The Grapes of Wrath -- not that Steinbeck really needs my 2 cents

 Posting my latest review here, because links to Goodreads can be wonky.

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

People who know my teaching and research might rightly assume I had read Grapes of Wrath, dealing as it does with both ecological disaster and migration. (Browse this blog for plenty of posts about each.) Somehow I had not gotten around to it until very recently, and indeed I had already absorbed some of its lessons over years of second-hand references. I can now see why its reputation looms so large -- this is a powerful telling of an historic tragedy that sheds light on similar storied unfolding almost a century later. 

Steinbeck tells the story of thousands of Dustbowl migrants through the experience of one character and his extended family. The experience of Tom Joad and his relatives can be seen in three parts: the perils of living in Oklahoma, the perils of travel from Oklahoma, and the perils of arriving in California. What surprised me -- and should not have -- is just how little relief the family's migration provided. 

Sprinkled among the narrative chapters that focus on the Joad family are expository chapters that explain some of the systemic challenges they faced. One early example explains the economics of land tenure and how consolidated ownership pushed small holders from the land and toward the road. Another describes the economics of buying the cars known as "jalopies" that were barely adequate for the journey.

I read and a lot of contemporary stories of migration from Central America to the United States, and I am struck by the similarities in each of the three stages: from being pushed off the lands they love, through harrowing journeys across hostile terrain, to facing discrimination on arrival in their adopted homes.

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