The Grapes of Wrath

Rating:
Summary: Great Writing
Review: While I do not share John Steinbeck's view of the world (politics), I do think he is an excellent writer. I don't see how anyone can not be drawn to the characters in this book. The ability of Steinbeck to paint a picture with words is almost unmatched. I think this book is a must-read, a must-read indeed!

Rating:
Summary: Gripping. Intense. Powerful.
Review: "The Grapes of Wrath" was the one great novel Steinbeck was born to write. Of the authors 17 books I dear say this must be the best one. The novel won Steinbeck the Pulitzer Prize in 1940, and it was "a cornerstone" of his 1962 Nobel Prize award.

From the first page I fell in love with Steinbeck's way of writing, his humble and delicate language. Published in 1939, "The Grapes of Wrath" is the story of the 250 000 American migrants who pulled up, and headed west on Route 66 - to California.

Through the book we follow one of the families that headed west, The Joad family. We enter the story as Tom Joad, one of the children in the family, gets out of jail. He comes home, finding his family suffering from the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. Tormented and forced to leave their land, the Joad's strap as many of their belongings as they can to their truck. With the truck piled high they hit the road for their journey to promise land - to California.

The Joad's believe that leaving Oklahoma for California is the answer to all their troubles. California will be abundant with opportunities - work for everyone, plenty of food, oranges and peaches on every tree. Pa even has a leaflet saying they need thousands of men on the farms. Reality will soon catch up with them. The journey to California turns out to be everything but easy. They experience all sorts of hardship; loss of family members, trouble with the truck, harassment by the police and locals. When the Joad's finally make it to California, their troubles and suffering are rewarded not by work, plenty of food, and oranges on every tree, but with even more troubles. While moving around, following the different picking seasons chasing for work, the family is enduring such poor living conditions. They are living in squatter camps, government camps, and in the end shacks in labour camps.

The characters in "The Grapes of Wrath" are all very well developed. They are so vivid and one cannot help but to care deeply for them all. Several of the characters have left a lasting impression; Tom Joad, Grandpa, the courageous ex-preacher, and above all Ma Joad. She is a loveable, courageous, strong woman and I admire her spirit, dignity and her determination as she struggles to keep her family together. Even facing so much testing and hardship, she still keeps perspective and hope.

An experiment that works well in this novel is the "in-between" chapters. Short stories with reflections and background about the Great Depression; how a used-car dealer take advantage of his desperate customers or how farmers sprayed oranges with kerosene and threw potatoes in the river to keep market prices up while hundreds of thousands of people was starving, as well as other small stories, true literary treasures such as the first "in-between" chapter about the turtle.

"The Grapes of Wrath" is written in a most memorable way. The book is no less than a landmark in American history and it is one of the absolute greatest and most significant novels of the last century. This book deserves every bit of praise and reward that it has received. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: My favorite book
Review: My favorite book. Simple. I love this book. I was not someone who was forced to read it (although we did do Catcher in the Rye for English, and I loved it still) and all the can say is "ThiZ book sux!11!1" Steinbeck is a master storyteller. He is not a master of the language as say, Dickens, but that is why he is so brilliant. I feel like I'm right there with the Joads. I've read this book three times in a year, and I always love it. Steinbeck's writing is so simple, you feel like you are listening to your grandpa tell a story. His initial description of Grandpa is hilarious! I love how he changes back and forth between the Joads and the scenes of the other migrant farmers. Two scenes really stick out in my mind. The car dealer and the trucker diner. Steinbeck's style makes you feel like you're in the diner right next to Al.
Steinbeck's characters are simple, static,and one dimensional, but this works for this book. They are simple people, and help Steinbecks universal message of oppression.
If you want to start reading great books, start here.

Rating:
Summary: incredible
Review: great book about a family's tough journey..you won't be able to put it down. 5 stars!

