The Grapes of Wrath (Penguin
Classics) by John Steinbeck
A Must Read For Readers Of Every Age
Today, nearly forty years after his death, Nobel Prize winner John
Steinbeck remains one of America’s greatest writers and cultural figures.
Over the next year, his many works published as black-spine Penguin
Classics for the first time and will feature eye-catching, newly
commissioned art. Of this initial group of six titles, The Grapes of Wrath
is in a new edition with a completely revised introduction and, for the first
time, detailed notes by leading Steinbeck scholar Robert DeMott.
Penguin Classics is proud to present these seminal works to a new
generation of readers—and to the many who revisit them again and
again.
Features:
* ISBN13: 9780143039433
* Condition: NEW
* Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Personal Review: The Grapes of Wrath (Penguin Classics) by
John Steinbeck
Who am I to review one of the greatest literary works of all time? Could I
possibly give this book anything less than the maximum rating it so richly
deserves? Should I even commence? Those were just some of my private
thoughts as I finally put down a copy of this book - read. This is the book
which stirred the American conscience, caused political reform and
brought about change when first published in 1939. This is the book which
described how families were starving to death because of corruption. This
is John Steinbeck at his exceptional best. For those people who never got
around to reading this engaging and absorbing account of the Joad family,
may I suggest you actually purchase a copy (any copy!) and finally read it.
Today the world is either in recession or emerging from the dark grip of this
latest financial catastrophe. Whilst we may live in a time when millions of
families are no longer allowed to starve to death - well, not in the
developed world at any rate, I earnestly believe there are lessons to be
learned from this book about the rich and powerful who care not for their
fellow man but only for personal gain. More importantly, those lessons are
as relevant today as they were in 1939.
Another similarity also failed to escape my notice; In this book we see how
US police and other officials use their positions of authority to threaten and
even blackmail the many thousands of American migrants who were
simply looking for work in order to feed hungry mouths. These people had
not arrived from any foreign country and were not even black - something
which would have made their persecution much easier. No!, these ordinary
white American folk were honest farmers who had been forcibly evicted
from their homes and the land they had worked for generations. Seventy
years on, here in the UK, we are besieged by TV programmes depicting
our different police forces undertaking their various duties around the
country. Yet more cheaply produced "reality" television! Significantly,
however, I have occasionally noticed how some police officers deliberately
provoke a hostile situation where exists. Whilst not on the scale portrayed
in this outstanding work, it is interesting that I should recognise that
underlying attitude of arrogant superiority.
Whilst some may find the book slow going at the start, Steinbeck quickly
gathers in those loose strands until they suddenly pull together to assume
a story, reveal a mental photograph and produce a relevance into which
the reader becomes fully immersed. I promptly learned local words and
understood the dialect in which they were spoken as the Joad story
unfolded. I could hear those southern accents as hardships are endured
and explained through the actions of those who lived them. This was the
organised, legalised daylight robbery and exploitation of the poor by the
rich who were actively supported by the law enforcement agencies. A
week's work for 1,000 fruit pickers paying 50 cents an hour is advertised to
3,000 hungry people who then pass on the message. Consequently, 5,000
starving workers arrive in search of that employment. With so much
competition, the rate is lowered to 30 cents - take it or leave it! It was a
deliberate ploy repeated time after time. Anyone attempting to organise his
fellow workers is photographed, black-listed and branded a communist.
Now feed that to your children. Then the banks insist the farmers reduced
the rate to 25 cents and any landowner who questions that decision is
swiftly reminded of his own vulnerability as a mortgagee! In short, either
you pay them 25 cents or you join them! My own immediate reaction was
to recognise a similarity between then and now - specifically with those
modern banking practises which preyed on the sub-prime market. Anyone
who cared to consider precisely what "sub-prime" meant, knew it was a
policy destined to fail. And fail it did in spectacular fashion - and yet, the fat
cat bankers still draw bonuses based on "personal performance" and not
on their company's overall profit or loss...
I note from some of the comments appended to certain editions of this
book, that various issues have been produced in which, apparently,
Steinbeck's prose are changed to make the work an easier read. Please
don't take the easy option, take the version written as it was intended to be
read - i.e. the version written by Steinbeck. If not, you cannot claim to have
read this book at all - instead you have the equivalent of, say, a Romeo
and Juliet story - set in Manhattan in the 21st Century - and there are
plenty of those...
In closing, I would urge anyone (indeed everyone) who has not already
read an original version of this book If to go out and buy a copy - any old
copy and then simply read it. Having done that, you too will draw parallels
with our modern age and understand what I mean. You will also be richer
for having done so - as would those fat cats who, unfortunately, will
probably never bother. Having finally finished reading this outstanding
work, I wonder how many of you will still be wondering whatever happened
to that perfectly matched pair of Bays! I do...
NM
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