I was exposed to Steinbeck in the early 1970s, before the plutocrats had launched their counteroffensive against unionization and the middle class. The struggle seemed like a battle that had been won at that point. A lot of Steinbeck was really depressing, so I never developed a taste for it. Now we’ve been living in the world of metastasized capitalism since 1980, so the observations from the Great Depression have renewed relevance.
I once saw it written somewhere: "Irony is the State forcing you to read The Grapes of Wrath at 16 and then tear-gassing you at 26 for understanding it." I can't put it any better than that. I also really liked East of Eden (maybe even preferred it), but its message is not as immediately and obviously relevant.
My Dad experienced the worst of the Dust Bowl, & his family nearly starved. So I put off reading it until a couple of months ago. It is a truly great book that captures something about human nature during crisis that really impacted me. The book helped me understand Dad's subsequent behaviors. Every American should read the book because it is so applicable today.
Here's my memory of the Grapes of Wrath: Some Christian was arguing with me that the stuff in the Bible was real, because it had real places in it. Her: "So, you believe in Egypt, which is in the Bible, but don't believe that Jesus was God's son, which is also in the Bible. Sounds like you're cherry picking to me." Me: "Yeah, I believe in Oklahoma and California, too, but don't believe the Joads were a real family."
Currently listening to the Broken Earth series by N.K. Jemisin. It's a great series highlighting how society treats minimalized minorities. Actually, this is the second time I've read/listened to it. Give it a look if you haven't already.
Jemisin tops my list of authors to binge next. After _Star Trek: Strange New Worlds_ adapted Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Ones Who Leave Omelas" I found out about her "response" story, "The Ones Who Stay And Fight," and *_wow_* what powerful writing!
Read this one in high school, but I didn't get it at the time. Keep in mind this was the point in my life I thought the love story elements of 1984 were "tacked on." I was dumb. I got better. Still a work in progress.
Honestly, it wasn't until _last year,_ watching OSP's review, that I fully appreciated the romance plot of _1984._ Even though I read the book, _Brazil_ is my go-to adaptation. This conversation reminds me that _Julia_ (which is _1984_ told from her perspective) is our now and was quite well-received!
It doesn't live up to Strange & Norrell (I really don't know what a writer is doing anymore if they aren't devoting 6 pages to a footnote) but Piranesi is pretty solid nonetheless.
Piranesi is VERY different... I liked it, but it wasn't at all what I expected. If you haven't read it, you should find Susanna Clarke's short story collection, "The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories".
I read The Jungle around the same time as Grapes of Wrath (in high school c. 2002) and both helped radicalize me. Another in the vein was The Iron Heel by Jack London; there’s a free audiobook version I listened to recently that’s pretty good.
'Grapes of Wrath' gang let's GOOOOOO. I also missed it in High School, but saw a tumblr post quoting the actual "grapes of wrath" passage, instantly went to read it, and fell in love.
I recently read Of Mice and Men for the first time in decades, and also watched the classic movie version. My god. Such powerful tragedy told so simply, but with such depth. (Spoiler - the movie changed the very last beat to conform to The Code - but otherwise it’s brilliant.) So moving.
I have also been catching up with classics, and an expanded list of diverse works in an updated canon, studying literature for a second undergrad major and an MA. In addition to physical copies for papers and close readings, I use Audible when available to reinforce plot details as I'm doing stuff around the house. Loved "Grapes of Wrath" -- the harmonica is less jarring without headphones, agree re the good, expressive reader. On the big books with multiple versions available, I always listen to several samples to see what pleases my ear re voices and volume, re the phone on a table in the room. An interesting side quest is the long-form journalism, two pieces, that Steinbeck did before the novel. The Joads' journey illustrates the trajectory of the timeline of the displaced, from setting out with some provisions and household goods to ragged need, failing transportation, and the young children dying.
I’m so glad you got to hear my high school friend Dylan Baker read this book. You should seek him out reading other books. He’s great. I heartily recommend “I Am Charlotte Simmons” by Tom Wolfe.
I read two Steinbecks in elementary school and maybe I was too young for that stuff but after The Red Pony and Of Mice and Men, I realized I'd rather just be reading horror. Forty years later, I'm still pissed about The Red Pony lol
I just had that same "this old ass book is incredibly poignant today" feeling with Kurt Vonnegut's (1952) Player Piano. It is about the dehumanization that occurred last century through the mass mechanization revolution, which reminded me of the role AI is to play (and _is_ playing) in the very near future. I won't bore with a full review, just remarking that I had a similar response to an old book :)
Bikes of Wrath is a fun movie. 5 Australians come over to ride their bikes on the same route from Oklahoma to California. These guys are not seasoned cyclists and I think that is part of what makes it so entertaining.
