The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

"Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord, he is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath have stored..."

Were you oblivious like me that these were the words in the first line of the Battle Hymn of the Republic? I'm not sure if these are the same grapes Steinbeck is referring to, but there is enough wrath in the world to go around, whether it's the wrath of the Union army during the Civil War or the wrath of the promise of a better life out west.

Strangely and coincidentally, my mom mentioned she was reading a book about the Dust Bowl just as I was starting Grapes of Wrath. I didn't really know what the Dust Bowl was before I read this book, but when my mom mentioned that her father came to California from Oklahoma in the 1930's and even joked about being an, "Okie," I was a lot more interested in knowing more. She was loving her book so much, she didn't want to get to the end. I, on the other hand, was trudging through Grapes of Wrath one chapter at a time.

Steinbeck writes about the Joad family, who travel from Oklahoma to northern California, like so many families did in the 1930's, when dust storms destroyed their crops and livelihoods. Promises of work in the fruit orchards lured families west, hoping to start new lives. We take this journey with Tom Joad, his siblings, parents, grandparents, and other stragglers they meet along the way. Their journey is rife with car troubles, death, more car troubles, more death, and camping. So much camping. If you're averse to camping like me, the fact that the Joads rarely bathe and take a mattress from their car to the ground back to their car is only part of the horrors Steinbeck presents.

Steinbeck intersperses chapters about the Joad family with narrative chapters about the next topic to be broached. For instance, the first chapter is about the dust storms. He writes extensively about how dusty things are, how the dust formed, how the dust darkened the sky, how the dust muffled sound, how the dust settled on everything, how the dust covered the ground. Do you get the idea? You don't, trust me. I remember thinking, "he just spent an entire chapter on dust storms, this is going to be a looooooong book." Then the next chapter was about Tom Joad beginning his adventure. The another narrative chapter, this one about a turtle on the road. It took some getting used to. The narrative chapters were a more general approach to what the Joads were experiencing specifically. I appreciate Steinbeck's ability to paint a picture using these narrative chapters, but it felt more like an academic exercise getting through them, rather than an enjoyable relaxing read. Hence my aforementioned "trudging" comment.

Overall, I enjoyed reading about the Joads - what ma was going to make for the next meal, where they would camp next, what their next (mis)adventure would be, when they'd get to bathe...And I definitely got a feel for a way of life and a time period I have no knowledge about. While I've read online many things about the book people find offensive, the only thing I picked up on were a few uses of offensive language referring to specific groups of people. While issues surrounding religion, communism, and unions still have the ability to turn people into crazy nitwits today, I think there was a lot less tolerance for what Steinbeck wrote about then than there is now.    

While I don't regret reading the book, would I recommend it? Nah. I think I'll try the one my mom was raving about and see if it's less of a chore to read. 

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

This is a book that I feel like I should have read years ago, but somehow I missed that lesson in school. It's one of those books that is referenced a lot in pop culture so I felt it was time for me to familiarize myself with the source material. 

It's funny, after the first page, I thought, "I like this guy! He's entertaining to listen to." That lasted maybe...10 pages? If that? I gotta tell you, Holden Caulfield got old REAL fast. I realized he was one of those weirdos you give a wide berth after he walked through a playground, saw some kids on a see-saw, and decided to just help out by pushing the lighter end of the seesaw. No "hey buddy, let me help you" or anything like that. Just weird, random dude, walking around a playground "helping" the kids. Creepy.

I thought it was strange too that he would go to clubs or ride in taxi cabs and invite the singer or driver to come have a drink. He reeked of desperation. He's also one of those people that's too cool for school and doesn't have interest in the things kids his age have interest in. Football games? Nah. Fraternities? Lame. Conversation? Only if it's something of interest to him. Something of substance in his opinion. 

Which would be fine, but his conversations are awful. In one, he calls up a girlfriend and takes her out and tells her that she's a royal pain in the ass when she says she doesn't want to just up and run away with him. Then he calls up an old friend and pesters him about his sex life multiple times even after the poor guy repeatedly tells him to stop. And Holden literally begs, "Have just one more drink...please. I'm lonesome as hell. No kidding." And in a conversation with the one person that actually likes him, his little sister, she keeps asking him to stop swearing and he ignores her. And at least two different people complained he was talking too loud and he just ignores them. He is the worst. 

And the way he talks is like an 80 year old curmudgeonly woman. He sounds like my grandmother, God rest her soul. But her complaints were tolerated because she was old and had bad knees and lived a sucky, hard life. He complains about the piano player at a bar who plays the piano stinking and an old classmate who was one of the biggest bores he ever met, and a phony movie he saw. and the lousy light from the street lamp, and his stupid aunt, and the phony party, and the bartender who is a big snob and doesn't talk to people, but when he does talk to people he's even more nauseating. I just can't.

And he constantly repeats himself. For example, "He adapts himself very well to things. He really does. I mean he really knows how to adapt himself." Or "I thought maybe I might give old Jane another buzz and see if she was home yet. I mean I had the whole evening free, and I thought I'd give her a buzz and, if she was home yet..." Or this gem, "What would he do to me? I mean what would he do to me?"

I have to admit, I didn't get what the book was about. I read it and thought, "nothing really happened." I just know what Holden did for 2 days in New York after being kicked out of school because he was too afraid to face his parents. But g'dam, it was like I was stuck in a room with him for days when one minute would have been more than enough. Sure, there's a lot of imagery you could analyze about the loss of innocence and youth, but Holden stinks. So I don't want to linger on the finer details. It seems like a book that could be fun to discuss in a class, but absent that, it's just an annoying 2 days with a guy with a grating personality.