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jennalynn48's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
3.5
Minor: Animal death, Child death, Death, Medical trauma, Car accident, and Death of parent
edwardian_girl_next_door's review against another edition
To take first, my crappy English teacher. Having a bad teacher makes the content so much harder to enjoy! I wasn't encouraged to continue with this book because I basically received no class insight or analysis and I was too busy to research it on my own. Maybe I'll be more available in the future and can do more research into the time period, author, text, &c. to better appreciate the book.
Secondly, I'm not the biggest fan of American literature, so I didn't particularly take to this book. Pretty self-explanatory. I also discovered Steinbeck isn't my cup of tea. I can appreciate it as literature, but I'd rather read something else. Nothing specific I can pinpoint (besides the often disturbing and violent turns his narratives take), I just don't like it.
One thing I did like about The Grapes of Wrath was Jim Casey. I am endlessly fascinated by priest/clergy characters and their various tropes, and Casey both fit into a priest trope but also maintained nuanced elements to his character. I enjoyed his kindly, loyal, honest nature and his talks with Tom Joad.
Final verdict: a slow, gritty book about hillbilly drama with twinges of violence and vernacular. I might pick it up again in the future just to say I've read it.
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Violence, and Murder
Minor: Child death
lowkeymarie's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Animal death and Child death
Moderate: Death, Racial slurs, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Classism
giuliana_ferrari's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Racial slurs, Police brutality, and Grief
Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, and Child death
annapox's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Violence
Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Gore, Miscarriage, Racism, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Racial slurs, Sexism, Sexual content, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, and Fire/Fire injury
amehlia's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
“How can we live without our lives? How will we know it’s us without our past?”
I picked up Steinbeck’s Pulitzer-prize winning novel, The Grapes of Wrath, in a Waterstones in Surrey several years ago and just a few minutes after purchasing had the ending spoiled for me immediately. I didn’t pick it up to read for a long time, but I am so glad I did.
This novel is brilliant and heart-wrenching, it carries you on an immense journey through Dust Bowl America during the Great Depression, beautifully and tragically capturing the plight of the migrant labourers in California in both his extended chapters dedicated to the Joad family and also the alternate shorter chapters that do a fantastic job of contextualising their situation and setting the wider scene. Steinbeck does a fantastic job of hooking you in and committing the reader to the Joads and their story. It took me a long time to finish because I didn’t want the story to be over
The slow pace of this book meant it took a couple of chapters to get me hooked, but when it did I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I’m not sure what to do with myself now that I’ve finished it. Any book that has this sort of effect on a reader is, in my opinion, an epic novel. It makes for a bold social commentary not just in its own time, but is relevant today with negative attitudes towards migrants, and natural disasters and conflict displacing many more families that will undertake a journey similar to that of the Joads.
Overall, one of my new all-time favourites although I don’t think this will become a re-read. I’m not sure I can put myself through it again.
Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Death, Police brutality, Murder, Pregnancy, and Alcohol
Minor: Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, and Religious bigotry
noshelf_control's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Death, Police brutality, and Murder
elisegjerdrum's review against another edition
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Moderate: Child death and Death