I was assigned The Grapes of Wrath over the summer for my 12th grade AP lit class. I quickly got bored and started skipping every other chapter. Then I got bored about a third of the way three and skipped to the last chapter. When the class started, only one student had actually read all 6 books. I was in 2nd place, having read 5 of them. I’ve been calling myself a communist since I was 15… but unsurprisingly I did not have a very concrete understanding of what that meant at the time. PS: Count of Monte Cristo, I loved, I read it every year for nearly two decades. PPS: Ask not for whom the harmonica stings, it stings for thee.
Have you seen John Ford's film version with Henry Fonda? Steinbeck said he loved the movie. "Fonda as Tom Joad made me believe my own words". The movie has appeared on many greatest movies of all time lists.
I read The Grapes Of Wrath when I was about 18 and was trying to read some of the 'great works'. I loved it. It certainly made me more conscious of the dignity of the poor and why they need justice. But I was raised in liberalism and didn't really take in some of the stronger points which would no doubt stand out for me after being radicalised. It makes me intrigued to reread it. Piranesi may not be a high school set-work or a classic but I suspect it will be pretty soon.
I read this in my 20s and cried at the ending. I also cried at the end of Charlotte's Web while reading it to my young son (we were both blubbering). Likewise, The Happy Prince. Tales of unlikely allies coming together with kindness, love and often sacrifice, in the face of injustice, hardship, loss and uncertainty, always pull at the heartstrings. They also provide a basis for critical reflection and shape/reshape the way we see ourselves and others. There is a glimmer of hope for humanity at the end of The Grapes of Wrath. Reconciling that with what followed in the real world is less 'black and white'.
When my brother and I were young my mother read us the first page or so of this book and we were gobsmacked. I couldn’t read it enough. I was suddenly turned on to books. Still am at 63.
If you like a good long Audiobook (or the book itself), _Sometimes a Great Notion_ by Ken Kesey is phenomenal. His prose, lyrical prose, dialog, story arc(s), and characters are phenomenal. I also have problems with reading descriptive prose. After decades of writing software and scanning/skimming technical material, I have difficulties staying focused on the text (and pretty much everything in life). The audiobook is well narrated.
By the time I got to high school I've already read most of the reading list. I, like you, was lucky to have an English teacher who let me read "off list" what I wanted.
I had a cassette tape of these beautiful songs a friend of a friend created that were like a Grapes of Wrath "musical", it's not the right word. But there was a song called Rose of Sharon, and it's like he just made the text into lyrics. It was gorgeous and sweet and sad. I lost that tape long ago and i can only remember a tiny bit of the music. Which is also sad. I wonder whatever happened with those songs.
I definitely feel like while the workers can definitely win individual fights if they stick together, the jury is still out on whether or not we can win the war.
Just finished A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, a very well-written character study from 2015. It was a Christmas gift from my manager, and I'm pretty sure they weren't trying to flirt with me by giving me a book with a man having an orgasm on the cover, but you never know. Currently reading Tales from the Perilous Realm, a collection of Tolkien short works.
A friend of mine with a BookTube channel called supposedlyfun did a deep dive on the book that Steinbeck might have “plagiarized” from called Now in November by Josephine Johnson. It’s a really interesting story.
🎼🎵🎶“Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored…” “Glory Glory HALLELUJAH”
It was one of two books I was assigned I actually liked, the other being huck Finn. Literally every other book was stupid rich assholes I could in no way relate to being awful to each other: pride & prejudice, great Gatsby, hamlet, Romeo & Juliet, the scarlet letter, etc.
Yeah gurl, I'm on chapter 17 of this audiobook and the harmonica gets me every time too! I love me some harmonica, but the volume and intensity is a li'l extra! Good story though. My Hungarian GGrandpa was a hobo, a migrant worker who traveled across the U.S. taking jobs wherever he could find them. By the Depression, he was settled down with a family in Ohio with lots of wild stories of his time living the hobo life (he always said it was the best time of his life). I know he went as far as California for work back then. I can't imagine the sights he saw along the way.
There's more of us than there are of them. Otherwise there would be none of us. "Travels with Charley: In Search of America" "Saint Katy the Virgin" :The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights: I remember reading the last book Steinbeck wrote that I hadn't read before and the feeling of loss and isolation I felt.
my favorite thing I read aBOUT Steinbeck, back when I was reading grapes of wrath, was that he writes “poetic prose,” which is a description that simply fucks. Edit: I claimed in the original comment that I wasn’t going to read comments to make sure my comment was unique… but then I read a bunch of comments and I don’t think anyone else references this point.
I somehow managed to dodge reading a lot of books that i feel i should have read. It was a difficult time in life for me, and the escapism of reading some of those books might have steered me away from some of the trouble i got into.
I have not read it but it is one of those books I think I should read. I normally get books that I think I should read but the premise is one I'm just not all that excited about on audio book and listen to them while driving or getting ready for work. I need to get Moby Dick too as it is one I feel like I should read and never had.
