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The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
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The Grapes of Wrath

by John Steinbeck

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12,41412168 (4.19)301

Member recommendations

  1. Booksloth recommends East of Eden by John Steinbeck
  2. mensageiro recommends A América e os americanos e outros textos by John Steinbeck
  3. KayCliff recommends The Battle of Pollocks Crossing by J.L. Carr
  4. tonymazzariolet recommends The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, "Steinbeck ci fa salire tutti su quel vecchio Hudson, il camion zoppo con il quale la famiglia Joad abbandona un Oklaoma polveroso e sterile, per raggiungere (see more) un impossibile sogno californiano; ne sentiamo il rumore di ferraglia rugginosa e traballante, gli odori di oli e guarnizioni bruciate, delle masserizie affastellate, del sudore dei corpi: un veicolo incerto, come le loro vite scucite, srotolate lungo la Statale 66. Ci conduce alle radici del capitalismo americano, delle sue connaturate contraddizioni, per le quali la vita umana è, da sola, senza “il possesso della roba”, niente, una variabile senza dignità. E’ incredibile, variati gli scenari, l’attualità di questa storia di dannati Okies (oggi albanesi africani) Peccato il finale un po’ pedagogico. Comunque un’emozione."
  5. sirparsifal recommends Przedwiośnie by Stefan Żeromski
  6. sirparsifal recommends America's Great Depression by Murray Newton Rothbard
  7. eromsted recommends American Exodus: The Dust Bowl Migration and Okie Culture in California by James N. Gregory
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English (115)  Dutch (2)  Vietnamese (1)  Swedish (1)  Italian (1)  Spanish (1)  All languages (121)
Showing 1-5 of 115 (next | show all)
Well, I tried. I read steadily for two weeks and got all of 220 pages in. It's not that it's not well-written, because it certainly is, but I just can't seem to get into the story. I mean, the Joads are well aware that hundreds of people are going to California, and yet they're staking everything on an anonymous flier asking for produce pickers. Maybe I'll try again sometime in the future. ( )
  melydia | Oct 28, 2009 |
What an outstanding book, I you want to know about the Amerikan life around 1930 you have to read this. Steinbeck`s writing is a pleasure. ( )
  brigitte64 | Oct 21, 2009 |
The Grapes of Wrath put John Steinbeck in the canon and guarantees his eternal presence there. Sometimes, it seems, things are indeed just as things should be.

I remember when I read 'The Grapes of Wrath,' I was in a first-semester college Lit class -- though this book was not in the syllabus. It took me ten days to waddle through TGOW, primarly because -- all through the narrative -- I was either crying broken-heartedly or stuck on the ceiling in a towering rage. Never, before or since, has anything I've read affected me so.

Since that time I've seen other people read it. None of them reacted as strongly as I did, but nobody is unaffected by it. It's one of those things, you either love it or you hate it. You cannot read TGOW and be indifferent to what you've read. Most highly recommended. ( )
  dekesolomon | Oct 7, 2009 |
I really don't understand why everyone loves this book soo much. I guess I just can't appreciate books written with old-style that are hard to follow for that reason; regardless of how 'classic' they are. I'm not much of a history buff, either. It took me forever to read it, since I just wanted to set it on fire because that's what you do with bags of dog crap. 1 out of 5 disturbing-as-hell endings that I really, really wish I hadn't read. *facepalm* ( )
  oxlena | Sep 11, 2009 |
I just really love this book... and I have a hard time explaining why... the themes in it, the desperation, the struggle, and the subtle Christological aspects are fascinating, so well integrated... it's like reading a beautiful, profound poem without knowing it's poetry until you've finished and you think back somewhat startled, just speechless. ( )
  laudemgloriae | Sep 2, 2009 |
Showing 1-5 of 115 (next | show all)
It is Steinbeck's best novel, i.e., his toughest and tenderest, his roughest written and most mellifluous, his most realistic and, in its ending, his most melodramatic, his angriest and most idyllic. It is "great" in the way that Uncle Tom's Cabin was great—because it is inspired propaganda, half tract, half human-interest story, emotionalizing a great theme.
added by Shortride | editTime (Apr 17, 1939)
 
Steinbeck has written a novel from the depths of his heart with a sincerity seldom equaled. It may be an exaggeration, but it is the exaggeration of an honest and splendid writer.
 
