can not be handled individually, we have to confront them as a society. Whenever the people in the story tried to act individually they were crushed by the powerful. In contrast to this was the experience of the family as they lived in the government camp. The camp was a mini society and despite no presence of "law and order", the camp was neat and orderly. They had their own rules and laws to govern the camp. Also the verses from Ecclesiastes that are quoted by Tom Joad to his mother, “Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up. Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12)

The humanity of the people depicted was very powerful. They were neither made out to be saints nor sinners. What they were shown to be was people. The desire to better their lives, the hope that they strained to maintain even as the world around them strove to crush it, the tenderness and sometimes the sternness of Ma Joad as she dealt with her children and her husband in striving to keep the family together. All this served to show that these people were no different than the people on the other side who sought to demonize and strip the migrants of their humanity.

I feel that this book with its subject and handling of such an issue is relevant today especially considering the debate surrounding the migrant workers of today. We need to consider, no matter which side of the argument we fall on, that these are people, neither saints nor sinners, just people, with hopes and dreams for a better future for themselves and their families. In this they are no different than us. Also this book serves as a warning that the more we strive to crush a particular group of people, the more we separate ourselves from the humanity in which we so often feel superior.(less)

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Jan 13, 2008 Sanfranannie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Sanfranannie by: Deborah Valentine

This book deserves all the praise it's been given.
My mom, a former english teacher, discovered that I hadn't read it and mailed me a copy. Let me say that I'm SO thankful I didn't read it in high school as many have. I can't imagine that I would've appreciated it half as much back then and it's too bad that so many folks have experienced it from that adolescent standpoint (although I do think it should be required reading when learning about the history of the U.S.).

The writing is beautiful &...more

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Jul 05, 2009 Needleroozer rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: kids in elementary school who want to look sophisticated carrying around a big book

Shelves: fiction

I read this book in 5th grade. I am not kidding! My teacher asked if any of us had ever read this book (what in the hell was she thinking?), so I went home and said I wanted to read it.

My parents dutifully took me to Waldenbooks in the Acadiana Mall and bought me a copy. For some reason, the copy they bought me included a lot of critical writing about the novel, so the book was HUGE. It was one fat book. I carried it around like the geek that I was (at least I had given up carrying my schoolbook...more

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Mar 18, 2012 Wesley rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-reading-challenge, solo_favorites

I really let this one soak into today. An absolute fantastic book from any point of view. It doesn’t matter if you connect with this book of or not because if you fully let it engulf you then you are forced to connect. It has nothing to do if you are poor, rich are some badass named Wesley this book is for everyone. It should be read by everyone.

I can honestly say I’d never read this or even had it as an assignment to read in any school. I guess this is uncommon. Maybe majority of teenagers wou...more

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May 17, 2012 Simona Bartolotta rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classici, favorites

Il predicatore sospirò. "(...) Sento il dovere e il bisogno di andare dove va il popolo. Lavorerò la terra, e forse troverò pace."
"E predicare più niente?" domandò Tom.
"Predicare no."
"E battezzare?" domandò la mamma.
"Nemmeno. Vado a lavorare la terra, ho bisogno di sentirmi prossimo ai miei simili. Non voglio insegnare niente, voglio imparare da loro; ascoltare cosa dicono, ascoltarli, quando cantano e quando imprecano e quando fanno all'amore, e sentire la poesia di quel che fanno, e far come l

...more

Il predicatore sospirò. "(...) Sento il dovere e il bisogno di andare dove va il popolo. Lavorerò la terra, e forse troverò pace."
"E predicare più niente?" domandò Tom.
"Predicare no."
"E battezzare?" domandò la mamma.
"Nemmeno. Vado a lavorare la terra, ho bisogno di sentirmi prossimo ai miei simili. Non voglio insegnare niente, voglio imparare da loro; ascoltare cosa dicono, ascoltarli, quando cantano e quando imprecano e quando fanno all'amore, e sentire la poesia di quel che fanno, e far come loro. Perché tutto quel che fanno, e che prima non capivo, tutto quel che fanno è santo."
"Amen", disse la mamma.

