12 out of 12 people found this review helpful.
Yuck and ZZZ
Date of Review: Jan 3, 2000
Well, I thought that my dislike of Steinbeck might be a fluke. After being forced to read "The Pearl" and "Of Mice And Men" I thought that maybe I just didn't like his short books. Not so. When I was forced to read "The Grapes of Wrath" I became certain that I do not like Steinbeck at all. Mind you, I like many of the books I am forced to read, just not Steinbeck's (among others). On the contrary, I loved Bradbury's "Dandelion Wine," Twain's "Huck Finn," and Sinclair's "The Jungle."
Anyway, about the book. Talk about depressing. The whole book is about a group of gullible, not-too-smart Oklahomans who move West for economic reasons (their farm was taken over). There, they suffer from what seems to be portrayed as "the evil Capitalism." This book is depressing upon depressing, and just when you think things are looking up, they become depressing again. And, oh, the socialist "government camp" is just wonderful and hunky-dory. Not to mention the dozens of other subtle allusions to the wonders of socialism. The family makes a series of bad decisions, and everyone dies or runs away. Overall, this book was a bummer. Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against books of social commentary, utopian and such, but this book makes the reader want to close it and throw it off a high precipice.
