Rating: 
Summary: Tobacco Road
Review: Tobacco Road was a skillfully written novel that acurately protrayed suffering during the Great Depression. It showed how selfish people become when they are fighting to survive. An obvious example of this fact is Old Mother Lester. Everyone was waiting, even hoping, for her to die so they could have more food and not have to think of her anymore. When Dude backed the car into her, no one was even concerned. This novel really showed how cruel the world is sometimes.
Rating: 
Summary: It's a short book but it's more suited to a short story
Review: Very little content and extremely repetitive dialogue which effectively does portray the pathetic life of the main characters but left me as a reader thinking I was reading a circular loop. Suggestive rather than outright sexual, but considering the time period this was quite controversial. What makes it really sharp is the sheer hatred and indifference the characters show toward each other. Described as humorous by some, I would disagree. It roused barely a chuckle out of me once or twice. That durn book is powerful sinful. The good Lord didn't intend for men to be writin' books like that noway.
Rating:
Summary: A simple book about simple people.
Review: Well you can't expect a book about lazy rural farmers to be to exciting, and for the most part it isn't. It is successful in conveying the lifestyle and intellect of these characters, showing their situation and why they will never escape it. Good for some insight to another time and place and a couple of laughs but overall it is a little depressing.
Rating: 
Summary: Ancestors of deliverance
Review: What a striking novel. Heard of it from childhood and finally read it. As Laughable as it seemed, there were people very much like the one's in the story. Go deep south in the 40's or 50's and you would have seen them. They were there. They may still be there, or one's like them. Behind all the things that are funny to us lays dire hoplesness,selfishness, ignorance, and failure. But the main idea to the plot is they really didn't know or care. Their lives went on till they died and that was that. Again what a story.
Rating:
Summary: stark reality
Review: When I - a Yankee - moved to the South after having lived abroad for 15 years, I had some romantic notions about it, mostly gleaned from listening to country music way out of context. "The simple life", and whatnot, sure. It wasn't long, though, before I noticed some disturbing habits the locals had. Reading "Tobacco Road" one night (instead of, say, shooting traffic signs) was proof of sorts that I was not imagining things or being paranoid (rather Southern traits, they). Although its been 70 years, the Lesters still abound - and haven't changed much. I therefore find the book's characters to be accurate and believable portrayals; the story moves like a humid Southern summer, and the language is not contrived (some might find it rather "slow"). And the outcome is downright predictable. Of course, it doesn't help us understand why the Lesters of this world are still alive. They just are, and do that they do. The author does well in never attempting to explain why, because the Lesters sure can't. Shucks, its downright brilliant.
Rating:
Summary: have been there
Review: when I was 20 years old I read this book. It was the most profounding book of my lifetime because I almost lived that lifestyle when I was a child. I won't go into detail but a very good descripition of the life of a very poor child from the deep south. thank you very much. will seals
Rating:
Summary: My Mother Made Me Read This
Review: When I was young, and still ashamed of being a Southerner, my mother made me read this book. She told me it would enlighten me as to stereotypes believed about Southerners by people from other regions. I thought she was out of her mind, until a woman from Toledo told me, "Oh, your Southern accent is so *cute*, so _Tobacco Road_!" I sat bolt upright and shot back, icily, "No, madam, it is most certainly NOT _Tobacco Road_, and had you read it, you would understand WHY." This was the 1980's, I was eighteen, and had graduated from high school the week before...and it was in that moment that I realized how little others know about Southerners. It's not great literature, and certainly not the best of its genre, but I think all Southerners should read it in order to grasp the way outsiders see us.
Rating:
Summary: THE UNDERBELLY OF SOUTHERN CULTURE
Review: Written during the depression era, this southern classic uncovers the ugly side of southern culture steeped in poverty. Come along on Tobacco Road and view Jeeter Lester and his dysfunctional family. Jeeter, the patriarch of this poor excuse of humanity brings out the worst qualities that a man can possess. His ignorance, selfishness and stupidity are magnified to the highest degrees as he attempts to survive in a world that has long gone. Erskine Caldwell has introduced us to a life of absurdity in the backwoods of the south. His characters are stereotypical charactures of poor southern whites. Some of them are grotesque in their appearance, greedy, selfish and totally shiftless. As much as you would want to sympathize with them, you can't. They are people who won't take responsibility for themselves and will put the blame on others. Jeeter and his son Dude are great examples of this mentality. How then can this book be so good if it describes people so bad? In telling the story of Tobacco Road, we see another side of southern culture exposed. It is not pretty, genteel or noble. You see the ugly for what it is and affirm that this too is a part of life when people are reduced to extreme poverty. There is also humor in the story. The characters are not totally one dimensional but their naivite draws you to tears of laughter and maybe sorrow. Look into this world of southern culture where people cling to dreams long dead and allow themselves to remain stagnate on Tobacco Road. This is an excellent southern classic of a people long forgotten.
Rating:
Summary: Tobacco Road
Review: Written in a plainative style reminisicent of Hemingway, Caldwell does a fasinating job creating his characters who are all concerned only with themselves and seem to disregard the rest of their family because they only get in the way of their own individual happiness. The main focus of the story is on Jeeter Lester who is the father of the family living on an old piece of land that use to be part of his grandfathers successful tobacco plantation. The Lester family is currently poor and the Lesters must beg or steal to get a hold of any food. Their complete disregard for others can be shown through numerous events throughout the novel, such as Jeeter carelessly stealing a croker sack full of turnips from his son-in-law and running off and eating nearly the entire sack before returning to give the remains to his starving family. When reading this book it seemed to have the same feel as The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, but notably is more explicit which at times had me gasping. One instance of this is when Jeeter's mother is run over by a car and the family seems to pay no attention whatsoever to her laying dying in their front yard. Definately recommended read as it portrays an insight into a poor farming family of the 1930s coping with poverty, though perhaps a little twisted at times. But the twists and turns make it all the more enjoyable a read and I look forward to reading more by Erskine Caldwell in the future.
Rating:
Summary: An American Classic
Review: Your literary education isn't complete until you've read Caldwell. Tobacco Road and God's Little Acre should be required reading in every high school -- or college, at least -- in America. If you love Hemingway, Bukowski, Flannery O'Connor, Carson McCullars, Barry Hannah, Larry Brown or any writing that cuts right to the bone and then keeps on cutting, read Erskine Caldwell right now. His work is very, very good.
|
