THE GRAPES of WRATH (audiobook) by John Steinbeck

 

Originally Published in 1939.
Audiobook version published in 2011 by Penguin Audio.
Performed by Dylan Baker.
Duration: 21 hours, 1 minute.
Unabridged.

Winner of the National Book Award.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize.
Declared to be the best-selling book of 1939 by the New York Times.

I last read The Grapes of Wrath when I was in high school, nearly 40 years ago. It was assigned reading for my English class and all I really remembered about it was a couple of scenes. I remembered the last scene, with the flood and starving man. And I remembered and early scene where the tractor operator is plowing up the farms, the farmyards and even intentionally damaging homes in Oklahoma. Besides that, I had nothing but a pervasive memory of sorrow and injustice.

I've always thought of this book and Of Mice and Men as kind of a set of books about migrant farm workers during the Great Depression. I've read Of Mice and Men 5 or 6 times, though - a fact that I can one hundred percent attribute to the fact that The Grapes of Wrath is 6 or 7 times longer. 

The Grapes of Wrath is longer and it is much more powerful. 

I am not going to go through all of the plot details for a book that has been labeled in the top 100 books by Le Monde, the BBC, Time magazine and The Daily Telegraph, but I am going to tell you the thoughts I had as I listened.

The book follows the Joad family as they lose their farm, load up all of their family and their worldly goods and head off to California in search of plentiful farm labor jobs that they have been told exist. They join tens of thousands of economic refugees and take Route 66 to California. Collectively, they were insultingly referred to as "Okies."

The problem is that while the jobs do exist, California is a magnet for economic refugees having 10 men and women show up for each job drives the wage down to starvation level. No one can get ahead and they are forced to live in shanty town camps on the edge of town. When the harvests are done, the sheriff and a bunch of local tough guys force everyone out and burn the camp to the town so they can't settle down.

As I was listening, I noted that some things haven't changed. Any time someone discusses organizing the workers or improving the working conditions someone accuses them of being a socialist. Not much has changed almost 85 years later. There are also parallels to the modern era migrant farm workers.

This book is compelling from beginning to end and is performed (not read - performed) wonderfully by Dylan Baker. He creates a series of unique voices and just hits all of the right notes throughout. 

This book deserves all of the hype.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: THE GRAPES of WRATH (audiobook) by John Steinbeck.

BOMBS AWAY (audiobook) by John Steinbeck

 

Originally published in 1942.
Published in 2016 by Penguin Audio.
Read by Scott Aiello.
Duration: 4 hours, 36 minutes.
Unabridged.

1942 was a rough year for America in World War II, especially in the early months. The Pacific Fleet was devastated and American troops were barely involved in the European Theater.

As part of a total war effort, every resource had to be tapped, including pulling in famous authors like John Steinbeck to write books that assured the American public that the Army Air Corps/Air Force (he uses both terms interchangeably) had a plan, was implementing the plan, and it was going to be a successful plan. 

Steinbeck was a bold choice to write what is basically a piece of American propaganda. His novels Of Mice and Men and Grapes of Wrath caused quite an uproar just a few years earlier with their criticism of the American capitalism. I think the reasoning was that if Steinbeck approves of what the Army Air Corps/Air Force was doing, it must be okay.

A B-17 (left) and a B-24 (right)

Steinbeck starts with an overview of the history of airplanes in the U.S. military. Then, he looks at 2 kinds of bombers - the B-17 and the B-24 and discusses the jobs of the men that flew those planes. Finally, he looks at a pretend recruit class and follows a crew through their individual training. Finally, he puts them all together in a plane and the reader gets to see them finish their training. The book ends with the crew on the runway. The crew opens their orders to an undisclosed location, the navigator lays in a course and they fly off to join the fighting.

Generally speaking, this book does not feel like a Steinbeck book. It spends a lot of time talking about the unique characteristics of America and Americans that will help them win the war. It has an element of truth, of course, but it also is very, very obvious.

The book does have the Steinbeck characteristic of being about regular people. There are few high level officers in the book and they have few lines. There are no big shots - no quotes from FDR, not sweeping pronouncements from MacArthur. Just young men from regular, almost boring, places being trained to go off and do extraordinary things.

I cannot say that this was a good book. It's too obvious and doesn't really have a plot. But, it is an outstanding record of how America trained its bomber crews in a palatable form. 

I rate this audibook 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Bomb's Away by John Steinbeck.