I libri sono come le zavorre di una mongolfiera. Ci sono quelli leggeri, con cui volare in alto risulta straordinariamente facile: quelli sono i libri spensierati, che fanno sognare (anche vero, però, che nella buona metà dei casi sono anche quelli 'da una botta e via' che li leggi e poi li sistemi nel dimenticatoio). Ci sono ancora quelli che ti fanno fluttuare a metà fra cielo e terra, i libri moderati, con le giuste dosi di speranza e abbandono, gioia e dolore. Infine abbiamo loro, i macigni. Efficaci. Forti. Drastici. Con loro, la povera mongolfiera volerà così bassa da poter vedere persino le api sui fiori, e dopotutto lo scopo è quello.
I libri come Furore vogliono scavare in fondo. Arrivano, armati di temperino, e ti incidono sul cuore 'ricordati che sono passato di qui'. Sono stati scritti per essere indelebili, per rendere indelebile ciò che è stato, per urlare la loro denuncia.
Furore ci racconta la storia della grande depressione americana attraverso le vicende della famiglia Joad: l'esodo, l'arrivo, la ricerca di lavoro. Ma non sono tanto i loro vagabondaggi a farci capire la tragedia di quegli anni. Quella che colpisce è l'umanità di questi personaggi. Sono talmente veri che non mi stupirei di vederne entrare uno qualsiasi dall porta di casa mia. Mai un loro comportamento che ti faccia pensare "ma figuriamoci se uno fa una cosa del genere", mai un loro pensiero inverosimile, mai una loro parola di troppo. Da questo fattore si instaura l'empatia lettore-personaggio, che non è affatto una cosa da sottovalutare specie con questo libro, perché -almeno così è stato nel mio caso- con i personaggi di Furore l'empatia diventa così forte che infine si riesce ad intuire i sentimenti del personaggio anche se l'autore non li esplicita. Ma dopo aver letto due suoi libri ho capito qual è il punto forte di Steinbeck: lui ti incuriosisce con ciò che dice, ma ti conquista con quello che non dice. I sottintesi, le sofferenze patite in silenzio, i sacrifici taciuti, la rabbia repressa, persino i pericoli evitati.
Arrivata a questo punto mi blocco, e non so più che scrivere. O meglio, so che scrivere ma non so come farlo. Vorrei saper scrivere bene che anche se il romanzo è incentrato sulla famiglia Joad, esso parla del popolo, il popolo che ha fame, freddo, e reclama la sua terra. Perché diciamolo, i libri ci piacciono quando parlano di vita vera, anche se è dura, anche se è difficile e crudele, basta che sia vita. Vorrei poter dire che mi è piaciuto moltissimo anche se mi ha fatto soffrire, anche se mi sono indignata, anzi, sono certa di averlo apprezzato così proprio perché mi sono saputa indignare e ho saputo provare il furore degli Okies. Un furore che non perdona e presto o tardi verrà a galla e farà il bello e il cattivo tempo. ("Io non ho nessuna intenzione di crepare di fame senza ammazzare chi mi assassina.")
Vorrei saper dire questo e moltissime altre cose con uno stile fluido, elegante, poetico, degno insomma di questo libro. Ma purtroppo non sono capace. C'è una sola cosa che posso raccomandarvi.
Leggetelo.(less)

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May 26, 2012 Anne (Booklady) Molinarolo rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: anne-booklady-105-books-in-2012, books-that-have-cobwebs, favorites, great-literary-fiction, permanent-library, spring-2012, classics, coffee-n-books-105-in-2012

After writing Grapes of Wrath Steinbeck said that he was used up. He had spent years researching Grapes, and wrote this magnificent 1940 Pulitzer Prize Fiction Winner in a mere 100 days. He knew his subject well; he lived with the migrate workers and worked with Tom Collins, too. And the subject was so very unpopular and controversial in 1939 when it was published. And it still resonates today in 2012 as well as 1974 – the year I first read Grapes and Of Mice and Men.Many critics have said Grape...more After writing Grapes of Wrath Steinbeck said that he was used up. He had spent years researching Grapes, and wrote this magnificent 1940 Pulitzer Prize Fiction Winner in a mere 100 days. He knew his subject well; he lived with the migrate workers and worked with Tom Collins, too. And the subject was so very unpopular and controversial in 1939 when it was published. And it still resonates today in 2012 as well as 1974 – the year I first read Grapes and Of Mice and Men.Many critics have said Grapes is a Union book. That may be true, but I believe it is so much more than commentary on the plight of migrant workers and of corporate greed that took the land of over 500,000 people. Sharecroppers and small farmers were driven off their land throughout the middle western states because of draught, an inability to pay their bank loans, large land owners, and their modern farming technologies – the wide use of machines plowing in long straight lines, nudging a man’s home from its foundation.

