The Grapes of Wrath in Retro Chapter Chicks

Jun 01, 2013 Book Concierge rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

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Audio book performed by Dylan Baker

When we first meet Tom Joad he has been walking for miles in his new shoes and clothes that don’t quite fit. Tom has been released on parole and is headed to his family’s home – they sharecrop 40 acres. But the family is no longer there and their home has been pushed off its foundation by a tractor. He finally finds them at his Uncle John’s place … about to pack-up and head for California. This is the Oklahoma Dust Bowl during the Great Depression and there is Audio book performed by Dylan Baker

When we first meet Tom Joad he has been walking for miles in his new shoes and clothes that don’t quite fit. Tom has been released on parole and is headed to his family’s home – they sharecrop 40 acres. But the family is no longer there and their home has been pushed off its foundation by a tractor. He finally finds them at his Uncle John’s place … about to pack-up and head for California. This is the Oklahoma Dust Bowl during the Great Depression and there is no living to be made if they stay put. The Joads – Granma, Grampa, Uncle John, Ma, Pa, Noah, Tom, Al, Rose of Sharon, Ruthie and Winfield - along with Rose’s husband, Connie, and their former preacher Jim Casy all set out together towards the promised land.

Steinbeck tells the story of the Great Depression by alternating chapters that focus on the Joad’s journey across America with chapters that are best described as essays chronicling the changing face of the country and the forces that contributed to those changes. In these essays the very landscape becomes a character, as does the economy. The fear, worry, weariness, despair, and outrage are palpable.

I had expected – and got – most of the story to come from Tom’s actions and interactions. However, as the novel drew to a close I came to realize that the central figure here is really Ma. Regardless of what happens, always there is Ma, standing firm in her convictions, leading her family. I should not have been surprised; this is how Steinbeck introduces Ma:
Her hazel eyes seemed to have experienced all possible tragedy and to have mounted pain and suffering like steps into a high calm and a superhuman understanding. She seemed to know, to accept, to welcome her position, the citadel of the family, the strong place that could not be taken. … She seemed to know that if she swayed the family shook, and if she ever really deeply wavered or despaired the family would fall, the family will to function would be gone. (pg 74, Steinbeck Centennial Edition, Penguin Books)

This work affected me deeply. I could not help but think about my family’s history during this time frame. From their little Texas town on the Rio Grande, my grandfather took my uncles and my father, along with a few other men up to Montana each year to sheer sheep. Other uncles, aunts and cousins traveled to the orchards of the upper Midwest – Wisconsin and Michigan – picking cherries or apples. Still others made their way to California where they worked the fields in the Salinas valley. How I wish my father was still alive so I could talk to him about this book and how his experiences paralleled the story. But I have a feeling he would shrug and say something like, “You do what you have to do.” Then he would probably tell me a funny or endearing story of some family episode and we would be smiling at the warm memories.

Dylan Baker does a very good job of narrating the audio version. He has a wide repertoire of voices to use for the large cast of characters, though he was definitely channeling the young Henry Fonda for Tom Joad’s voice.
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