A review by tesshuelskamp
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

4.0

I now understand why this book is read in many high schools; I also now understand why many high schoolers would hate reading it. Ultimately, I am glad I read this book but about two-thirds of the way through I kept waiting for the book to finish.

Steinbeck's historical fiction tells the story of The Joads, a family of tenant farmers from Oklahoma who are forced to migrate to California in search of work after The Dust Bowl destroyed the family's farmland. Interspersed with the lengthy chapters narrating the family's struggles were short vignettes describing how The Dust Bowl affected other portions of the country. There were a lot of good themes in this book (family structures/working together, religion, and gender) making it great to analyze in an English class (I'm assuming).