Rating:
Summary: Great Chronicle of the Times
Review: Steinbeck is the best American writer of his time. His power of observation is amazingly acute. Recommended reading for anyone interested in understanding the depression era.

Rating:
Summary: Read It!
Review: The Grapes of Wrath, written in 1939 by John Steinbeck (1902-1968), is considered by many literary critics to be the greatest of all American novels. This is a book about the Great Depression, and one poor sharecropper family's struggle to survive the worst deprivations that American society in the 1930's had to offer. Indeed, in my view, perhaps no American work of fiction fits the label of 'The Great American Novel' better than Steinbeck's wonderfully written and still highly controversial masterpiece of fiction. The story is both gripping and well told. Set in the 1930's, in America's 'Dust Bowl,' it is the tale of the Joad family, a large clan of poor Oklahoma sharecroppers, and how they are forced into a decision to migrate to California. It's also the story of the many trials and sufferings that they endure during their long and harrowing journey. It is truly a masterpiece -- a book I strongly recommend. Also recommended: [e-mail] by Tom Grimes, The Losers' Club by Richard Perez

Rating:
Summary: So much more than a classic
Review: I have always hated the so called 'classics' but then i started reading this and i just couldn't stop. I feel it is an amazing book. Even if you have no previous knowledge of the context or even any interest in the time period it is still brilliant in its portryal of humanity and the human will for survival. It is not simply a novel that was great it is a novel that is great and will continue to be great for a long time to come. The language is a bit hard to get into at first but after about the first chapter it becomes so much a part of the experience....i even found my self thinking and speaking using the language of the novel. I higly recommend this to every one especially those who have a vengeful hate of classics like i do.

Rating:
Summary: Is the ending pathetic or empathetic? Hopeless or hopeful?
Review: John Steinbeck had a gift for capturing the American spirit...both those who have and those who have not...but when you read his words you have to wonder if those who have really do 'have' anything worth capturing. At the end of 'The Grapes of Wrath' I was expecting to find a happy ending...and then I thought I didn't.......but then after I thought about the ending I thought about the lengths that some people will go to to help their fellow Americans and that all bad things that happen to us happen for some divine purpose...

This is a true novel about surviving...and yet not putting yourself first. About surviving through helping others. This is a novel because not too many people look to the good even in the bad....

well I can't say no more so just read it....

Rating:
Summary: A True Classic
Review: Not as good as East of Eden but way better than most books. The Joad family epitomized the wave of mid-westerners that were exploited during the dustbowl years by large farm owners. You feel for them and hang on their every hope and feel their agony as they are used by shysters, on the way to losing everything they have. The tale is so gripping and heart-wrenching! Another example of why Steinbeck is my favorite American writer!

Rating:
Summary: An unbiased student's review
Review: It seems to me that whenever I come across a reveiw on this website titled "An honest student's reveiw" or something along those lines, the sentances "This book was so boring","I was forced to read it" and "I can't beleive this is considered a classic" always pop up, with "If I could give this zero stars I would" always present at the end of the reveiw. I, however, although a student and "forced" to read this book, beleive this novel, by John Steinbeck, to be a true classic of American literature. There are many other reviews below that give a far more indepth plot summary, so I will keep that portion of the reveiw succinct. The Joad family, suffering from the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression, strap as many of their possesions as they can to their car and head west to the purported paradise of California. However, they find their paradise to be little more than a dystopia, run by the few plutocrats who have managed to stay afloat in the depression by standing on the shoulders of those below them. Steinbeck is nothing short of a master here, splicing "intercalaries" of heartbreaking human suffering into the Joad's comparable tale of woe and misery. This juxtaposition shows the extent of which the poverty and despair has blighted half a nation of farmers.
Anyone who wishes to truly understand the human condition, its depths and its misery, should read this book. However, it should be noted that anyone looking for an uplifting tale of human tenacity should perhaps look elsewhere, for this novel is unrelenting in its depiction of destruction and despair.

If I could give it 10 stars I would