Amazon.com
When The Grapes of Wrath was published in 1939, America, still recovering from the Great Depression, came face to face with itself in a startling, lyrical way. John Steinbeck gathered the country's recent shames and devastations--the Hoovervilles, the desperate, dirty children, the dissolution of kin, the oppressive labor conditions--in the Joad family. Then he set them down on a westward-running road, local dialect and all, for the world to acknowledge. For this marvel of observation and perception, he won the Pulitzer in 1940.
The prize must have come, at least in part, because alongside the poverty and dispossession, Steinbeck chronicled the Joads' refusal, even inability, to let go of their faltering but unmistakable hold on human dignity. Witnessing their degeneration from Oklahoma farmers to a diminished band of migrant workers is nothing short of crushing. The Joads lose family members to death and cowardice as they go, and are challenged by everything from weather to the authorities to the California locals themselves. As Tom Joad puts it: "They're a-workin' away at our spirits. They're a tryin' to make us cringe an' crawl like a whipped bitch. They tryin' to break us. Why, Jesus Christ, Ma, they comes a time when the on'y way a fella can keep his decency is by takin' a sock at a cop. They're workin' on our decency."
The point, though, is that decency remains intact, if somewhat battle-scarred, and this, as much as the depression and the plight of the "Okies," is a part of American history. When the California of their dreams proves to be less than edenic, Ma tells Tom: "You got to have patience. Why, Tom--us people will go on livin' when all them people is gone. Why, Tom, we're the people that live. They ain't gonna wipe us out. Why, we're the people--we go on." It's almost as if she's talking about the very novel she inhabits, for Steinbeck's characters, more than most literary creations, do go on. They continue, now as much as ever, to illuminate and humanize an era for generations of readers who, thankfully, have no experiential point of reference for understanding the depression. The book's final, haunting image of Rose of Sharon--Rosasharn, as they call her--the eldest Joad daughter, forcing the milk intended for her stillborn baby onto a starving stranger, is a lesson on the grandest scale. "'You got to,'" she says, simply. And so do we all. --Melanie Rehak
Book Description
One of the greatest and most socially significant novels of the twentieth century, Steinbeck's controversial masterpiece indelibly captured America during the Great Depression through the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads. Intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision, tragic but ultimately stirring in its insistence on human dignity, The Grapes of Wrath (1939) is not only a landmark American novel, but it is as well an extraordinary moment in the history of our national conscience.
Dorothy Allison on John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath: "
"John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath is a novel completely of it's time-but that time is as much the concrete nineties as the dust bowl thirties. With language that echoes the poetry of the gospels and characters who cling to simple human decency under the most horrific assaults, it is both a work of social criticism and a celebration of the American character. The Joad family speaks to us of all the homeless and displaced families on our streets today, and to the fears and prejudices that tempt so many of us to close our eyes or look away. In telling the story of the Joads, John Steinbeck has retold the story of this nation. We are not a small mean people, Steinbeck's work proclaims, and to prove it he showed us the courage and grace in the poorest of us."
Customer Reviews:
Waste of Time .......2007-10-13
I've read other Steinbeck novels, so I was looking forward to reading his "greatest" novel. Sometimes referred to as THE "Great American Classic." Honestly, I thought the book was boring, and from page one it consistently tried to make you feel sad and sorry for the Joad Family and the okies for being kicked off their land, because of the big bad evil bank! What's sad is the fact that Americans living in a free country, would denounce the bank, not the Joad family. They took out a loan, and its evil to think they should get to stay on land and not have to repay it. It's not the banks responsibility to cater to anyone, and there is nothing wrong with them seeking a profit motive. This story feeds on depravity and immorality. One of the main characters, Tom Joad, is a murderer! and deserves no respect, let alone sympathy. This novel is a perfect example of the alruistic religious depravity that we are constantly fed from day to day, and as far as I'm concerned its garbage! The human spirit is triumphant and proud, not depraved and guilty! Self-sacrifice is NOT a virtue!
Powerful, memorable, beautifully written........2007-10-07
I loved this book, period. I was "forced" to read it in high school, and we all know how much teenagers appreciate great American literature. (wink wink.)
I am so glad I decided to pick it up and read it again, because it was as if I'd never laid eyes on the book before. This book is beautifully written, powerful, and heartbreaking. I did not fully realize the plight of the migrant workers in the 1920's and this book made me grow to respect and empathize with the Joad family and others like them.