Mr. Steinbeck's triumph is that he has created, out of a remarkable sympathy and understanding, characters whose full and complete actuality will withstand any scrutiny.
added by Shortride | editThe New York Times, Charles Poore (pay site) (Apr 14, 1939)
 
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Series (with order)
Canonical Title
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Awards and honors
Epigraph
Dedication
To CAROL who willed it.
To TOM who lived it.
First words
To the red country and part of the gray country of Oklahoma, the last rains came gently, and they did not cut the scarred earth.
Quotations


Now the going was easy, and all the legs worked, and the shell boosted along, waggling from side to side. A sedan driven by a forty-year-old woman approached. She saw the turtle and swung to the right, off the highway, the wheels screamed and a cloud of dust boiled up. Two wheels lifted for a moment and then settled. The car skidded back onto the road, and went on, but more slowly. The turtle had jerked into its shell, but now it hurried on, for the highway was burning hot.

And now a light truck approached, and as it came near, the driver saw the turtle and swerved to hit it. His front wheel struck the edge of the shell, flipped the turtle like a tiddly-wink, spun it like a coin, and rolled it off the highway. The truck went back to its course along the right side. Lying on its back, the turtle was tight in its shell for a long time. But at last its legs waved in the air, reaching for something to pull it over. Its front foot caught a piece of quartz and little by little the shell pulled over and flopped upright. The wild oat head fell out and three of the spearhead seeds stuck in the ground. And as the turtle crawled on down the embankment, its shell dragged dirt over the seeds. The turtle entered a dust road and jerked itself along, drawing a wavy shallow trench in the dust with its shell. The old humorous eyes looked ahead, and the horny beak opened a little. His yellow toe nails slipped a fraction in the dust.

[Penguin ed., pp. 15-16; Chapter 3]
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Please do not combine John Steinbeck's original 1939 novel, The Grapes of Wrath, with any film treatment, critical edition, notes (Monarch, Barron's, Sparks, Cliff, etc.), screenplay, or other adaptations of the same title. Thank you.
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Canonical titleThe Grapes of Wrath
Original publication date1939
People/CharactersTom Joad, Jr., Tom Joad, Sr. (Pa), Jim Casy (the Preacher), Muley Graves, Ma Joad, William James Joad (Granpa) (show all 25)
Important placesSallisaw, Oklahoma, U.S.A., Hooverville, California, U.S.A., Oklahoma, USA, California, USA
Awards and honorsPulitzer Prize (Novel, 1940), Waterstones Books of the Century (1997, No 9), Time's All-Time 100 Novels selection, BBC's Big Read (Best loved novel, 2003, No 29), The Modern Library's 100 Best Novels (The Board's List, 10), The Modern Library's 100 Best Novels (The Reader's List, 22) (show all 15)
DedicationTo CAROL who willed it.
To TOM who lived it.
First wordsTo the red country and part of the gray country of Oklahoma, the last rains came gently, and they did not cut the scarred earth.
Quotations
Now the going was easy, and all the legs worked, and the shell boosted along, waggling from side to side. A sedan driven by a forty-year-old woman approached. She saw the turtle and swung to the right, off the highway, t... (show all)
Last words(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
BlurbersWoollcott, Alexander, Cowley, Malcolm, Sinclair, Upton, Parker, Dorothy, Van Doren, Carl, Fadiman, Clifton
DescriptionWhen this novel was first published, it took both American and Britain by storm. It is the story of a dispossessed community, driven from its bit of land in Oklahoma by the implacable march of industrial progress. The big cor... (show all)
Book description
When this novel was first published, it took both American and Britain by storm. It is the story of a dispossessed community, driven from its bit of land in Oklahoma by the implacable march of industrial progress. The big corporations which own the land the 'squatters' occupy decide that the time has come to mechanize agriculture — and so the bulldozers demolish overnight the small-holdings and cabins that represent so many years of hope and labour. Like their fathers before them, these displaced citizens of America set out on the migrant trail to the West, but not, alas, to find a land of plenty in the 'Golden West'. This novel is not only an indictment of industrial civilization but also a chronicle of the fortitude and devotion of the Common Man.

Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0143039431, Paperback)

Today, nearly forty years after his death, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck remains one of America’s greatest writers and cultural figures. Over the next year, his many works published as black-spine Penguin Classics for the first time and will feature eye-catching, newly commissioned art.

Of this initial group of six titles, The Grapes of Wrath is in a new edition with a completely revised introduction and, for the first time, detailed notes by leading Steinbeck scholar Robert DeMott.

Penguin Classics is proud to present these seminal works to a new generation of readers—and to the many who revisit them again and again.

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:02 -0400)

(see all 4 descriptions)

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