Reading: The Grapes of Wrath

You know those books where you think "Oh jeez, it's a big literary thing, I guess I better read it." ? For me, this was one of those.Plus it was a freebie from work. And while - like in "Classic" novels- I can see the importance and beauty of the work, ultimately I didn't enjoy it, and wouldn't reccommend it to you. I

The Grapes of Wrath follows the beleagured Joad family as they travel from their repossed farm in Oklahoma to what the Promised Land of California. Being set in 1930's, the Joads have no way of knowing what lay there, just the promise of work printed on a yellow flyer. This is the Depression, and they're the corn-mush eating kind of folk.  But as they travel (which consumes much of the book) they come to realise that California isn't the place they envisioned.

 The most central character is the young Tom Joad, ex-con, sensitive soul and easy-to-spot Jesus stand in. Steinbeck shifts between the characters; from the saintly Ma Joad to the troubled teens Ruthie and Winfield. That and the omniscient poetic chapters, which serve as brutal exposition (Steinbeck actually wrote that he wanted to "hit the reader below the belt" - charming)  and  read like propoganda from an uppity highschool Communist.

However didactic and sentimental the book sometime is, Steinbeck also has some wonderful characters. The waitresses at highway Diners are wonderfully drawn. In keeping with the novels' endless classical undertones, these watchful ladies serve as a kind of Greek chorus. That and the blessed truck drivers, forever passing by, removed from the tragedy unfolding around them.