And Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle! I just reread it. If you’re looking something modern about the time period of tariffs and mass deportations, The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah is excellent
If you enjoy rather dated music then listen to Woody Guthrie (senior) singing Tom Joad which he wrote after seeing the film Grapes of... with Henry Fonda. Then read away! That was why I read the book and it made a deep impression.
It's a wonderful book. If it's someone's first Steinbeck, I usually recommend, say, Cannery Row. But The Grapes of Wrath also seems sorta timely right now...
Heads up he switches viewpoints from one chapter to the next. It took me several chapters to get the hang of it. Back in high-school. Very powerful read, I am thinking of reading it again myself.
Influenced by the Ecuadorian 1934 book, Huasipungo, by Jorge Icaza, known ironically as the Ecuadorian grapes of wrath tho it preceded GOW. Even more depressing. (Don’t fall for the “magical realism” knee jerk description of all South American literature.)
I read Parable a while back. It hits differently these days. Octavia is one of my all time faves! Re read the other two last year. I recently re-read John Scalzi's Locked In, too. More modern but makes you think about how we see other humans.
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It's now called "Raisins of Wrath."
I still remember, 😔
(ok I own 2/3 of them 😆)
•1984
•Fahrenheit 451
•Parable of the Sower
🙏