But I just want to harp on one thing: This is, without a doubt, the most important book I’ve ever read.
I’m not saying that it’s my FAVORITE book or anything - it is the most IMPORTANT book I’ve ever read. The kind of book you wish everyone would read because it covers something so well and so thoroughly that you know in your heart if everyone read it, we’d all get on the same page and move forward in a way that made more sense. That we would realize we’ve been sold an idea forever ago that will never come to fruition. That it IS possible to move forward. Together. Toward a better future.
Because this book is about America selling its soul and turning its back on the people and even the land.
People will be real quick to dismiss it because it’s old, but I promise you that it as applicable now as it was then. You read it and you can feel the truth and the danger of the truth. You get a real feel for why this book was banned. Why Bruce Springsteen wrote a song about it and why Rage Against the Machine covered that song. You get a feel for why Steinbeck says he was run out and almost killed in Oklahoma after the book had come out.
I would mention to people that I’m reading this book and they’d say “oh, that was a good movie.” I promise that, unless there was a 20-episode mini-series, it wouldn’t have the rage and sheer TEETH this book has.
Or they’d say “that’s about the dust bowl era, right?”
Partially, I guess, but that’s not what the book is about.
The is about humanity and humanity’s obligation to itself - our obligation to each other.
It is timeless and feels almost obligatory.
Normally I don’t say you should read a book. I don’t think it’s my place.
But if you haven’t read it, you should.
And if you HAVE, you should read it again.
#grapesofwrath #johnsteinbeck #books #literature #capitalism #consumerism #bookrecommendation