I read the Grapes of Wrath in high school, but it wasn't assigned or anything - - that's just when I read it. It's one of my favorite books, had a major impact on how I see the world, and was an antidote to the Reagan era capitalist propaganda of the time (I'm old).
I am green with envy for anyone who gets to read The Count of Monte Cristo for the first time (I've read it bunches of times). Yes, it's long. My physical copy is about 1200 pages. But there is so much STUFF in it. So much fun. I love it. One of my favorite books, like, ever. Also: You should take a look at the movie version of The Grapes of Wrath from 1940. It's one of the GREAT movies.
Was supposed to read it, didn't read it - read the cliffs notes for it - did okay on the exam. I have a decent notion of what it's about, so I can get 70% of the jokes. All that being written - you've inspired me to read it so I can be just a little less of a big ol' phony.
Reading the Grapes of Wrath as a pre-adolescent was a chore. One of the best and most formative chores Ive ever done. It was a hard read, emotionally, but it was extremely educational. Though in class we didnt focus on the power of collectives. I object to the term radicalize. Capitalism is radical. Moving away from destructive forms of social interaction is normalizing not radicalizing. Its moving from insanity to sanity. The more socialist we move the better off everyone is.
Never read it but I do recall the Great Depression was also an ecological catastrophe due to farmers leaving the fields un- planted so that the winds blew millions of tons of fertile topsoil away, hence the term Dust Bowl. A real example of humans effecting the environment to our detriment.
Count of Monte Cristo is a tome, and there's abridged versions for a reason tho I suggest the OG. Also do read about Dumas and his daddy. It is worth getting through tho bits are sloooowww going and certain characters I couldn't make myself care about. the first bit in Italy was a real slog that took me multiple tries to read through.
Been planning to read it but never got around to it. Will pick it up this year. We did Of Mice and Men, but not this one at my UK school. There are a lot of holes in my literature "canon" too...
I am simply devastated that you didn't enjoy my harmonica work, to each their own. I just hope you had more fun with my introduction of the vuvuzela to the world cup
Love Catch-22. Have you read Slaughter-House Five? There's also a good and underrated film version from the early 70s that's worth seeking out, too. The film version of Catch-22 isn't bad, either, and damn, I miss Alan Arkin.
Catch-22 is maybe THE great American novel, particularly when you see that Heller wasn’t really talking about WWII - he was writing in the 50s and describing a world being taken over by shallow, callous, greedy fools, sinister witch hunters, martinets. The characters are so recognizable today - the Capitalist who strafes his own field because the Germans gave him a better price than his own army, the Texan in the very first chapter who amiably asserts that “decent” people should get two votes, and that the whole trouble is that America is losing its patriarchy… something like that in every chapter. Everybody please read it! The movie was pretty weak by comparison, despite the genius of Alan Arkin, rip.
@@gregorsamsa4580 I always saw Catch-22 as a book about systems and bureaucracy with a minor antiwar subtext. That being said, the Mike Nichols film has some great acting (Jack Gilford, Jon Voight, Martin Balsam, and especially Alan Arkin), but it's a good though flawed adaptation of a great novel. George Roy Hill's film version of Slaughter-House Five is much better and deserves a wider audience.
Thanks for the review. I read this a couple of years ago when I decided to read all the HS list books that id missed. It was definitely a favorite. To kill a mockingbird and I know why the caged bird sings were also great surprises.
🇫🇷Monte Cristo: good for you! Quite the reading marathon, but it’s aged well for an 18C novel. I wish I could give you an 18C French history lesson. 🚩Steinbeck: we read “Of Mice and Men” in high school. It was only theoretically a Catholic school; English and French teachers could program whatever they wanted. And science was totally science. In Quebec any religious zealotry is immediately made fun of.
Hey thanks for this. I wasn't sure if I read this book in school either so I got an audiobook version throgh my library app and turns out YUP I did read it. And I supported my local library
I did read it in high school, and probably did contribute to my lefty ways. Hard to say, I was raised in a liberal household in a liberal area, so I didn't have as long a way to go to get to leftism as some do.
Well surprise surprise that your friendly neighborhood anarchist union organizer is here to say “loved it” and can also recommend Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle or his book Oil. Now get out there and organize!
Just the title makes me think that the author did some homework, the grapes symbolically refer to the Pleiades and they are wrathful, not just sweat influences, it is like Ishtar's capricious dichotomy and she calls on The Sky Bull that brings drought which turns out to be The Taurid Meteor Stream that wasn't "known" of till 1950, and its radiant is The Pleiades.
I read it a LONG time ago and remember that it was amazing. Your comment about High School reading is exactly why i went back and read a bunch i had missed. Grapes was one of those. That's how I ended up reading Frankenstein, too, which is similarly amazing, but in a totally different way. I don't know why Grapes has come up multiple times recently. Probably worth reading/listening to it again. I always loved Of Mice and Men, mostly because of ideas hinted at that the teacher glossed over that i picked up on at a young age.
