Steinbeck was just entering his 'Golden Period' in 1936 and this is a magnificent collection of his greatest work including The Grapes of Wrath which one read lives in you memory like a visceral experience.

Grapes of Wrath:-


It is not easy to read, and I found it easier to see the film and understood better - but therefore all the more I value this work, not because it is difficult but because I could grasp it through the film.

And the film truly was great, especially when it came to the dialogue of mother and son at the end - and Henry Fonda forever marked his place amongst the great with his portrayal and his delivery in the last speech.

It is an entirely worthy, great - in the original sense of the word - work, and for anyone from US it is a must read because it is your own history, usually not told around in the fairy tale account of your country you get officially.

If you are not from US it is still a great work relating a part of history of US, and entirely worthy of reading. Difficult, yes. Great, absolutely.

The book deals with the depression in US that was devastating there, the beginning of an era in Europe that ended with millions killed in war and a sizeable few millions helpless killed by their own government in gas chambers and other ways of murder, and so on.

In all this the poor and the not so poor that became poor in US were almost forgotten, since the nation holds on to the myth that anyone who is willing to work must do well in that country.

This book for one exposes such myths.
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I totally understand why the Grapes of Wrath is a classic. We can fully appreciate the historical story of “real” hardship without any personal experience. I started with the Grapes of Wrath, and then had to read the rest of this book, only then realizing it is over a 1000 pages, but keeping my interest as much as any book has. The “Log from the Sea of Cortez”, started out curious and interesting enough, however I found that story of sailing biologists collecting sea specimens was so repetitive and boring, I abandoned this story after about 100 of the 275 pages. Steinbeck’s life events was an interesting read in the Chronology. Looking forward to reading more of his books.

The Log from the Sea of Cortez details a trip Steinbeck took to the Gulf of California. It's up and down but has some very good highs.

The Harvest Gypsies is basically a real Grapes of Wrath but I felt it should have been much longer.

The Long Valley covers most of the themes Steinbeck touched on throughout his career over its several stories.

The Grapes of Wrath is Steinbeck's crowning achievement and one of the greatest novels of all time.

Grapes of Wrath:Wow!I just finished reading this and what an ending. Honestly the best ending I've ever read in any book. Steinbeck writes so clearly I can feel the cotton in the feilds and the pouring rain through the valley. I highly recommend this book for anyone, especially if you like adventure.

The Long Valley: Steinbeck's literary brilliance shines through in this collection of short stories. From ranching to racial inequality to the beauty of nature, Steinbeck never fails to entertain and captivate his readers.

Log from the Sea of Cortez: An amusing story, this was based on Steinbeck's actual voyage with a team including close friend, Marine Biologist, Ed Ricketts. My interest was held mostly throughout and I got in a good number of laughs as well.

The Harvest Gypsies: A combination of articles Steinbeck wrote as a journalist, this series depicts the grim and restless life of California migrant workers in the thirties. It provides a shocking picture of the evil that man is capable of doing upon his fellow man simply because of greed and indifference.

I really liked the Grapes of Wrath but I was bored with most of the other stories.

I only read The Grapes of Wrath from this book. It was a very good story, even though the beginning was slow and the end was really weird.

Its an old adage that the book is always better than the movie, and that just might be true in this case. I am a big fan of the movie, which I have seen a couple of dozen times before picking up the book. It was after recently showing a segment to my environmental history course that I decided to read the book. What strikes me is how well the movie is adapted from the book. Yes, there are some differences. First, the language is much more salty. Lots of curses and few "f-bombs" from Tom Joad and others. Second, there is a lot more talk about sex in the book. Third, there are more characters. While this is true of most books when compared to the movies made from them, the Joads often met other families in the book that are not depicted in the movie. Finally, the movie ends at a scene before the book ends. Nevertheless, the movie is coherent, true to the general narrative of the book, and definitely captures the politics of the book. One of the best parts of the book for me, is how Steinbeck alternates from chapters about the history and social impact of the depression and Dust Bowl to one focused on the Joad story. I think this makes the book more valuable and gives it much more force.

I read Grapes of Wrath several times in my youth and was very moved by it. Having just reread it, I was totally blown away. The commentary chapters in between the Joad story chapters are magnificent. Wow!

In the early morning before daylight we came into the harbor at San Diego, in through the narrow passage, and we followed the lights on a changing course to the pier. All about us war bustled, although we had no war; steel and thunder, powder and men -- the men preparing thoughtlessly, like dead men, to destroy things. The planes roared over in formation and the submarines were quiet and ominous. There is no playfulness in a submarine. The military mind must limit its thinking to be able to perform its function at all. Thus, in talking with a naval officer who had won a target competition with big naval guns, we asked, "Have you thought what happens in a little street when one of your shells explodes, of the families torn to pieces, a thousand generations influenced when you signaled Fire?" "Of course not," he said. "Those shells travel so far that you couldn't possibly see where they land." And he was quite correct. If he could really see where they land and what they do, if he could really feel the power in his dropped hand and the waves radiating out from his gun, he would not be able to perform his function. He himself would be the weak point of his gun. But by not seeing, by insisting that it be a problem of ballistics and trajectory, he is a good gunnery officer. And he is too humble to take the responsibility for thinking. The whole structure of his world would be endangered if he permitted himself to think. The pieces must stick within their pattern or the whole thing collapses and the design is gone. We wonder whether in the present pattern the pieces are not straining to fall out of line; whether the paradoxes of our times are not finally mounting to a conclusion of ridiculousness that will make the whole structure collapse. For the paradoxes are becoming so great that the leaders of people must be less and less intelligent to stand their own leadership.

The story of the people of the land I am from. A ravaging read. The sprawling tale of the Joads is not an easy journey, but it does light upon the resilience of hardworking Americans. A clear and mighty observing of the lengths of which we are capable. A call to action.

July 09: The Long Valley, 4 of 5
The most of Valley's collection is solid, standard Steinbeck fare. The eleventh of thirteen stories, "Saint Katy", however, is terribly out of place in both style and content, a poorly executed experiment in fable having nothing whatever to do with the rest of the collection's shared elements of time, manner and place. It's really quite puzzling and bizarre why after ten stories we suddenly leave early 20th-century Salinas Valley in order to witness Steinbeck completely out of his element with a sloppily-written tale of a talking pig's elevation to sainthood by 13th-century monks, only to be thrust back almost with a vengence into the bright, shining star of the collection, the flawless, beautifully constructed, exemplary "The Red Pony", which I'm inclined to tuck just behind East of Eden as my favourite Steinbeck work.