Steinbeck and The Grapes of Wrath

I have been thinking about John Steinbeck and his writing. I like Steinbeck. One of the questions I ask everyone who confesses to reading is “Have you read The Winter of Our Discontent ?” No one reads it. I have met two people in my entire life who have read it and one of them was in Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. And I don't understand that. It's entertaining. It's funny. It's readable and you can justify the time you spend on it.

It seems like everyone gets the Steinbeck kicked out of them at an early age. No one ever gets past The Grapes of Wrath. I was lucky that the first Steinbeck I ever read was Travels with Charley. If I had started out with The Grapes of Wrath I would never had picked up another thing by him. (If you have ever seen the John Ford movie adaptation staring Henry Fonda then you need to be sure and see the SCTV version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6O5xCRNx4g )

My son is in high school. One of the summer reading choices is, you guessed it, The Grapes of Wrath. I don't understand why they would force that book on anyone. They should be reading something they would enjoy. No wonder all he does is play Call of Duty.

You can find my review of The Winter of Our Discontent at http://georgewparkertalkingbookreviews.blogspot.com/.

George W. Parker