Thursday, November 8, 2018

The Grapes of Wrath

Alternative title: Running Over Animals and Slowly Starving. This tour de force about trying to survive during the great depression is eloquent in it's simplicity. The Grapes of Wrath follows one family as they are forced off their farm and decide to head to California to try and find work there. Handbills promise plenty of work but they soon discover that not everything is as stated. They are just one of tens of thousands who are down on their luck and desperate to survive. The Joad's suffer one set back after another, just when they think they may be able to make it, something runs them over (karma for all the animals they run over on the road - RIP roadkill). This large family is traveling in a truck with all their worldly possessions and a dwindling amount of money. Reading this you just want the family to be able to settle down, because like all the other poor people they encounter on their travels, they are hard working, nice folk. It's just hard to succeed when the deck is stacked against you. A wonderful, heartbreaking book.

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