Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

Labelled with the honourable title The Great American Novel, The Grapes of Wrath, written in 1939 by John Steinbeck was considered by critics as one of the best American novels of all time. The Grapes Of Wrath takes us into the complicated lives of a black sharecroppers family. There struggles, not only as black in a time of the Great Depression but also as people suffering from the sweeping poverty of 1930. Grapes of Wrath will have you captivated and emotional at its conclusion. What better way for John Steinbeck to carve the connotations of depression and anxiety than a focus that reaps all of that. Forced by the whimpering situations in America's ...  Read the complete review

John Steinbeck was born a century ago today, on February 27th, 1902, at 132 Central Avenue, Salinas, California. (Sorry, I don't know the zip code.) The Grapes of Wrath was originally published on March 14th, 1939. Steinbeck's first wife Carol (he married three times) typed out the 200,000 word manuscript, and also came up with the title. It went on to become the best-selling book in America that year, and won a Pulitzer Prize in 1940. It has since sold over fourteen million copies worldwide, and Steinbeck received the ultimate accolade - the Nobel Prize for Literature - in 1962. Although when asked if he felt he deserved it, his reply was: ...  Read the complete review

The best tragedies don't make you cry - they are far too great to resort to cheap heart-string tugging in order to reach their audience. The same is true of the Grapes of Wrath - the trials and disasters faced by the Joad family as they make their way West in search of prosperity and security are enough to bring anbody down. But, like his characters, Steinbeck doesn't want you to wallow in it - you will find your hopes raised with theirs at the sight of a new town on the horizon, at a leaflet promising paid employment only a couple of miles away. Will their quest be in vain? Will this run of luck last? Like the family in its travels, you too will be living ...  Read the complete review

This famous book appears notable for its portrayal of American history but upon reading I found it set for a long-lasting place in my own memory through the portrayal of the family we follow through the book. Steinbeck is just so deft at dialogue and realism that when he writes and arranges his fiction, the detail and power shine through in condensed, gripping senses of reality that he is fully in control of... And this control comes down on the subtle tendency to oppression that will emerge in poorly organised occurrences of history such as the migration of workers to California. We are given a grass roots view that is broken by chapters of hind-sight. ...  Read the complete review

Its difficult to contain yourself when writing about Grapes of Wrath. It is a classic. Its subject matter should be depressing, the players in the drama should be suicidal, you should want to give up reading it and leave it; but you won't. Every human emotion is tested, stripped and laid bare. The good the bad and the ugly of the human race is there for all to see. Greedy landowners driving down the pay of the workers while pushing up the prices in their own factory shops, mothers letting other folks kids lick their cooking spoon because they are so hungry, proud folks who pretend everything is OK, or going to be. In Grapes of Wrath the grass is ...  Read the complete review