This book stayed with me for a while after I read it; I kept thinking about it and analyzing it. I couldn't wait for my husband to finish reading it so we could talk about it. If anyone is intimidated by the phrase "classic novel" or has bad memories of being forced to read classics in high school, I strongly urge you to read this book--I read everything from People magazine to Patricia Cornwell to chick lit--and I LOVED this book.
Simply an Amazing Book.......2007-09-11
If you haven't read The Grapes of Wrath, do yourself a huge favor and read it!!! Since it's that good, I can't think of any more words to describe it...
The Grapes of Wrath.......2007-09-06
I read this book in high school and did not pick it up again until I was 50. What a difference a few years makes! This book is about hope while facing incredible challenges. If there is hope, there is life. When the voices of the suffering come together, they simmer, begin to boil and rise up (hence, the wrath of the migrant workers). It is about finding strength in different sources (a mother surfacing as the leader of her family). It is about families circling the wagons and holding onto to each other because often that was all they had. This story has been told many times in the course of history of laborers and is the backbone of the unions. Chapter 29 says it all. Very moving. A must read over and over again.
Politically charged and blatantly biased, but still powerful and affecting .......2007-09-01
Detractors of this novel will tell you that The Grapes of Wrath is melodramatic, contrived, and relentlessly preachy - and I can't argue with them. The Grapes of Wrath is overwrought and about as subtle as a hand grenade, but it is also a powerfully affecting novel. I challenge even the most cynical reader not to be moved (at least a little) by the tragic story of the Joad family.
The novel is often described as a `sweeping epic' (which means it is longer than the average book). It is undeniably a classic and well worth reading, but is not without its flaws. The novel is compelling and I found myself having trouble putting it down as I neared the final chapters, however it does get bogged down in spots and some of the dialogue is repetitive. Steinbeck is unquestionably one of the most important writers of the 20th century, but (and let's be honest here) his prose is largely unremarkable (certainly when compared to Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby").
And then there are the politics...
Personally, I don't have a problem with an author having a strong point of view and expressing it in a novel. Yes, Steinbeck portrays a complex issue as if it were clear-cut. He portrays the migrants as good and noble (the men-folk may behave badly at times; drinkin', brawlin', and womanizin' but they are inherently good). Meanwhile, the banks and the land owners are evil personified. There is no middle ground in The Grapes of Wrath.
Despite what some reviewers would have you believe, The Grapes of Wrath is not a communist manifesto. It does however, question how a country so plentiful can allow so many to starve and suffer and Steinbeck doesn't hesitate to point his finger at those he feels are to blame. Reality is considerably more complex. The plight of the dustbowl farmers was inevitable as the economy changed and small family farms became unsustainable.
Steinbeck's narrative alternates between the Joad family's story (the even numbered chapters), and a series of expository chapters (the odd numbered chapters) that provide a broader perspective of the migrant experience. These expository chapters are the most politically charged and blatantly biased of the novel, but they also feature some of the best writing.
My review sounds mixed because I have mixed feelings about the novel. It is bold, but contrived, compelling, yet melodramatic, powerful, but preachy. All in all though its strengths outweigh its shortcomings. The Grapes of Wrath is well worth reading, just don't set your expectations too high. This isn't one of the best novels ever written, in fact, it isn't even Steinbeck's best.
Book Description
Illus. with photographs from the Dust Bowl era. This true story took place at the emergency farm-labor camp immortalized in Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. Ostracized as "dumb Okies," the children of Dust Bowl migrant laborers went without school--until Superintendent Leo Hart and 50 Okie kids built their own school in a nearby field.
Customer Reviews:
Beautiful and Inspiring.......2007-10-09
This book is a beautiful testiment to the human spirit, and the resilancy of the American spirit.
It is also the story of taking a chance on people that other's find useless.
A beautiful book and a beautiful story.
Connecting Childen to History.......2005-09-09
this book is an excellent companion to the historical ficiton book "Bud, Not Buddy." By reading aloud sections of Children of the Dustbowl, teachers could build some of the background knowledge that would help children understand how the daily lives of the average person changed as a result of the Great Depression and the 5-year drought in the Midwest.
Given the devastation of Hurriicane Katrina, this book also offers insight on what can happen when large numbers of people must migrate because of weather-related disasters.
Children of the Dust Bowl.......2005-09-08
The book appeared to be new, no marks, and sent immediately.