But the women knew that the family’s hearth was the family. And as reflected in Ma Joad, the family must stay intact. Man may take away their farms, control their ability to make a decent wage, but an intact family will live on. True, some members of the Joad family died or ran off in cowardice or in Noah’s case to live as his own person by the stream, catching fish to sustain himself. Theirs was a quiet dignity traveling Route 66, and the rules on that migrant highway were their own: helping those who were poorer than they were, not to pollute the water and the ground they camped upon, and respecting people. Here, Steinbeck shines. The contrast between these poor people and the big bank and landowner, even the Californians, is sharp. No one wants these people whom they all helped displaced in the draught, dust bowl years of the depression. If they questioned anything, the locals would resort to violence to get them moving. If they banded together to try and get a fair, living wage, they were called “Reds,” their campsites were burned, or they were killed. As Tom Joad points out: "They're a-workin' away at our spirits. They're a tryin' to make us cringe an' crawl like a whipped bitch. They tryin' to break us. Why, Jesus Christ, Ma, they comes a time when the on'y way a fella can keep his decency is by takin' a sock at a cop. They're workin' on our decency."

Steinbeck’s point is that decency remains intact, if somewhat battle-scarred. This, as much as the depression and the plight of the "Okies," is a part of American history. When the California of their dreams proves to be less than idyllic, Ma tells Tom: "You got to have patience. Why, Tom--us people will go on livin' when all them people is gone. Why, Tom, we're the people that live. They ain't gonna wipe us out. Why, we're the people--we go on." It's almost as if she's talking about the very novel she inhabits, for Steinbeck's characters do go on. They continue, now as they did in 1939, to illuminate and humanize an era for generations of readers who have no first hand knowledge of widespread homeless, hunger, and joblessness of that Great Depression. The book's final, haunting image of Rose of Sharon - Rosasharn, as the Joad’s oldest daughter is called - forcing the milk intended for her stillborn baby onto a starving stranger, is a lesson on the grandest scale. "'You got to,'" she says, simply. And so do we all.

(less)

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Sep 30, 2012 Vale rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: north-american-literature

Mi sento davvero fortunata, perché ho letto questo libro nell'età giusta per poterlo apprezzare e, soprattutto, nel periodo storico più adatto. Il libro di Steinbeck è ambientato durante la Grande depressione americana e la famiglia Joad è costretta ad una emigrazione interna, verso le fertili terre della California. Le banche hanno requisito tutti i terreni dei poveri contadini e ognuno abbandona la propria casa in cerca di lavoro. Questo sradicamento è capillare perché il viaggio che questi di...more Mi sento davvero fortunata, perché ho letto questo libro nell'età giusta per poterlo apprezzare e, soprattutto, nel periodo storico più adatto. Il libro di Steinbeck è ambientato durante la Grande depressione americana e la famiglia Joad è costretta ad una emigrazione interna, verso le fertili terre della California. Le banche hanno requisito tutti i terreni dei poveri contadini e ognuno abbandona la propria casa in cerca di lavoro. Questo sradicamento è capillare perché il viaggio che questi disperati intraprenderanno li porterà ad abbandonare, pian piano, tutte le loro certezze, anche all'interno del nucleo famigliare. E' una vera e propria disgregazione, una involuzione dall'homo sapiens all'homo abilis, utile solo in quanto "soma da lavoro".
Il racconto di Steinbeck è molto più moderno di quanto si possa pensare perché l'autore non punta il dito contro qualcuno, non cerca dei responsabili, ma introduce già il concetto di "mercato", ossia quell'anima dell'economia che fagocita tutti e verso cui tutti si prostrano come una divinità alla quale tutto è dovuto. Non c'è più il concetto hegeliano di contrapposizione tra servo e signore. Con chi prendersela? Chi è il vero responsabile? Iniziano gli scioperi, avanza il furore:

