I'm about 100 pages into The Grapes of Wrath. I don't know what makes me like this book so much, but for some reason I do. One thing for sure is that the dialogue is the best I've ever read. The characters actually possess, well, character. The accents are slang are only an addition to the already realistic and detailed conversation. Tom Joad is about as a realistic figure as you would've been able to find in the Dust Bowl of the '30's I would imagine, and being able to bring alive such a character is a tribute to John Steinbeck's writing ability. So far Tom has came home from McCallister, what seems to be a prison that he went to for murder, and has found that his family has been forced out of their home to move in with his Uncle John. He has met up with a couple old friends he had known as more authoritative figures growing up, but it seems that now that he is out of prison, his elders are treating him as more of an adult. I am at the point in the book where he had found his house abandoned, learned from one of the friends that his family is with his Uncle John, and has began the 8 mile trek there. There are also some very what seem to be random chapters. I have no clue what a jalopy is yet...?