Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #659143 in Books
• Published on: 2002-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

Customer Reviews

Some may struggle to finish, it�s worth it though.
I was seriously contemplating 5 stars for this book, but then as I got toward the end of it I was reminded how tough a book this can be to read at times. I don't mean it's full of difficult long words, or that the paragraph structure is such that the reader becomes dazed and confused. What I mean is that the subject matter can really grind you down, but that is what makes the book so impressive.

The Grapes of Wrath follows a migrant farm working family from the 1930's who, during the great depression, are forced to leave their home and their livelihood to seek a future in California. This in essence is the thread of the story but what the Grapes of Wrath does is it branches off to give a number of sub-stories which really give the reader a sense of what life was like for these migrant workers.

The book in interspliced with a number social commentaries on this time, which show how badly these people were thought of, and also shows how normal "god fearing" people can turn on their own people, scared that these outsiders will ruin their way of life. These moments though do not constitute the whole book and there are a variety of other stories (purely fictional) around the family and how they bond together, yet break apart as the journey slowly wears them down.

The greatness of the book is the timelessness of it. Steinbeck shows how people will turn on each other with the right provocation. In Grapes of Wrath it's the wealthy Californians, we can see this mimicked to a point in peoples attitudes to modern day asylum seekers. People fear what they don't understand and what they are scared of they attack.

A brilliantly written book but really does need perseverance.

Okie-Dokie
The Grapes of Wrath had been staring at me for seven years from my bookshelf before I finally got around to reading it. I have to say it was complete madness to wait so long. I’ve always appreciated Steinbeck, but even by his standards this book is phenomenal.

The first few pages introduce the stream of conscious narrative to weaves through the book sandwiching the story of the Joad family’s move to California in search of work. The Joad family are naïve, sometimes simple but resolute and tough. They need to be, as the book charts the downward spiral of the Joad family from land-owning farmers to destitute migrants.

Migration is a central theme to this book and is as vital now to this day considering asylum seekers. Steinbeck lifts the lid on the human soul and tries to explain (but not excuse) why minor differences in people so often lead to hatred. Xenophobia is rife in California, even amongst the immigrant workers.

Tom Joad is the strongest character in the book and I dare anybody not to like him. His temper is little suspect, but he refuses to let the injustices of employers and law continue. People starved in California whilst crops rotted in fields because it was not economical to pick them - in fact guards were employed to stop people stealing the decaying fruit.

No matter how hard the Joad family are ground down you can’t help but end up admiring them. Even if their denial is dogmatic at times, their hope for a better life helps sustain them.

Please don’t make the mistake and leave this book aside for seven years like I did. Now you know of its existence, you can’t deny you’re at least a little intrigued…

every once in a while.........
..you read something which simply grabs hold of you and will not let you go. It is 3 months since I finished this book and it can only be described as truly an epic. Steinbeck's ambition is immense - the landscapes and horizons for the Joad family's fateful journey are vast and daunting.
Overall the story broke my heart - to think that such injustices and hardship prevailed for such numbers of people only 70-80years ago was astonishing. So much for "land of the free"!
I cried at the denouement - having wondered how it could end. Realising that there could naturally be no thought of a happy ending, I was genuinely shocked by what happened in the final pages, even though I feltI was beyond shock given the horrors I had already witnessed during the Joad's dignified but incessant decline.
Take some time and treat yourself to a true literary masterpiece. I feel genuinely rewarded having read this and it has opened my eyes to social injustice in America that Ic ould never have understood from a history book. I hope it has such an impact on you as well.