Awards

• Runner-up for The BBC Big Read Top 100 2003
• Runner-up for The BBC Big Read Top 100 2003.
• Short-listed for BBC Big Read Top 100 2003
• Shortlisted for BBC Big Read Top 100 2003.

Overview

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9780141185064

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Reviews

Amanda writes: Long before Hunter S. Thompson popularised Gonzo journalism, writers have been living with their subjects to better understand their lives. While Thompson's experiences were no doubt more fun (and involved more drugs) than John Steinbeck's, it was Steinbeck's time on the road with a family of dispossessed farmers in the 1930s that allowed him to write his greatest novel, The Grapes of Wrath. Written in six months in 1938, The Grapes of Wrath follows the twelve-member Joad family as they travel west along Highway 66 from Oklahoma to California. They're attempting to escape the devastation of the drought that hit Oklahoma in the 1930s, so with dreams of fertile soil and endless work they head west with almost nothing but their last few dollars and each other. On the road, we see the squalid conditions of the workers' camps in which the Joads stay, where people starve and death is common. We see the increasing fear with which the locals greet them, and how quickly this fear turns to violence. By the time the Joads reach California the family is smaller, and it isn't long before they realise conditions are as poor in the west as they were in the east. The plot of The Grapes of Wrath is straight-forward but the themes are immense. While part of Steinbeck's purpose in showing us the Joads' life is to help us understand the lived reality of these migrant workers, it is also to condemn the policies that led to such widespread suffering and inequality. As Steinbeck famously said, "I want to put a tag of shame on the greedy bastards who are responsible for this [the Great Depression and its effects]." The Grapes of Wrath is very much a novel of social protest. Steinbeck draws a stark line between two groups in society; those in the dominant roles (the landowners, the owners of corporations) and those who are forced to work for them. This divide, as Steinbeck suggests, means that the first group fights to preserve their position which leads to the second group being treated like animals, often turning against each other in competition for below subsistence wages. The Grapes of Wrath is a slap in the face that reminds us that people must come before profit, always; it's as relevant today as it was when first published. Everyone should read it.

This is the sort of book that stirs one so deeply that it is almost impossible to attempt to convey the impression it leaves. It is the story of today's Exodus, of America's great trek, as the hordes of dispossessed tenant farmers from the dust bowl turn their hopes to the promised land of California's fertile valleys. The story of one family, with the hangers-on that the great heart of extreme poverty sometimes collects, but in that story is symbolized the saga of a movement in which society is before the bar. What an indictment of a system - what an indictment of want and poverty in the land of plenty! There is flash after flash of unforgettable pictures, sharply etched with that restraint and power of pen that singles Steinbeck out from all his contemporaries. There is anger here, but it is a deep and disciplined passion, of a man who speaks out of the mind and heart of his knowledge of a people. One feels in reading that so they must think and feel and speak and live. It is an unresolved picture, a record of history still in the making. Not a book for casual reading. Not a book for unregenerate conservative. But a book for everyone whose social conscience is astir - or who is willing to face facts about a segment of American life which is and which must be recognized. Steinbeck is coming into his own. A new and full length novel from his pen is news. Publishers backing with advertising, promotion aids, posters, etc. Sure to be one of the big books of the Spring. First edition limited to half of advance as of March 1st. One half of dealer's orders to be filled with firsts. (Kirkus Reviews)

Author Information

Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck is remembered as one of the greatest and best-loved American writers of the twentieth century. His complete works will be available in Penguin Modern Classics.

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