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Summary: He is Just The Best
Review: This is the reason many people feel he is one of the best American authors of all time. This book is fantastic, there are no other ways around it. This is probably one of the best books he has put out in my opinion. The story is really good and it is really engrossing. The characters come to life and stay with you almost like old friends. He is such a good author that he describes the environment with such skill that you see everything. Once you start you will not want to stop.
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Summary: The Grapes Of Wrath
Review: A beautiful story and history. Steinbeck writes the classic american tragity with Tom Joad as the tragic hero. Steinbeck captures the hard life of the dust-bowl migrants and his sparse writing style is refreshing and very enjoyable! I love this novel and consider it one of the best books I have ever read
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Summary: Greatest Fiction Book ever
Review: I will never forget how this book captivated me in so many ways. An American classic that will stand the test of time. I got the pleasure of being assigned this book in 10th grade as part of literature class. I was forever changed by this book, and helped fuel me to read more challenging books.John Steinbeck helped me to realize the poverty, the trangressions, and some hope of the Depression. It helped put me in focus with the pride problems that the family had during the collapse of an entire society during America's most trying times. It is well written and very captivating. It had me in tears more than once. It also reads much like The Bible at times, in its prose and style. It catalogs a family's journey from farmers to migrant workers that is easily readable and a classic that helped define a generation. A great book- and a must have.
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Summary: Love Steinbeck's work, but not so much this.
Review: I personally have read a majority of John Steinbeck's works, and I've found that the more popular the piece happens to be, the worse the piece is. The Grapes of Wrath is certainly no exception to this. The characters in the novel tend to be rather unamusing compared to some of Steinbeck's others, and they very often do things without any sort of reason. The plot is rather bland as well, with the action mostly repetitive through the majority of the novel. The novel also includes many irrelevant scenes that does not pertain to the story or its characters itself. The reason for this is mainly that Steinbeck designed this novel to be more of an illustration of the Great Depression than a story. To be fair, though, as a depiction of the Depression, this novel is great, showing all of those scenes which are unrelated to the characters that illustrate other aspects of the Depression that they do not encounter. If you are looking for a novel that will give you some of the attitudes of tenant farmers and others during the Depression, then this is certainly your book. However, if you happen to be more like myself, simply looking for an interesting story, you would be better advised to look elsewhere. Perhaps one of Steinbeck's lesser known works, like Cannery Row, Tortilla Flat, or East of Eden, which are all wonderful novels, even though they are often overlooked.
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Summary: Still the best
Review: Some books are better read, and some are better heard. The poetry of Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath takes on even greater depth with the Okie dialect of Dylan Baker. This is probably the greatest American novel of the last century. Despite the condescending attitude of academics, this book lets us all in on our own history. Steinbeck doesn't tell us who we are, he shows us who we are by showing us what we have been. As Samuel Clemens dug up our essence in the disease of slavery, Steinbeck confronts us with the violence of our economic system. Also like Clemens, he shows how religion tends to compound injustices. But what makes this a truly great novel is that all this understanding of the world and how it works is communicated by the lives of characters so real and complex that they have become part of our personal history. We experience the depths of our own emotions and capacity to love. The final scene is perhaps the most powerful depiction of human love in all of literature.
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Summary: Critique of The Grapes Wrath by John Steinbeck
Review: In John Steinbeck's fictional classic, The Grapes of Wrath, readers get aboard the Joad family's jalopy and venture through the southwestern part of America during the 1930s Dust Bowl. Through Steinbeck's intense descriptions and meticulous detail, his characters pop out of the book, and become alive in the reader's imagination. Due to these dynamic figures, readers begin to feel their emotions, experience their struggles, and share in their happiness. Although the tone underlines a grueling expedition, one filled with hardships, losses, and failures, readers still recognize that tremendous bond and overwhelming love within a family can prevail over all. Steinbeck's use of setting is critical in the book. The setting adds to the impact of suffering experienced by the characters and sets the dismal tone for the novel.
The characters are so extensively described that a perfect portrait of each member of the journey is painted into the readers mind. Physically and emotionally we know who they are: laugh when they laugh, cry when they cry. The book sends a powerful message of everlasting love which is identified with all readers. The dry, dusty, hot, and painstaking setting is influential in the family's drive. The luscious, green, moist land of California lures the readers in for an unreachable dream, and symbolizes a life that the Joad's can never have.
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Summary: Immoral Preachers
Review: Although Steinbeck is an accomplished writer I can't stand many of his books. The Grapes of Wrath might of had a powerful message but there were many things about it I didn't like. I have often heard The Grapes of Wrath called an analogy with Christ's life and the preacher portrayed as Christ. I think this is a ludacris analogy because the preacher was an immoral hypocrite. The sexual content and such took away the power of the message that Steinbeck was attempting to convey to his readers. So while The Grapes of Wrath is considered a classic I would personally choose to never pick it up again.
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Summary: The Grapes of Wrath
Review: The Grapes of Wrath was I great book in my opinion. It's the story of Tom Joad, out of prison and finds that his family is moving because they will push their house over because they cant afford it. Tom meets a former preacher Jim Casy and finds his parents. They head over to California picking up the Wilsons. This book showed me the Depression better than any history book could. I like the message it sent. I lke the former preacher's message of we can only believe in each other. And of course you probably know the famous speech from Tom Joad (...I'll be there"). It was great, I read it during winter break of 2001-2002 in a week. Not at all boring in my opinion.
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Summary: Dylan Baker read this book to me and I loved it!
Review: I mostly read Stephen King, Dean Koontz and true crime but when I worked at Talking Book World I decided to listen to a classic. Dylan Baker read this book on tape and I fell in love with it. Baker took an excellent book that deserves it place on Classics shelf and brought it to life. It is a wonderful book that will take you back to it's time and make you thankful for all that you have. Read this book or even better, let Dylan Baker read it to you.
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Summary: Wonderful book
Review: I hate to say this but it's been so long since I've read this book that I don't remember much of it. What I do remember is that I really loved it when I did read it and whenever I see it on the bookshelf I get all warm and fuzzy inside.
I'm going to read this book again and hope that with age and experience I will see more deeply into Steinbeck's words.
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