The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
This book is a blast from the past. Not my past, but you know. The cover and the title are entirely irrelevant to the novel. The story of the Joad family migrating to California has an interesting beginning, and Steinbeck is skilled with how he keeps sympathy for our main character Tom the entire way through despite him having him killed a man. The characters were unique and by far the most interesting is Casy, a renounced priest who joins the Joads, who struggles with internal conflict about his religion and job the entire way through. Also when the fiance leaves his pregnant woman I really, really thought he would come back, but he didn’t, proving how deeply rooted in reality this book is. This book doesn’t shy away from more mature themes, and discusses themes like abandonment, disability, and being suicidal head on. It made me question what the point of all this was, and what they are accomplishing by even trying to stay alive. The most moving part is when the baby dies at the end. It only reinforces the fact that all the stress we as humans go through is ultimately pointless, proving Steinbeck really does want to leave us unsatisfied. If a sequel came out, I would read it. It did have a lot of filler, but the book is grounded, gritty and most of all, it’s human.
Gingerjumble 