Fair warning about the Count of Monte Cristo, never read the sequels, the author believed strongly that Revenge/Justice/Vengeance belongs to the Lord so the heroes of the 1st novel would be victimized in the 2nd and so on. *shakes a tiny fist at Alexander Dumas*
Re: 4:01 Do you have aphantasia? I have it, and thus never ever "see" the images in a novel. I'd be interested in your doing a video on it, whether or not you have that particular brain type. Meanwhile, there is an excellent film you might be interested in.
You're only saying this is great because you haven't read Cannery Row, Sweet Thursday and Tortilla Flats...we had to read it in high school, greatly written, subject matter wasn't to most of out liking. Also, check out Travels with Charley...
I should read it, didn't like that Pearl short story of his, or the way he backed down from communism, pussed out, I prefer Carson McCullers The Heart is a lonely hunter, but then I'm in west georgia, and wouldn't say things are better, just because we're not in a depression, the forces of imperialism are entrenched and we're in a dystopia.
================================== I don't have a good suggestion off the top of my head, but I'd say skip Grapes and find something that's less about describing the problem -- capitalism is awful, we all know -- and more about encouraging socialist actions to help one another and to unite ourselves in solidarity against the shitty capitalists. My dislike for _that_ book aside, I'm also just tired of dystopian/bummer stories that don't gives us something to work _towards_ but just something to fear. ================================== I was made to read Grapes of Wrath in 10th grade and I hated it. The general ideas, messages behind it are good, but the actual writing? No, sorry, I hate it. It was an absolute chore to read Steinbeck's writing and though I had read other works of his... not after Grapes. I wound up stopping halfway through and finding a Cliffnotes version so I could still do the assignments in class but without having to read the awful prose. And I stand by this. I do not think I could force myself to give it a second go. Another book, Watership Down, I first read in 6th or 7th grade and the stop-and-go nature of reading an assigned book in class where you have to stop after each f-cking chapter to answer inane questions to _prove_ you're reading it (but most of the kids just cheated) really ruined the experience. So roughly 20 years later, well into adulthood, I re-read it and loved it. Read that book. But, Grapes of Wrath? Meh, get some sort of summary is my suggestion. I have a memory of reading and liking The Pearl and Cannery Row but again, that was _before_ reading Grapes of Wrath and so I don't really trust my memory of those being good anymore. I rather liked the Jack London books/stories I read in school though they were absent any sort of message of solidarity and class struggle if I remember correctly. ... Someday I might get around to reading some of Dicken's stories/novels. Maybe. =============================== I've been looking into *Solarpunk* as a genre, which is explicitly about showing what _could be_ if we threw off the shackles of capitalism. I haven't found any gems yet, but as a genre it's promising and I've really just started.
Nice presentation. Capitalism or any of the other economic systems are not the problem. It is the people within said systems that are the problem. There has always been that percentage of the species that seeks to gain every possible advantage over all others that ruins it all for everyone. And we keep producing such mistakes in every generation. If you want a better world, you need better people. The "grading rubric" for our species to this point would not look good and @ 12K years of history would strongly suggest there is very little hope for improvements - ever. 😞
No, it's definitely an economic problem when your economic system cannot account for bad actors and, in fact, incentivizes their behaviors. You don't need better people. People are fine, they mostly just want to live a quiet life of dignity.
I was exposed to Steinbeck in the early 1970s, before the plutocrats had launched their counteroffensive against unionization and the middle class. The struggle seemed like a battle that had been won at that point. A lot of Steinbeck was really depressing, so I never developed a taste for it. Now we’ve been living in the world of metastasized capitalism since 1980, so the observations from the Great Depression have renewed relevance.
I'd say since the 70s, if not earlier.
_Travels with Charlie_ is an non-depressing Steinbeck book.
I once saw it written somewhere: "Irony is the State forcing you to read The Grapes of Wrath at 16 and then tear-gassing you at 26 for understanding it." I can't put it any better than that.
I also really liked East of Eden (maybe even preferred it), but its message is not as immediately and obviously relevant.
My Dad experienced the worst of the Dust Bowl, & his family nearly starved. So I put off reading it until a couple of months ago. It is a truly great book that captures something about human nature during crisis that really impacted me. The book helped me understand Dad's subsequent behaviors. Every American should read the book because it is so applicable today.
Here's my memory of the Grapes of Wrath:
Some Christian was arguing with me that the stuff in the Bible was real, because it had real places in it.
Her: "So, you believe in Egypt, which is in the Bible, but don't believe that Jesus was God's son, which is also in the Bible. Sounds like you're cherry picking to me."
Me: "Yeah, I believe in Oklahoma and California, too, but don't believe the Joads were a real family."
Logic and Power are not related.
Epic comeback.
Currently listening to the Broken Earth series by N.K. Jemisin. It's a great series highlighting how society treats minimalized minorities. Actually, this is the second time I've read/listened to it. Give it a look if you haven't already.
Fantastic series.
