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Title: The Grapes of Wrath: John Steinbeck Centennial Edition (1902-2002) by John Steinbeck ISBN: 0-14-200066-3 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 03 January, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.3 (451 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Gorgeous....
Comment: "The Grapes of Wrath" is at times painfully beautiful. John Steinbeck's skills as a writer are amazingly displayed throughout, and what most struck me about this novel is the way he can transition from one chapter that delves so fearlessly into the inner psyches of his characters to another that looks at the time period and events unfolding with an almost documentary-like detachment.
I can see how this book can turn off some. I must admit that the first time I started it, I didn't get past the first 100 pages or so. But something about it kept nagging at me to finish, and by the end of that particular summer, I had. Then I re-read it a few years later, and couldn't put it down. What keeps it so readable, at least for me, is the pure respect and dignity with which Steinbeck treats his characters. These are decent, hard-working people trying to make the most that they can out of a desperate situation, and the book is never condescending.
"The Grapes of Wrath" is filled with such humanity that it very nearly brings one to tears at several points---yet it's never maudlin. A scene involving a diner waitress offering free candy to two poverty-stricken children could be saccharine in any other hands, but here it's a wonderful instance of one human reaching out to another. And in a world like the one portrayed here, where retaining even the barest vestiges of human dignity becomes a struggle, scenes like the one above take on immense proportions.
It's a shame that to many this book represents drudgery. For me it was actually intensely readable, to the point that I didn't want to stop, and the ending took my breath away. Again, it could have been hammy and heavy-handed, but it wasn't. Not with Steinbeck behind the scenes.
Rating: 4
Summary: Remarkable.
Comment: I always hesitate before attempting to write a critical review of a classic novel, particularly one as monumental as "The Grapes of Wrath." So let me start this out by saying, YES, the book is a well-deserved classic, and YES, I would recommend that each and every person go out and get a copy. As many other reviewers have pointed out, this novel has an uncanny ability to affect its readers, to make them re-evaluate the nature of compassion, fortitude, and human dignity. Much of this is due to Steinbeck's brilliant structuring of the novel, as he alternates the chapters dealing with the direct struggles of the Joad family with more elaborate "big-picture" depictions of the migrant movement in general.
That being said, however, "The Grapes of Wrath" can be an extremely frustrating reading experience for an unprepared reader. Its sheer length (around 600 pages) can be initially daunting, and the copious amounts of dialogue (all written in dialect) take some time to get used to. "Grapes" can even be difficult for Steinbeck fans because it is in many ways rather an anomaly in his canon. Though the story of the Joads is compelling, there is evidence that Steinbeck was somewhat uncomfortable with these parts of the novel: Characters introduced in the beginning simply disappear halfway through, contributing little to the overall story, and in general the characterization is weaker here than it is in other novels like "Of Mice And Men," curious considering that "Mice" is about one-fifth the size of "Grapes." There is repetitiveness in the dialogue and the trials faced by the Joads, and the novel's pacing likewise suffers.
In my opinion, the "Big picture" chapters are better written than the Joad chapters--on the whole more interesting, more powerful, and certainly more complex (as Steinbeck switches back and forth with his narrative voice and point of view). Chapter 25, in which the novel's title (taken from the Battle Hymn of the Republic) appears is probably the finest of the novel. Moreover, in spite of some weaknesses in pacing and plot, the story of the Joads personal hardships contain several scenes which are infused with a similar ability to produce a devestating and uplifting feeling in the reader. The novel's final scene with Rosasharn is positively brilliant in its conception and execution.
I've tried to be fair and honest in this review, and I hope my comments will help you to enjoy "Grapes" without frustration. It is a remarkable novel.
Rating: 3
Summary: Steinbecks Jouneys
Comment: "The Grapes of Wrath" is a powerful indictment of the oppression endured by the migrant families of the American mid-west during the depression years of the 1930's. The mid-west had suffered severe drought. "Dusters" swept across the farmland, skimming off the topsoil, leaving behind a dustbowl, only a few sprigs of wheat surviving. The tenant farms were foreclosed and the families tractored off the land in a ruthless drive to maximise profit. Circe 250,000 migrants, "refugees from the dust", pulled up stakes and headed west on route 66, the road of flight to California, golden land of dreams and opportunity, drawn by the picking work, harvesting oranges and peaches. The flowing in of rootless migrant workers centred on the San Joachin valley, California, and the huge farms there. The overwhelming glut of migrants flooding through the valley swamped the harvesting work available, driving down wages to peanuts level as they desperately scrabbled "to pull, to pick, to cut - anything, any burden to bear, for food".
This is the destiny that fate held in store for the Joad family in "The Grapes of Wrath". Forced off their farm, truck piled high with their belongings, the Joads set forth on a journey 2000 miles haul from Sallislaw in Oklahoma through the western desert states of Arizona and New Mexico and onto the San Joachin valley. The gut-wrenching story of the Joads heroic journey is interspersed with short "relief" chapters on aspects of their route 66 experience, the tricks of used-car salesmen or a snapshot of life in a truck-stop diner, to cite only a couple examples; other chapters function as social on, for example, the stomach turning practice of spraying mountains of oranges with kerosene or dumping potatoes in the river under armed guard to protect market prices, at a time when hundreds of thousands of migrants were literally starving. This structure enables Steinbeck at once to follow closely the fortunes of the Joads and cast a wider eye over what is happening in society during the depression years.
However, Steinbeck's narrative, in my view, is at its most powerful and compelling on the road,the Joads suffering and misfortune trucking along the endless narrow concrete miles to Bakersfield, California, revealing qualities of guts and resilience in their desperate struggle for survival in the face of death, starvation, hostility, exploitation and harassment. Steinbeck's powerful voice shows the migrants during the hard times of the 1930's depression years, the hardship and oppression endured by thousands upon thousands of families like the Joads, will resonate for generations to come. It is a voice that packs alot to say!
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Title: Of Mice and Men (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century) by John Steinbeck ISBN: 0140177396 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 September, 1993 List Price(USD): $8.00 |
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Title: The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger ISBN: 0316769487 Publisher: Little, Brown Pub. Date: 01 May, 1991 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald ISBN: 0684801523 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 01 June, 1995 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee ISBN: 0446310786 Publisher: Little Brown & Company Pub. Date: 11 October, 1988 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: East of Eden (Oprah's Book Club) by John Steinbeck ISBN: 0142004235 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 18 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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