Readable for ages five (with help from parent) and up........2002-04-04
The writing in this book is excellent, flowing evenly from page to page. Many of the photographs within are pure art, having been taken by Russell Lee, Dorothea Lange, and others. These two people are the Pieter Bruegel and Thomas Hart Benton (depicting plain, everyday folk) of American photography. This book relates a small chunk of American history, to be sure, but more than that, it relates universal themes of the human condition. Overall, the book relates the brutal conditions of the dust bowl, the migration over the mountains and desert, taunting and prejudice from settled Californians, and eventual attainment of excellence, as revealed by the construction and maintenance of the Weedpatch School, which eventually became a model school in the community. My 5 1/2 year old enjoyed reading every page, and found particular mirth in the unusual daily chore that the dust bowl children did with their cows. The description of this unusual chore is worth the price of the book. What was this daily chore? One way to find out is to borrow or purchase this book.
Children of the Dust Bowl.......2000-07-26
I am a student at St. Lawrence University, and doing a summer fellowship about the works of John Steinbeck. This book, while written as a children's book, is a valuable look at the Arvin Federal Emergency School, the conditions of the Dust Bowl, American attitudes about the poor, and Leo Hart, the man whose vision for a "broader curriculum" among his students was so influential and inspiring.
Stanley treats the same material in short form in an article in The American West (1986).
Book Description
First published in 1946, this autobiography of the well-known Filipino poet describes his boyhood in the Philippines, his voyage to America, and his years of hardship and despair as an itinerant laborer following the harvest trail in the rural West. Bulosan does not spare the reader any of the horrors that accompanied the migrant's life; but his quiet, stoic voice is the most convincing witness to those terrible events.
Customer Reviews:
A beautifully-told tale of tragedy...........2007-06-10
I first read AMERICA IS IN THE HEART as a young teenager in high school. Writer Carlos Bulosan goes the semi-autobiographical route to re-examine some of the most painful memories of his life, starting as a youth in the Philippines up to his last days on the West Coast of the United States. Carlos Bulosan, born on November 24, 1913 in Pangasinan, Philippines, came from a very poor background. His family had no choice but to work, collectively, while he and his siblings toiled in the fields of Pangasinan, and abroad in the United States, just so they could [barely] subsist on their earnings and scrap by.
The main character, Allos, must relocate to the United States, to find work in various odd jobs (including the canneries of California and Washington state). He is faced with racism from all sides--Caucasians, exploitative Chinese and Japanese bosses, and just about everyone else. The darker your skin, the harder the discrimination fell on workers of the 1930s and 1940s. This came with strict laws again miscygenation. If you were Filipino, just speaking to a White woman could get you in a lot of hot water. Yet, in the face of all of this pain, Allos becomes involved as a labor organizer and demonstrator for the rights of exploited laborers. What's more, he meets and is reunited with friends and family, over the course of the story, and even finds friendship with a Caucasian woman, Mary.
AMERICA IS IN THE HEART beautifully recounts the pain that faced countless laborers who arrived in the United States to bring in income for their families, in their countries. Many of the passages read like poetry, yet remain very accessable to people for whom the concept of the plight of migrant workers is a fairly foreign concept. Great reading.
Voice to FilAms.......2006-11-26
I first read this book for a Filipino History class at UCLA in 1991. I read it again this year and have appreciated it more. Age and the fact that I re-read it for pleasure this time around can make a difference.... Though I do miss the book discussion at UCLA.
What I love about "America is in the Heart" is that the book gives voice to Filipino Americans, particularly to the forgotten ones from the early part of last century. Just like the Filipino American War, only a few knows about this chapter of American History. The struggles and successes of this group of Filipino men should be heard and this book gives good account of their experiences.
My own thoughts/reflections on America..........2004-09-10
This book tells the story of Allos (or Carlos) Bulosan - from his early days as a peasant child in the Phillipines to his days as an itinerant laborer and reformer for the Filipinos in America. This autobiography reflects the hard life of a persecuted nationality. With no rights to own agricultural land and the risks of being beaten for even conversing with a white women, Filipinos were despised along the West Coast and treated as criminals and monkeys. With no legal recourse or organizations, Filipino workers were often exploited by the contractors and the Chinese and Japanese who owned the gambling houses and whorehouses. This exploitation led many to drinking and violence, only to aggravate the hatred of their kind. Bulosan tells of the brutalities endured by Filipinos at the hands of the white community and of the terrors of disease and unemployment. How many times did Bulosan have to hear "You're fired!" after trying to stand up for himself and his people.