THE RED PONY by John Steinbeck

 

Originally published in 1945.

John Steinbeck
(1902-1968)

The Red Pony is a standard novel to be read at the middle school level across the country. I remember I read the first third of the book as a part of my 7th grade literature class textbook, but the rest of the book was new to me.

As I mentioned, The Red Pony is split into sections - three of them. In actuality, they are 3 coming-of-age short stories about Jody, a boy growing up on a northern California ranch. 

Being Steinbeck stories, they are well-written, brutally realistic and every one has a sad twist.  I like Steinbeck, but it has to come in small doses.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: The Red Pony by John Steinbeck.

OF MICE and MEN (audiobook) by John Steinbeck

Originally published in 1937.

Penguin Audio edition published in 2011.
Read by Gary Sinise.
Duration: 3 hours, 11 minutes.
Unabridged. 

The narrator, Gary Sinise, as the character
George in the 1992 film version of this novel. 

This is probably the 5th or 6th time that I have read this book. I reviewed it as a print book 10 years ago (click here to see that review).

Gary Sinise read this book and did a fabulous job, especially with the voices of Lennie and Crooks. He played George in one of the many movie adaptations of this novel in 1992.

This was my first time hearing this book as an audiobook and I was very impressed that it was an even more effective book when read aloud than in print.

This review of one of the most-read, most-celebrated novels in the English-speaking world will not include a plot synopsis - what's the point? Instead, let me say that this short novel has an amazingly tight plot. In this 3 hour and 11 minute story, nearly every scene, and most lines of dialogue are relevant to the climax of the story.

Foreshadowing abounds in the first half hour of the audiobook, almost all of the conversations in the bunkhouse point towards the dramatic scene at the end and the point to the theme of the little guy never getting a real shot to improve his lot in life. Even the title, Of Mice and Men, is a reference to the poem To a Mouse by Scottish poet Robert Burns that was written when he accidentally destroyed a mouse's nest while plowing at the beginning of winter. The mouse had done everything right, only to lose it all to events beyond its control. The poem contains this line:

The best laid schemes of mice and men
Go often askew,
And leave us nothing but grief and pain

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5. Highly recommended. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Of Mice and Men (audiobook) by John Steinbeck. 

Note: In February of 2022 I tagged this book "MAGA Censorship List" because a group called Moms for Liberty created a list of 51 books that they wanted removed from their school library. This article is pretty good because it has a lot of details. It includes the whole list and one activist's assertion that the books may be part of an agenda on the part of George Soros or the United Nations or the American Library Association. (Seriously - it's a direct quote in the article. This is the kind of crazy that fills these groups.)

This book is also on lists of books that Progressives want to ban. Here is a link to a list maintained by a university that tracks book bans. In this case, it is for inclusion of the n-word.

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

I thought it was great before, even better when I re-read it 15 years later.

Originally published in 1937

John Steinbeck (1902-1968)

I used to have a considerable classroom library (I have since switched schools and there is no Silent Sustained Reading program at the new school so I donated my library) and I always would hand Of Mice and Men to any kid that said he or she hated reading and "there's nothing good to read." I had a hard time keeping this book on the shelves and since I had an "honor system" check out plan this book kept on disappearing on me since the students seemed to have felt it was worth keeping and I had to make runs to the local used book store to re-stock it.

But, I hadn't read it in a while so I decided to see if it was still one of my favorites.

If anything, this book is more powerful than it was before. The loss at the end is more powerful, both the loss with Lennie and with the loss of a dream. Themes abound, such as the loss of the American Dream, loneliness, friendship and the responsibilities of friendship. Perhaps, even some religious themes with all of the events starting on a Friday and ending on a Sunday.

But, all of that would be pointless if the story were not well-written and poignant. It's short length only serves to heighten the power of the story.

One of the best American novels. Period.

I rate this novel 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.

Reviewed on January 31, 2009.

Note: In February of 2022 I tagged this book "MAGA Censorship List" because a group called Moms for Liberty created a list of 51 books that they wanted removed from their school library. This article is pretty good because it has a lot of details. It includes the whole list and one activist's assertion that the books may be part of an agenda on the part of George Soros or the United Nations or the American Library Association. (Seriously - it's a direct quote in the article. This is the kind of crazy that fills these groups.)

This book is also on lists of books that Progressives want to ban. Here is a link to a list maintained by a university that tracks book bans. In this case, it is for inclusion of the n-word.