Jemisin tops my list of authors to binge next. After _Star Trek: Strange New Worlds_ adapted Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Ones Who Leave Omelas" I found out about her "response" story, "The Ones Who Stay And Fight," and *_wow_* what powerful writing!
It's so good! All of her work is excellent!
Read this one in high school, but I didn't get it at the time. Keep in mind this was the point in my life I thought the love story elements of 1984 were "tacked on."
I was dumb. I got better. Still a work in progress.
Honestly, it wasn't until _last year,_ watching OSP's review, that I fully appreciated the romance plot of _1984._ Even though I read the book, _Brazil_ is my go-to adaptation.
This conversation reminds me that _Julia_ (which is _1984_ told from her perspective) is our now and was quite well-received!
If you liked the novel, you might be interested in looking into Sanora Babb if you haven't already.
Thanks for the tip on Piranesi! I absolutely LOVED Jonathan Strange and hadn't realized she had a new book.
It doesn't live up to Strange & Norrell (I really don't know what a writer is doing anymore if they aren't devoting 6 pages to a footnote) but Piranesi is pretty solid nonetheless.
Piranesi is VERY different... I liked it, but it wasn't at all what I expected.
If you haven't read it, you should find Susanna Clarke's short story collection, "The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories".
I read The Jungle around the same time as Grapes of Wrath (in high school c. 2002) and both helped radicalize me. Another in the vein was The Iron Heel by Jack London; there’s a free audiobook version I listened to recently that’s pretty good.
Same the Jungle, Grapes of Wrath, and Animal Farm all radicalized me too. All great books too!
'Grapes of Wrath' gang let's GOOOOOO. I also missed it in High School, but saw a tumblr post quoting the actual "grapes of wrath" passage, instantly went to read it, and fell in love.
At the end when the lactating mother nursed the old man is totally unforgettable...Steinbecks prose is so down to earth
Notedly cut from the film version... which is still good, if not as good as the book.
Read it several times, and it just gets better each time.
I recently read Of Mice and Men for the first time in decades, and also watched the classic movie version. My god. Such powerful tragedy told so simply, but with such depth. (Spoiler - the movie changed the very last beat to conform to The Code - but otherwise it’s brilliant.) So moving.
I literally finished the book just yesterday, so imagine my surprise when I saw this in my feed!
I have also been catching up with classics, and an expanded list of diverse works in an updated canon, studying literature for a second undergrad major and an MA. In addition to physical copies for papers and close readings, I use Audible when available to reinforce plot details as I'm doing stuff around the house. Loved "Grapes of Wrath" -- the harmonica is less jarring without headphones, agree re the good, expressive reader. On the big books with multiple versions available, I always listen to several samples to see what pleases my ear re voices and volume, re the phone on a table in the room. An interesting side quest is the long-form journalism, two pieces, that Steinbeck did before the novel. The Joads' journey illustrates the trajectory of the timeline of the displaced, from setting out with some provisions and household goods to ragged need, failing transportation, and the young children dying.
I’m so glad you got to hear my high school friend Dylan Baker read this book. You should seek him out reading other books. He’s great. I heartily recommend “I Am Charlotte Simmons” by Tom Wolfe.
I read two Steinbecks in elementary school and maybe I was too young for that stuff but after The Red Pony and Of Mice and Men, I realized I'd rather just be reading horror. Forty years later, I'm still pissed about The Red Pony lol
I just had that same "this old ass book is incredibly poignant today" feeling with Kurt Vonnegut's (1952) Player Piano. It is about the dehumanization that occurred last century through the mass mechanization revolution, which reminded me of the role AI is to play (and _is_ playing) in the very near future. I won't bore with a full review, just remarking that I had a similar response to an old book :)
That's a terrific book.
Bikes of Wrath is a fun movie. 5 Australians come over to ride their bikes on the same route from Oklahoma to California. These guys are not seasoned cyclists and I think that is part of what makes it so entertaining.
The Deficit Myth really turned my head around. Definitely worth a read.
I was assigned The Grapes of Wrath over the summer for my 12th grade AP lit class. I quickly got bored and started skipping every other chapter. Then I got bored about a third of the way three and skipped to the last chapter. When the class started, only one student had actually read all 6 books. I was in 2nd place, having read 5 of them. I’ve been calling myself a communist since I was 15… but unsurprisingly I did not have a very concrete understanding of what that meant at the time. PS: Count of Monte Cristo, I loved, I read it every year for nearly two decades. PPS: Ask not for whom the harmonica stings, it stings for thee.
Have you seen John Ford's film version with Henry Fonda? Steinbeck said he loved the movie. "Fonda as Tom Joad made me believe my own words". The movie has appeared on many greatest movies of all time lists.
I read The Grapes Of Wrath when I was about 18 and was trying to read some of the 'great works'. I loved it. It certainly made me more conscious of the dignity of the poor and why they need justice. But I was raised in liberalism and didn't really take in some of the stronger points which would no doubt stand out for me after being radicalised. It makes me intrigued to reread it.
