Shabbat Reading: John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath

John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (1939; Penguin, 2002)

Years ago I read Of Mice and Men and East of Eden. I’m reminded why I loved them. Steinbeck is like Shakespeare: every character in The Grapes of Wrath is fully realized. Even the ones you hate, you understand. Steinbeck is also like Tolstoy. He makes history—big, lumbering, impersonal forces—come to life. The Dust Bowl and the landowners and the migrants they sent tumbling west all emerge in vivid, harsh detail. Together these qualities make The Grapes of Wrath what it is: a true American epic.