e le banche e le società si scavano la fossa con le proprie mani, ma non lo sanno. I campi sono fecondi e sulle strade circola l'umanità affamata. Le grandi società non sanno che la linea di demarcazione tra fame e furore è sottile come un capello. E il denaro che potrebbe andare in salari va in gas, in esplosivi, in fucili, in spie, in polizie e in liste nere. Sulle strade la gente formicola in cerca di pane e lavoro, e in seno ad essa serpeggia il furore, e fermenta

ma è un furore cieco perché manca l'obiettivo, perché si lavora a giornata e si vive a giornata: senza mete, senza un'idea di futuro. E' la fine, come dice il filosofo Galimberti, del tempo escatologico finalizzato ad uno scopo. Questo è il tempo del precariato: oggi mangio, oggi vivo. Domani? Si vedrà.
Resta, però, la speranza che vive nei rapporti umani, perché, ci fa comprendere Steinbeck, sono proprio i poveri i più prodighi di pietas e compassione umana.
Il finale poi, è un capolavoro, con un chiaro richiamo alla vicenda di Cimone e di sua figlia Pero. (less)

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Jan 29, 2012 Chiara Pagliochini rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classici-americani

Non sarebbe mai venuta la fine finché la paura si fosse tramutata in furore.

Se vi dicono che Furore è un libro sulla Grande Depressione Americana, credeteci, ma non del tutto. Siamo dopo il tracollo finanziario del ’29, storico giovedì nero. Ci sono il Presidente Roosevelt e la sua politica per risollevare gli USA dal tracollo, il celebre New Deal. E c’è nel vostro libro di storia un minuscolo paragrafo che dice così: “la riduzione della produzione agricola prevista dall’Agricultural Adjustement...more

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Oct 14, 2007 Hillary Straub rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: High school and up

Hillary Straub

Ms. Kuhn

English 3

15 October 2007

Timeline:

1. The main character, Tom Joad, is released from the McAlester State Penitentiary, where he served four years on a manslaughter conviction.

2. On his way home, Joad runs into Jim Casy, the old preacher. They talk for a while and then both head for the Joad farm. When they get there they find it deserted.

3. The Joad family moved in with Tom's uncle John because the family was unable to make a profit off of the farm

4. The entire family has go...more

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Jul 18, 2008 Emily rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: i-own-it, historical-fiction, the-classics, they-made-a-movie, what-i-read-in-2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Once again, I've fallen into the line of classics, what right do I have to criticize?? But I press on, given that this book was a hell of a lot longer than Of Mice and Men, so I should probably say something.

So I just returned from a two week long road trip. We went from Seattle to Lexington, KY to Smithville TN, to Elmhurst, IL and back to Seattle. Via Yellowstone, Nebraska, and Mt Rushmore of course. Anyway ... in preparation for the trip, I took FOUR books. I only got through one, and I didn'...more

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Sep 07, 2007 Michelle rated it 4 of 5 stars

I find myself hesitant to give a rating to this book because my opinion on it has changed so much. My first encounter with this book was in high school. I remember being aware that I was reading a "classic" and recognizing the beauty of Steinbeck's use of language; however, I could not bring myself to get past how boring it all seemed. Intermixed with the story of the Joad family there are many lengthy descriptions of the land, the view from the road and animals. To a 16-yr old, these seemed to...more

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Apr 15, 2009 K.D. Oliveros rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-core, 501, pulitzer, nobel

A well-written classic novel! I could not put it down. People in 3rd world countries would always think that American is the land of milk and honey. This book opened my eyes that sometime in 1930's US of A had that depression that drove the people to famine. The Joads family really inspired me that no matter how difficult life becomes (with the on-going global depression), there will always be a better life waiting for all of us!

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May 30, 2011 Teresa rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book probably deserves 5 stars. It could also rate the encomium of the (so-called) Great American Novel. But I'm giving it 4, because (in a nutshell) I just didn't like it as much as East of Eden.

And while I admired the lyrical chapters that were interspersed between the actual story of the Joad family, sometimes I felt they were a bit too heavy-handed, or superfluous, even interrupting the flow of the narrative -- with exceptions, of course. I understand that these chapters elevate the sto...more This book probably deserves 5 stars. It could also rate the encomium of the (so-called) Great American Novel. But I'm giving it 4, because (in a nutshell) I just didn't like it as much as East of Eden.