Piranesi may not be a high school set-work or a classic but I suspect it will be pretty soon.
I read this in my 20s and cried at the ending. I also cried at the end of Charlotte's Web while reading it to my young son (we were both blubbering). Likewise, The Happy Prince. Tales of unlikely allies coming together with kindness, love and often sacrifice, in the face of injustice, hardship, loss and uncertainty, always pull at the heartstrings. They also provide a basis for critical reflection and shape/reshape the way we see ourselves and others. There is a glimmer of hope for humanity at the end of The Grapes of Wrath. Reconciling that with what followed in the real world is less 'black and white'.
When my brother and I were young my mother read us the first page or so of this book and we were gobsmacked. I couldn’t read it enough. I was suddenly turned on to books. Still am at 63.
If you like a good long Audiobook (or the book itself), _Sometimes a Great Notion_ by Ken Kesey is phenomenal. His prose, lyrical prose, dialog, story arc(s), and characters are phenomenal. I also have problems with reading descriptive prose. After decades of writing software and scanning/skimming technical material, I have difficulties staying focused on the text (and pretty much everything in life). The audiobook is well narrated.
By the time I got to high school I've already read most of the reading list. I, like you, was lucky to have an English teacher who let me read "off list" what I wanted.
I had a cassette tape of these beautiful songs a friend of a friend created that were like a Grapes of Wrath "musical", it's not the right word. But there was a song called Rose of Sharon, and it's like he just made the text into lyrics. It was gorgeous and sweet and sad. I lost that tape long ago and i can only remember a tiny bit of the music. Which is also sad. I wonder whatever happened with those songs.
I definitely feel like while the workers can definitely win individual fights if they stick together, the jury is still out on whether or not we can win the war.
Just finished A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, a very well-written character study from 2015. It was a Christmas gift from my manager, and I'm pretty sure they weren't trying to flirt with me by giving me a book with a man having an orgasm on the cover, but you never know. Currently reading Tales from the Perilous Realm, a collection of Tolkien short works.
A friend of mine with a BookTube channel called supposedlyfun did a deep dive on the book that Steinbeck might have “plagiarized” from called Now in November by Josephine Johnson. It’s a really interesting story.
🎼🎵🎶“Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored…”
“Glory Glory HALLELUJAH”
It was one of two books I was assigned I actually liked, the other being huck Finn. Literally every other book was stupid rich assholes I could in no way relate to being awful to each other: pride & prejudice, great Gatsby, hamlet, Romeo & Juliet, the scarlet letter, etc.
Yeah gurl, I'm on chapter 17 of this audiobook and the harmonica gets me every time too! I love me some harmonica, but the volume and intensity is a li'l extra! Good story though. My Hungarian GGrandpa was a hobo, a migrant worker who traveled across the U.S. taking jobs wherever he could find them. By the Depression, he was settled down with a family in Ohio with lots of wild stories of his time living the hobo life (he always said it was the best time of his life). I know he went as far as California for work back then. I can't imagine the sights he saw along the way.
There's more of us than there are of them. Otherwise there would be none of us.
"Travels with Charley: In Search of America"
"Saint Katy the Virgin"
:The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights:
I remember reading the last book Steinbeck wrote that I hadn't read before and the feeling of loss and isolation I felt.
Thank you for this review! And don't worry about not having read it. It is never too late to (re-)discover the classics!
my favorite thing I read aBOUT Steinbeck, back when I was reading grapes of wrath, was that he writes “poetic prose,” which is a description that simply fucks.
Edit: I claimed in the original comment that I wasn’t going to read comments to make sure my comment was unique… but then I read a bunch of comments and I don’t think anyone else references this point.
I had read this in high school in the mid-90s. I do not remember if it was assigned in class or I read it for myself.
"There's *nothing* sexual in it. WELL....." and all of us who have read it knew EXACTLY what you were thinking of.
I somehow managed to dodge reading a lot of books that i feel i should have read.
It was a difficult time in life for me, and the escapism of reading some of those books might have steered me away from some of the trouble i got into.
In high school I read Of Mice and Men and Cannery Row but the Vonnegut books on the reading list where my favorites.
One of my favorites, I reread it often. Also I often think, nothing has changed. 😒
I have not read it but it is one of those books I think I should read. I normally get books that I think I should read but the premise is one I'm just not all that excited about on audio book and listen to them while driving or getting ready for work. I need to get Moby Dick too as it is one I feel like I should read and never had.
I read the Grapes of Wrath in high school, but it wasn't assigned or anything - - that's just when I read it. It's one of my favorite books, had a major impact on how I see the world, and was an antidote to the Reagan era capitalist propaganda of the time (I'm old).
I am green with envy for anyone who gets to read The Count of Monte Cristo for the first time (I've read it bunches of times). Yes, it's long. My physical copy is about 1200 pages. But there is so much STUFF in it. So much fun. I love it. One of my favorite books, like, ever.
