The Grapes of Meh

[Anonymous No.22973267]

Just finished this and I gotta say, I'm underwhelmed. From a Nobel winning writer and one of the most acclaimed american authors (and from one of the most likely candidates for "great american novel"), I was expecting much more.

>way too long.
>way too repetitive.
>inelegant style, not a single truly beautiful sentence in the entire novel.
>no subtext whatsoever, Steinbeck punches you in the face with his ideology every 10 pages.
>characters are so busy talking like "le wise peasant that is poor and ignorant but actually much smarter than le educated evil capitalist pigs" that they forget to be realistic.
>some Checkov's guns remain unfired (why make such a big deal of the fact that Tom is breaking the law by leaving the state, and then never do anything with it?).
>no real closure: the grapes of wrath are finally mature and ready for harvest, but we never see the consequences after being teased with them for 600 pages.
>symbolism so obvious it pulled me out of the story (Casy's Jesus-like death, with him QUOTING JESUS AS HE GOT KILLED ("You don't know what you're doing") and the characters later saying "He did it for us, he died for us". Jesus Christ, Steinbeck).

PROS:
>some decent sentences.

Overall, 5/10. Was expecting much better.
Maybe 90 years ago this overexplanatory and too explicit style was necessary to be understood, but now this reads like a clumsy attempt from a somewhat talented but still green author. I see people comparing Cormac McCarthy to Steinbeck and wonder who was the better author. Lol. Lmao, even.

[Anonymous No.22973463]

>>22973267
>PROS:
>>some decent sentences.
Some great insight there, anon.

[Anonymous No.22973525]

>>22973267
You don't know what the fuck you're talking about, do you, son?

[Anonymous No.22973552]

>>22973267
Read East of Eden. That's much better.

[Anonymous No.22973568]

>>22973267
The Soviet Union once showed the grapes of wrath movie to show their citizens that capitalism was failed but had to pull the film because people got excited and thought they were going to get clothes as nice as the drifters in the movie.

[Anonymous No.22973589]

I agree about repetition. It's like it said everything it wanted to say by about the halfway mark then didn't really add any new ideas after that. My favourite part was near the start where it's describing how no individual in the chain of command at the bank wants to foreclose the land, yet still do because "the bank" demands it.

[Anonymous No.22973737]

>>22973267
I loved the book. The story was compelling, characters lovable and genuine (I know this kind of people) and criticism of libertarianism emotionally captivating. It sends the message really well through, while being enjoyable. And no, I am not a commie, but the message is still there: you can't have unrestricted capitalism.

[Anonymous No.22973994]

>>22973267
I loved it. I thought it was pretty amazing how well he captured the spirit of these people as an outsider. I think you are probably just a hack

[Anonymous No.22974161]

The whole point of the novel was about being realistic, Steinbeck was working as a journalist while writing the novel and he followed a family of Oklahoma migrants to get the inspiration for it. That's why the prose is so "simple" it's meant to come across as a journalistic work.

>>no subtext whatsoever, Steinbeck punches you in the face with his ideology every 10 pages

I never understood people who have a problem with this, since literally every author does it.

[Anonymous No.22974204]

>>22973267
my thoughts exactly. well said, anon. I gave it a D Tier when I read it back in 2022