SNORE!! And i cant understand most of it! ( )

I would like to read this book again. It was a wonderful look at the Dust Bowl and reminded me a lot of current immigration views. ( )

Had to read this in 10th grade. Didn't care for it at 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. ( )

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. ( )

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. ( )

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* ( )

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. ( )

Ok, I finally read this masterpiece...and even though I knew what was coming, as the book has seeped into so many creative cracks in the culture, I still loved it and was surprised by the beauty of some of the passages. Steinbeck's a novelist, where Sinclair (Upton) sometimes failed. ( )

Ok, I finally read this masterpiece...and even though I knew what was coming, as the book has seeped into so many creative cracks in the culture, I still loved it and was surprised by the beauty of some of the passages. Steinbeck's a novelist, where Sinclair (Upton) sometimes failed. ( )

I just finished reading John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. This book is a featured part of the Roselle Reads! events at the Library. I am embarrassed to admit that I was not looking forward to reading it; I didn't expect to enjoy it at all despite the fact that it won a Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize for Literature. Fortunately, I was pleasantly surprised. Not only did I like the story, toward the end I couldn't put it down. Steinbeck's characters were so well developed, you had to really care about them.

The story is set in the American southwest during the Depression. Dust storms, big corporate farming and "the bank" force the Joad family off of their small Oklahoma farm. Homeless, with all of their possessions loaded in the back of a jalopy, the family joins the throngs of people heading to a new life in California. On the way, they speculate about the "good life" they will find there - a plot of land, a small white house, and abundant fruit trees and grape vines there for the picking. The reality of the journey and the destination are not the stuff of dreams and yet the family perseveres with strength and hope. "Hope" is a main theme throughout the story.

The Grapes of Wrath is the selection for both the Tuesday Evening Book Discussion Group (meeting 9/15) and the Men's Book Discussion Group (9/16). The public reaction to the book is the subject of author Rick Wartzman's book, Obcene in the Extreme. Mr. Wartzman will visit the Library on Sunday, 9/13, to talk about his book. For information on these programs, and other Roselle Reads! events, see the Library's website (http://www.roselle.lib.il.us/GeneralI...). ( )

I'm sorry I waited so long to read it. ( )

The story has many disturbing parallels to the treatment of undocumented immigrants in our contemporary society, including the themes of desperation, exploitation, and fundamental humanity. However, there is a thread of hope that runs within the trauma and chaos which dominate the plot. This selection is best suited for readers high school or beyond due to the moral issues addressed. ( )

A lament of the collateral damage caused by both the economic futility of debt and the "advancement" of society technologically. As tractors replace horse-pulled plows and manpower, a family, (along with hordes of other families), is forced off their land and left nearly destitute. They emigrate west to California, the "Promised Land" where they're convinced there is plenty of opportunity for work. Unfortunately, as they soon learn, every other "okie" in America has the same idea, and that's exactly what the enormous farms owned by the rich in California want; because the more starving people that apply for a job, the lower the wages they have to pay those desperate souls. Tragedy abounds as the family falls apart along the way, but their hope never fails them; or if it does it always returns.

This book is best described as "heavy" reading. It's not at all tedious, or even extremely deep, but it's extremely detailed and feels like several lifetimes are described within. I usually read a book in a day or two, but this took me over a week to read. It's not boring, and is actually quite entertaining, but it does take some work to get through it all.

Steinbeck does use this story to put forward some very thoughtful insights into government, economy, and religion, though. Like "Cannery Row", it allows you to get to know the characters on a very intimate level. Casy is a former preacher who has lost his faith, but found something else which I find to be very moving and beautiful. "Ma" is a stereotypical southern woman who you can't help but love, though throughout the story she defies this stereotype by usurping control of the family from "Pa", not entirely against his will, despite confrontations involving things such as a crow bar. "Tom", the main character, is running from the law as he is released from prison on parole, (after killing a man, basically in self-defense...), and breaks his parole by leaving the state with his family. Rose of Sharon, (an interesting name...), is pregnant with her first child, and her husband Connie and her have huge plans for their future. Al looks up to his older brother Tom, especially since he killed a man, and loves women more than anything else. Winfield and Ruthie are just young children, and are so obnoxiously cute you can't help but love them. Then there's Grandma and Grandpa, and plenty of other less prominent characters throughout the story.

Unlike "Cannery Row", though, this is a very in depth book, and not at all a quick read. It goes so deep into the story of this family that you feel like you know each member of the caravan, and you feel the emotions they do as each tragedy and miracle happens along their route to California.

This book is truly epic, though it doesn't feel like it while you're reading it. Instead, it feels like a simple story about a simple family who you almost pity, but they don't let you because they're so hopeful and resourceful and they rebound with every fall. Instead, you just fall in love with them and feel the same hope they feel for their success in California.