One thing that struck me about the book was the concept of meeting your siblings when you're old enough to remember it. Having grown up with my older sister always at my side, the first scene in which he firsts meets his older brother, Leon seemed very foreign to me. It brought home the point that working families didn't always have the luxury of living together. To survive, each family member had to contribute whether it was working the fields or selling goods in the market, but it meant that the whole family was not united. This family never seemed to be fully together, at least one sibling or parent was always away, trying to do their part. It was hard for me to really relate to that, although I certainly felt for them.
Another concept that I noticed was the sense of time in the book. While Carlos was in America, I never really grasped how much time was passing, and it seemed that Carlos himself didn't either. When reflecting, he often wondered at how many years it had been since he arrived in Seattle. Even after reading the book, I'm not sure exactly of the years that this autobiography covers, although I'm given a few references to historical events and figures. While years seemed to be pass by unnoticed, Carlos writes of an "acute sense of time" because he has to focus on the present just to survive. He writes, "yesterday seemed long ago and tomorrow was too far away. It was today that I lived for aimless, this hour - this moment." That to me was an interesting contrast.
Carlos also wrote of the conflicting visions of America - how it could be so cruel at times, while certain aspects could be so kind. He could not understand the country that terrorized his people, and yet contained some people so willing to help. The violence and pain Carlos experienced made him fear even himself - that he would not be able to contain his rage and would last out. He was afraid of his own brutality, even when he longed for goodness and love in the country of opportunity.
This book is filled with names and places, and it is often difficult to remember exactly who's who or what happened in which city. As Carlos travels all along the West Coast and meets a great many people. Surprisingly to me, his world seems small, as he meets most of his friends and companions multiple times during his travels. Seemingly by chance, he encounters his brothers who came to America before him. Maybe it was vastly different then, but I have a hard time imagining that continuous traveling on the coast would lead you to your family and friends as often as it did for Carlos. However, since the Filipinos were confined to certain districts, I guess it shouldn't be so surprising.
The last parts of the book relate Carlos' experience in trying to organize the Filipino labor movement, and his intellectual emergence as a writer. Throughout this section, Carlos regains his faith in America, as he meets more people fighting for his people and reads dozens of books proving that situations can get better and uneducated people can write the story of their people and their struggles. America became a part of Carlos - through it's land and his struggles and successes in it. He wanted desperately to help America grow into the country he knew it could be, and he sacrificed so much for America. His hopes were contained within America, and so America was contained within him.
The subaltern has spoken........2003-08-17
Writing a review of Carlos Bulosan's AMERICA IS IN THE HEART is a deceptively difficult thing to do. What gives? It is an easy read, very straightforward, and well articulated. On the surface, the ARCHIVE (in the Foucault sense) point to a death by a broken heart. However, closer examination points to a death brought on by the collective affliction, deprivation, and maltreatment since his arrival in the early 30s - not to mention the bouts of excessive drinking and violence. The book, moreover, leans toward a united effort to combat global fascism; but this poignant autobiography is really a testimony to those years of struggle against racism and violence.
An autobiography in four parts, Bulosan takes us back (literally and figuratively) to his roots in Binalonan, Pangasinan. Bulosan is keen to intimate his adolescent years were his family barely survived on four hectares of land (which they eventually lost to the moneylender and the absentee landlords) and the efforts of the DYNAMIC LITTLE PEASANT WOMAN. In the end, things just got SO BAD that the men (most barely boys) in the clan eventually opted for the promise of jobs and such in America. This begs the question (and often overlooked by scholars) that the suffering really started at home. His habitus was so bad, it seems, that despite the ravages he (and his direct kin as well as kababayans) experienced, they elected to remain in the US. That seems to be the common plight of most immigrants to the US - and I say this guardedly.
At this point, I would like to juxtapose the optimism and the rage that formed the collective consciousness of Carlos Bulosan and his inability to reconcile the contradiction.
AMERICA IS ALSO THE NAMELESS FOREIGNER, THE HOMELESS REFUGEE, THE HUNGRY BOY BEGGING FOR A JOB AND THE BLACK BODY DANGLING ON A TREE. AMERICA IS THE ILLITERATE IMMIGRANT WHO IS ASHAMED THAT THE WORLD OF BOOKS AND THE INTELLECTUAL OPPORTUNITIES IS CLOSED TO HIM.
WE ARE ALL THAT NAMELESS FOREIGNER, THE HOMELESS REFUGEE, THAT HUNGRY BOY, THAT ILLITERATE IMMIGRANT AND THAT LYNCHED BLACK BODY. ALL OF US, FROM THE FIRST ADAMS TO THE LAST FILIPINO, NATIVE BORN OR ALIEN, EDUCATED OR ILLITERATE. WE ARE AMERICA!
