I finished reading the Grapes of Wrath a couple weeks ago. I expected it to be a difficult read, but was, for the most part, entertained. Having finished, now I think it's a tough read. What a strange ending. Certainly are a couple of interesting topics in there, though: the generosity of the poor and the greed of the wealthy; "the bitter conflict between the powerful and the powerless"; man's basic need for work. I've been looking for a reference to this third theme, but haven't found one. It seems that the other ideas are more important to people. For some reason, though, I focused on the way the men in the story were all but worthless when they didn't have work. There's a particular passage (can't find it now) that struck my fancy, dealing with how important a man's work is to him; how it's a part of him, makes him whole or something. Oh well, can't find it.
For some reason I've done a lot of other reading (at least for me) this summer. Here's my current list, starting in late June:
Read:
Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
Orson Scott Card, Seventh Son (Book 1, The tales of Alvin Maker)
Orson Scott Card, Red Prophet (Book 2)
Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club
Orson Scott Card, Prentice Alvin (Book 3)
John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
Orson Scott Card, Alvin Journeyman (Book 4)
Orson Scott Card, Heartfire (Book 5)
Currently reading:
Sylvia Naser, Beautiful Mind
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1 comment:
Very true. The men in Grapes had no work, and no money, and therefore no play, either. Of course the men had their sleeping around and getting drunk whenever they came into money.
Similar observation in the latest addition to my summer reading (Beautiful Mind). It seems to me that Nash might not have come up with so much genious material if he had gotten laid more...
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