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: WILL@epicqwest.com by Tom Grimes, The Losers' Club by Richard Perez
Rating:
Summary: Important story of depression ridden America.
Review: The passionate saga of the Joad family, who like thousands of American farmers lose their homesteads through a combination of bad luck and poor farming techniques. The Joad's travel west under the false promise of plentiful work in agricultural rich California.The journey is long and frightening as the family endures humiliation and the threat of starvation. When they arrive in California the Joads discover thousands of other displaced 'Okies' looking for work forcing down wages that the landowners were are willing to pay. They also discover that the landowners will do whatever is necessary to keep wages low. The Grapes of Wrath is an important American novel that tells a tragic story of an American family trying to stay together and survive under the most dire of circumstances. Generations of young Americans have grown up and never seen economic hard times. Although the bleakness of the conditions may be exagerated, depressioon ravaged America was not anything like it is today. This book gives an insight into just how tough times were. Ma Joad is one of the strongest female characters ever depicted in American literature as she struggles to feed her family and keep them together. The last few pages involving the still born birth of a child and the feeding of a starving man are tragic. Steinbaeck's novel is passionate and heartbreaking and he had to endure public vilification because of it. His later writings revealed a more conservative nature. Every young American should experience this novel.
| 