Also: You should take a look at the movie version of The Grapes of Wrath from 1940. It's one of the GREAT movies.
Was supposed to read it, didn't read it - read the cliffs notes for it - did okay on the exam.
I have a decent notion of what it's about, so I can get 70% of the jokes.
All that being written - you've inspired me to read it so I can be just a little less of a big ol' phony.
Your mentioning Piranesi reminded me of another book by a different author: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Highly recommended.
Reading the Grapes of Wrath as a pre-adolescent was a chore. One of the best and most formative chores Ive ever done. It was a hard read, emotionally, but it was extremely educational. Though in class we didnt focus on the power of collectives.
I object to the term radicalize. Capitalism is radical. Moving away from destructive forms of social interaction is normalizing not radicalizing. Its moving from insanity to sanity. The more socialist we move the better off everyone is.
If it's the same reader as Cannery Row then yes, he is great. I don't "read" much these days but the audible reader for Cannery Row was excellent.
I've read everything I know of by Steinbeck, many more than once. he was my early influencer.
Of Mice and Men gets me every time.
Never read it but I do recall the Great Depression was also an ecological catastrophe due to farmers leaving the fields un- planted so that the winds blew millions of tons of fertile topsoil away, hence the term Dust Bowl. A real example of humans effecting the environment to our detriment.
It's actually the opposite of that. They over-planted, which caused the soil to become infetile.
Try his only non fiction, "The Sea of Cortez", about a year long invertebrate collecting trip on a sail boat in the Gulf of California. Great read.
Count of Monte Cristo is a tome, and there's abridged versions for a reason tho I suggest the OG. Also do read about Dumas and his daddy. It is worth getting through tho bits are sloooowww going and certain characters I couldn't make myself care about. the first bit in Italy was a real slog that took me multiple tries to read through.
Been planning to read it but never got around to it. Will pick it up this year. We did Of Mice and Men, but not this one at my UK school. There are a lot of holes in my literature "canon" too...
I am simply devastated that you didn't enjoy my harmonica work, to each their own. I just hope you had more fun with my introduction of the vuvuzela to the world cup
Thanks for some book recommendations. Happy new year!
Love Catch-22. Have you read Slaughter-House Five? There's also a good and underrated film version from the early 70s that's worth seeking out, too. The film version of Catch-22 isn't bad, either, and damn, I miss Alan Arkin.
Catch-22 is maybe THE great American novel, particularly when you see that Heller wasn’t really talking about WWII - he was writing in the 50s and describing a world being taken over by shallow, callous, greedy fools, sinister witch hunters, martinets. The characters are so recognizable today - the Capitalist who strafes his own field because the Germans gave him a better price than his own army, the Texan in the very first chapter who amiably asserts that “decent” people should get two votes, and that the whole trouble is that America is losing its patriarchy… something like that in every chapter. Everybody please read it! The movie was pretty weak by comparison, despite the genius of Alan Arkin, rip.
@@gregorsamsa4580 I always saw Catch-22 as a book about systems and bureaucracy with a minor antiwar subtext. That being said, the Mike Nichols film has some great acting (Jack Gilford, Jon Voight, Martin Balsam, and especially Alan Arkin), but it's a good though flawed adaptation of a great novel. George Roy Hill's film version of Slaughter-House Five is much better and deserves a wider audience.
Rebecca, do you have a public Goodreads we can follow to see what your are reading?
Yes! But I constantly forget to update it. Will renew my efforts for 2024. www.goodreads.com/user/show/16078369-rebecca-watson
Thanks!@@RebeccaVersus
Friend request sent!@@RebeccaVersus
Thanks for the review. I read this a couple of years ago when I decided to read all the HS list books that id missed. It was definitely a favorite. To kill a mockingbird and I know why the caged bird sings were also great surprises.
Didn't read this in high school in the 90's, but had Rage Against the Machine and other bands to radicalize me.
🇫🇷Monte Cristo: good for you! Quite the reading marathon, but it’s aged well for an 18C novel. I wish I could give you an 18C French history lesson.
🚩Steinbeck: we read “Of Mice and Men” in high school. It was only theoretically a Catholic school; English and French teachers could program whatever they wanted. And science was totally science. In Quebec any religious zealotry is immediately made fun of.
Hey thanks for this. I wasn't sure if I read this book in school either so I got an audiobook version throgh my library app and turns out YUP I did read it. And I supported my local library
my dad introduced me to steinbeck when I was 11. all superb until I read the red pony which broke me
Sadly humanity will always be humanity
I did read it in high school, and probably did contribute to my lefty ways. Hard to say, I was raised in a liberal household in a liberal area, so I didn't have as long a way to go to get to leftism as some do.
Well surprise surprise that your friendly neighborhood anarchist union organizer is here to say “loved it” and can also recommend Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle or his book Oil. Now get out there and organize!