And while I admired the lyrical chapters that were interspersed between the actual story of the Joad family, sometimes I felt they were a bit too heavy-handed, or superfluous, even interrupting the flow of the narrative -- with exceptions, of course. I understand that these chapters elevate the story to a 'more' universal level, but I think a straight narrative of the Joad family would've done the same thing, as the Joads are a microcosm of the rest of the migrants. Each member of the family (and each person's hardship and fate) stands for many more.

But the writing in those 'extra' chapters is pure Steinbeck, and the above is not a criticism, but more of a personal preference. In many ways, Steinbeck is like Dickens (a favorite of mine), who is also accused of what I just said of Steinbeck, and who also has a focus on and outrage at social inequalities. Perhaps they are especially alike in that in their so-called 'faults' lies their greatness.

I may not have even brought Dickens into this review, except that at a family party the other day I told my brother who never misses an opportunity to make fun of Dickens to me that I was reading this novel, and though he's never read it, he said: "It's just like Dickens: Please, sir, may I have some more ... dust!" His comparison got me thinking though, and I was reminded of Bleak House, with its social issues and the description of the fog that represents more than can be said with just the straight narrative. One big difference between the two authors, though, is that Steinbeck doesn't tie up all the loose ends -- and I always like that better!

On a superfluous note of my own, I wondered if Casy, the preacher who is not a preacher, might've been a stand-in for the author, at least early on. Some of the 'extra' chapters have the cadence and tone of a preacher, though the 'text' is not that of one.(less)

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Mar 02, 2009 Barbara rated it 5 of 5 stars

I still can't believe I didn't read Grapes of Wrath in American Lit but suspect I enjoyed it more at 52 than 19! I was drawn into this story immediately and especially liked the book's descriptive language, structure, and memorable characters. Casey, the reluctant, questioning preacher was my favorite. I admired the Joads' dignity, perseverance despite all odds, and willingness to share with others equally unfortunate. I was struck by how Steinbeck makes you feel like you're on that journey with...more

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Sep 23, 2010 Mike W rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

Steinbeck's work offers a lovely and vivid account of a family forced by dust storms and poverty to move West during the Great Depression. At times Steinbeck's story-telling is superb. Indeed, when the main narrative is progressing the book is about as good as any novel I have read. The story is marred, however, by tediously didactic passages in which Steinbeck offers moral sermons rather than a good story.

It might be okay--or even praiseworthy--for a novel to be didactic if what it is teaching...more

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About John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck III was an American writer. He wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath, published in 1939 and the novella Of Mice and Men, published in 1937. In all, he wrote twenty-five books, including sixteen novels, six non-fiction books and several collections of short stories.

In 1962 Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Steinbeck grew up in the Salinas Valley...more John Steinbeck III was an American writer. He wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath, published in 1939 and the novella Of Mice and Men, published in 1937. In all, he wrote twenty-five books, including sixteen novels, six non-fiction books and several collections of short stories.

In 1962 Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Steinbeck grew up in the Salinas Valley region of California, a culturally diverse place of rich migratory and immigrant history. This upbringing imparted a regionalistic flavor to his writing, giving many of his works a distinct sense of place.

Steinbeck moved briefly to New York City, but soon returned home to California to begin his career as a writer. Most of his earlier work dealt with subjects familiar to him from his formative years. An exception was his first novel Cup of Gold which concerns the pirate Henry Morgan, whose adventures had captured Steinbeck's imagination as a child.

In his subsequent novels, Steinbeck found a more authentic voice by drawing upon direct memories of his life in California. Later he used real historical conditions and events in the first half of 20th century America, which he had experienced first-hand as a reporter.

Steinbeck often populated his stories with struggling characters; his works examined the lives of the working class and migrant workers during the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. His later body of work reflected his wide range of interests, including marine biology, politics, religion, history, and mythology.

One of his last published works was Travels with Charley, a travelogue of a road trip he took in 1960 to rediscover America. He died in 1968 in New York of a heart attack and his ashes are interred in Salinas.

Seventeen of his works, including The Grapes of Wrath (1940), Cannery Row (1945), The Pearl (1947), and East of Eden (1952), went on to become Hollywood films, and Steinbeck also achieved success as a Hollywood writer, receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Story in 1944 for Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat.(less)

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“There ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue. There's just stuff people do.” — 1,848 people liked it

“And the little screaming fact that sounds through all history: repression works only to strengthen and knit the repressed.” — 1,201 people liked it

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