I love this book. Plain and simple.

It's hilarious at parts, depressing at others, amazing from beginning to end. The very ending was slightly strange, and I don't agree with Steinbeck that it should have ended the way it did. Not that I think he should have cut that part out, but I felt he was going for some slight shock value with the last paragraph, which was a little out of place compared to the rest of the novel. But I do understand what he was trying to get across to the reader with the last thing that happens, so I can appreciate why he ended it the way he did, even if it does make some people a bit uncomfortable.

Anyway, it's a very long and heavy read, but not tedious at all, and more than worth it. Absolutely amazing. Absolutely...amazing. I'm awestruck the more I think of it... ( )

quite a good story, although lots of descriptive passages in places ( )

Classic read. ( )

Steinbeck's iconic American novel felt to me like the 1983 film Testament. In the film, a suburban mother cares for her family in the wake of a nuclear attack. In the film's final scene, after burying her two younger kids, the mother sits at a table with her son and their young neighbor. They are celebrating her son's birthday by the light of a candle. Steinbeck's novel ends on a similar note of hopeful uncertainty. Like the Wetherly family in Testament, the Joads are disintegrating both as individuals and as a family, but they face the possibility of their demise with a resoluteness I admire. The novel so eloquently depicts the prolonged tension inherent in their battle to stay alive and the fear of the unknown that when the narrative comes to its end, it feels very much like the end of a real life. Even the outspoken political observations and social criticism Steinbeck lets loose in the chapters which alternate with those advancing the Joad narrative, which might have seemed hollow if written by an author with less skill, here only strengthen the novel's impact. ( )

This is a wonderful book and one of the best of Steinbeck. Through reading it I was captured by the similarities to the present economic condition. It is a great book to read in this point in time because it shows that no matter how bad your situation might be at the present time, the situation in the book is a lot worse. It is a wonderful story of the plight that people faced during the Great Depression. It doesn't offer any positive outcome and can be quite depressing in itself to read. ( )

The desperate journey of poor sharecroppers hoping to find riches in California, superbly moving ( )

This a really good book. The only flaw I see is length, but its worth it. the description is amazing and you can almost envision whats going on as it happens. Not only that but he makes it as though you're reading about the time period more than the main characters. He is the first author I've read; pulling it off in a way I thought not really possible. ( )

This is easily in my desert island top five. I try to read it once a year, and it's not because of the plot alone. What I find most compelling here is the character development: Steinbeck draws Muley and Granpa as characters tied to the land, so that the land becomes a crucial character trait (or arguably a full-fledged character).
The way Steinbeck paints the Depression and the depression that it causes is chilling to me even after having read the book at least half a dozen times. ( )

The Grapes of Wrath tells the story of the great depression, interweaving the broad tale hundreds of thousands of farmers who fled to California in hopes of achieving the mere basic necessities of food and home with the tale of the Joad family. Like so many farmers put off their land by the banks, the Joad family loads all they can into a jalopy and heads west.

This one of those books that was required reading in high school, and like most books I read for class, I read the bare minimum that was required of me and barely paid attention to what I was reading. It's amazing how much I missed when I read it in high school.

This book was one of the most powerful books I've read in a while. Steinbeck switches from the broad to the specific, giving you the very personal tale of the Joads, while letting you know in subsequent chapters that they are just one of many. Each character is fascinating, each strong and weak in their own ways. Even the people the family meets on the road, who enter their lives for but a brief moment before slipping away, are so real that it was as if they could walk right into the room in which I was reading and say hello.

This is definitely on my list of personal favorites, tragic but hopeful all in the same breath. ( )

An easy read and an excellent insight into the conditions faced by families insearch of work during the Great Depression in America. ( )

Steinbeck establishes himself, in my mind, as the USAnian Orwell with this novel chronicalling the desperate plight of the landless poor during the years of the Great Depression. From the word go, the language of the novel is poignantly melancholic, tinged with feeling as if the very words bore the weight of their suffering. It will live in my memory as one of my favourite novels.

The book is haunting from start to finish. What I appreciated most of all were the little vignettes of life at the time that Steinbeck scatters between the narrative chapters.

These are so memorable, they stand out almost as classics in their own right. There’s the turtle, the diner, the migrant camps. Each of these is beautifully crafted.

Wonderful, wonderful stuff. ( )

What a powerful book. This is one of those classics that I've been vaguely planning to read for ages: I purchased it in 2001 on a vacation to California (after visiting the Steinbeck museum) but it sat on my shelf since then. Perhaps that was meant to be, though, with commentators these days constantly throwing around the phrase "worst financial crisis since the Depression" - it's good to remind oneself what the Depression actually was, and what it meant for America's working families. I know this is a work of fiction and not to be taken as absolute truth, but it humanizes the Depression as my textbooks never did. This was just so worth reading on every level. ( )