Just the title makes me think that the author did some homework, the grapes symbolically refer to the Pleiades and they are wrathful, not just sweat influences, it is like Ishtar's capricious dichotomy and she calls on The Sky Bull that brings drought which turns out to be The Taurid Meteor Stream that wasn't "known" of till 1950, and its radiant is The Pleiades.
Was the audiobook the Dylan Baker or the Richard Armitage narration?
I read it a LONG time ago and remember that it was amazing. Your comment about High School reading is exactly why i went back and read a bunch i had missed. Grapes was one of those. That's how I ended up reading Frankenstein, too, which is similarly amazing, but in a totally different way.
I don't know why Grapes has come up multiple times recently. Probably worth reading/listening to it again.
I always loved Of Mice and Men, mostly because of ideas hinted at that the teacher glossed over that i picked up on at a young age.
I really enjoyed The Cumquats of Irony.
Fair warning about the Count of Monte Cristo, never read the sequels, the author believed strongly that Revenge/Justice/Vengeance belongs to the Lord so the heroes of the 1st novel would be victimized in the 2nd and so on.
*shakes a tiny fist at Alexander Dumas*
Although full of wrath, I found the grapes lacking. Good book though all in all. Recommended.
You should read the Jungle next.
As you don't like overaly descriptive books, I would highly recommend *avoiding* 'Snow Falling on Cedars'.
Re: 4:01 Do you have aphantasia? I have it, and thus never ever "see" the images in a novel. I'd be interested in your doing a video on it, whether or not you have that particular brain type.
Meanwhile, there is an excellent film you might be interested in.
wonderful book! Now go listen to Rage Against the Machines cover of Ghost of Tom Joad!!!!✊ 🔥
Grapes of Wrath ugh. East of Eden is where its at.
8:00 "Who knows if it would have stuck"
Your contrarian tendencies would have turned you into a Second Amendment Libertarian with a red hat.
You're only saying this is great because you haven't read Cannery Row, Sweet Thursday and Tortilla Flats...we had to read it in high school, greatly written, subject matter wasn't to most of out liking. Also, check out Travels with Charley...
Things are better, but the trajectory ain't effing great.
I should read it, didn't like that Pearl short story of his, or the way he backed down from communism, pussed out, I prefer Carson McCullers The Heart is a lonely hunter, but then I'm in west georgia, and wouldn't say things are better, just because we're not in a depression, the forces of imperialism are entrenched and we're in a dystopia.
Caleb Maupin's book are awesome, some available in audio form on youtube as well.
==================================
I don't have a good suggestion off the top of my head, but I'd say skip Grapes and find something that's less about describing the problem -- capitalism is awful, we all know -- and more about encouraging socialist actions to help one another and to unite ourselves in solidarity against the shitty capitalists. My dislike for _that_ book aside, I'm also just tired of dystopian/bummer stories that don't gives us something to work _towards_ but just something to fear.
==================================
I was made to read Grapes of Wrath in 10th grade and I hated it. The general ideas, messages behind it are good, but the actual writing? No, sorry, I hate it. It was an absolute chore to read Steinbeck's writing and though I had read other works of his... not after Grapes. I wound up stopping halfway through and finding a Cliffnotes version so I could still do the assignments in class but without having to read the awful prose.
And I stand by this. I do not think I could force myself to give it a second go.
Another book, Watership Down, I first read in 6th or 7th grade and the stop-and-go nature of reading an assigned book in class where you have to stop after each f-cking chapter to answer inane questions to _prove_ you're reading it (but most of the kids just cheated) really ruined the experience. So roughly 20 years later, well into adulthood, I re-read it and loved it. Read that book.
But, Grapes of Wrath? Meh, get some sort of summary is my suggestion.
I have a memory of reading and liking The Pearl and Cannery Row but again, that was _before_ reading Grapes of Wrath and so I don't really trust my memory of those being good anymore. I rather liked the Jack London books/stories I read in school though they were absent any sort of message of solidarity and class struggle if I remember correctly. ... Someday I might get around to reading some of Dicken's stories/novels. Maybe.
===============================
I've been looking into *Solarpunk* as a genre, which is explicitly about showing what _could be_ if we threw off the shackles of capitalism. I haven't found any gems yet, but as a genre it's promising and I've really just started.
Nice presentation. Capitalism or any of the other economic systems are not the problem. It is the people within said systems that are the problem. There has always been that percentage of the species that seeks to gain every possible advantage over all others that ruins it all for everyone. And we keep producing such mistakes in every generation.
If you want a better world, you need better people. The "grading rubric" for our species to this point would not look good and @ 12K years of history would strongly suggest there is very little hope for improvements - ever. 😞
No, it's definitely an economic problem when your economic system cannot account for bad actors and, in fact, incentivizes their behaviors.
You don't need better people. People are fine, they mostly just want to live a quiet life of dignity.
Ethan Frome.....there, i said it....