August Reads

Let's not linger on the fact that during the past few summer months I've only been banging out one book for the entire month.  The days!  The gorgeous, hot, lazy days of summer have...um, clearly been filled up with other activities beyond the book.  This, I have learned is how New England works.  You run around like a mad-woman, planning a million and one fun events for the sunny, warm months.  And then, when the weather turns and everyone begins to hibernate....well, you read.

The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

At the tail end of July, I went up to New Hampshire to spend a weekend at a camp a friend of mine runs.  (See? Fun weekend activities.  But I digress.)  Friday night, she and I were sitting in her cabin, catching up.  "What are you reading these days?" she asked.

"The Grapes of Wrath," I replied.  "How about you?"

She laughed.  "Uh, Fifty Shades of Grey."

I joined in her laughter.  "The rest of America is reading Fifty Shades of Grey and I'm the girl on the T carrying a classic published in the 1930's."

Seriously though, I've had The Grapes of Wrath on my to-read list for ages.  Somehow I made it through all of my years of formal schooling without reading it and when I got around to picking my next read at the end of July, something told me, now was the time.  Truly, I'm glad I waited until age 32 to read this book as I guarantee I would have missed about 8 million references had I initially read it in college - and would've likely missed 15 million had I been in high school reading it for the first time.  Reading it in this technologically advanced era we find ourselves in these days intrigued me as well, particularly as Steinbeck wrote it during another type of advance - as tractors,  machines, and banks moved tenant farmers off of the land, forcing thousands and thousands of families to head West in search of work.

It's a long book, with my copy coming in around the 600 page mark, but it's absolutely worth it.  I found the story captivating and heartbreaking and I fell in love the Joad family as they struggled to make their way from Oklahoma to California.  Steinbeck knew how to weave a story, understood how to develop characters, and in the end, created a novel that will stay with me for years to come.  The Grapes of Wrath has easily moved into my top ten list and it's a story I imagine I will find myself thinking of often, for many years ahead.  There is a reason it's considered one of the great American novels, after all.

"He loved the land no more than the bank loved the land. He could admire the tractor – its machined surfaces, its surge of power, the roar of its detonating cylinders; but it was not his tractor. Behind the tractor rolled the shining disks, cutting the earth with blades – not plowing but surgery … The driver sat in his iron seat and he was proud of the straight lines he did not will, proud of the tractor he did not own or love, proud of the power he could not control. And when that crop grew, and was harvested, no man had crumbled a hot clod in his fingers and let the earth sift past his fingertips. No man had touched the seed, or lusted for the growth. Men ate what they had not raised, had no connection with the bread. The land bore under iron, and under iron gradually died; for it was not loved or hated, it had no prayers or curses.”