The Grapes of Wrath

by John Steinbeck

Paperback

Published January 1, 2000

About the author

John Ernst Steinbeck was an American writer. He won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social perception". He has been called "a giant of American letters."
During his writing career, he authored 33 books, with one book coauthored alongside Edward F. Ricketts, including 16 novels, six non-fiction books, and two collections of short stories. He is widely known for the comic novels Tortilla Flat (1935) and Cannery Row (1945), the multi-generation epic East of Eden (1952), and the novellas The Red Pony (1933) and Of Mice and Men (1937). The Pulitzer Prize–winning The Grapes of Wrath (1939) is considered Steinbeck's masterpiece and part of the American literary canon. By the 75th anniversary of its publishing date, it had sold 14 million copies.
Most of Steinbeck's work is set in central California, particularly in the Salinas Valley and the California Coast Ranges region. His works frequently explored the themes of fate and injustice, especially as applied to downtrodden or everyman protagonists.

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

If there’s anything I expected The Grapes of Wrath to be, a feminist treatise on the benefits of a social democracy was not it. Here we have a story of a family led very much by the matriarch as it moves west towards a promised land of work, money, and a place to call home. Kicked off their land in Dust Bowl Oklahoma, the Joads—a microcosm for the thousands of families who were in the same boat at the time—shuffle across the United States towards a capitalist ideal. In the meantime, they and the other migrant groups end up forming a socialist community, looking out for one another and giving to all as needs be. It’s slightly heavy-handed as metaphors go, but the overall struggle and the characters Steinbeck creates here make up for it. His writing is poetic and poignant, dripping with deeper meaning and social commentary. A wonderful book that left me feeling equal parts devastated and hopeful.

[Elliott Cousins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Steinbeck’s poignant care in presenting the sheer force of spirit and solidarity amongst the migrant communities realised in Grapes of Wrath, contrasted with the cruelty of greed, makes this book a powerful statement which reverberates through depression USA to today. Reading this book can only create more empathy for the plight of refugees, and make its audience feel sickened by the evil banality of monopolistic capitalism. A revolutionary manifesto beating with pulses of poetic beauty.