Carlos Bulosan, excerpt from AMERICA IS IN THE HEART
Almost echoing the angst of Richard Wright, Bulosan and his proletarian experience is translated quickly to a racism tour-de-force. It cuts right into the heart of his critique. Despite being laced with communist verbiage, the autobiography is a critique against the savagery of prejudice. The subaltern has spoken. We simply need to take heed.
One of the most compelling or fascinating issues brought up in AMERICA IS IN THE HEART is the issue of gender discrimination. The laws prohibiting marriage to white women by so-called Mongolian (and later changed to include Malay) was to exacerbate the racist problems. What is the REAL impact on the psyche of a law such as this? What are the long-term effects of ignorant eugenic laws such as these? Who knows?
Despite the clarity of the writing, it would seem that the book was written in good faith but it certainly fumbles from a lack of sophistication (which does not pose a problem for me). I don't think Bulosan meant this work to be representative of the entire Filipino-American experience but it certainly suffers an editorial/historical problem. Bulosan certainly edits his experience. Punctuated with a sense of disgust for the human experience it makes me feel that he lacks pathos. In terms of the veracity of the entire book, I have no problem believing the accuracy of the experience but history is already removed one step to us via the writer and one more step removed again by the writer to his actual experience. We may never get to the REAL truth and the REAL extent of the violence. However, if but one experience of violence against a Filipino AS SUCH, or a denial of lodging to a Filipino AS SUCH (or any group for that matter) is accurate then an injustice has occurred. We as a body politic should take note. AMERICA IS IN THE HEART is therefore a book that is also a call for collective agency.
To re-iterate, this book may not be fully representative of the PINOY experience and certainly Bulosan should be read carefully. It is an indictment on a negative social condition - where one man can create an OTHER in a society that plays up universal brotherhood. Not to trivialize the concern, this is not an uncommon malady. The question that begs to be asked is: Does Bulosan write AS IF he is writing about the whole truth?
In closing, Bulosan is a necessary read because it augments the selection of the Asian-American experience in general and ethnic studies in general. It is a deep and cutting exploration into a Filipino experience - it adds to the complexity of identity creation. If anything, this book is a pause to be self-reflective of the past for both the SAME and the OTHER. In loving memory to a brave kababayan...
Miguel Llora
A Tragic Attempt at Tragedy.......2003-05-28
Those looking for an uplifting read need to look elsewhere; Bulosan's "America..." reads like a laundry list of suffering and hopelessness. Bulosan writes powerfully, compellingly and beatifully, but he would have been better off sticking to his own story instead of trying to create a composite.
With tragedy so frequently present nowadays, it doesn't seem hard to believe that Bulosan's protagonist would experience so much tragedy (extreme poverty, deaths, heartbreak in every sense of the word, a severely debilitating disease, etc., etc.). A closer reading reveals that he has indeed created a composite, mashing the numerous hard-luck stories of the Filipino migrant workers of that time into a single person's life. It is difficult to believe, but if you can get beyond that fact, "America..." proves a depressing read with important historical weight, chronicling the ups and mostly downs of the Filipino migrant, with a progression from childhood to the life's winding down phase.
I lent this book to my grandfather, who lived at approximately the same time, and could very well have been in the provincial areas, practicing the customs Bulosan described. It was extremely disappointing but enlightening to have him give the book a thumbs down based on accuracy. Many descriptions of the hardships of not only Bulosan but those around him, particularly in the Philippines, were much too tragic for my grandfather to take, although he had suffered plenty in his childhood.
Often in writing stories, reality is much more interesting than fiction; by trying to unrealistically include everyone's experiences as one individual's trial does create an unbelievable tale, that will be even more difficult for those unaccustomed to the goings-on and atmosphere of a third-world country.
Bulosan's work is important as it is one of the select pieces of Filipino-American literature that has made the rounds in universities and literary circles, and that it covers an often forgotten group and struggle in American history. However, his attempt to create an all-encompassing experience within a single character is his downfall. A read recommended with a grain of salt.
Book Description
Today, nearly forty years after his death, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck remains one of America's greatest writers and cultural figures. Over the next year, his many works published as black-spine Penguin Classics for the first time and will feature eye-catching, newly commissioned art.
Of this initial group of six titles, The Grapes of Wrath is in a new edition with a completely revised introduction and, for the first time, detailed notes by leading Steinbeck scholar Robert DeMott.
Penguin Classics is proud to present these seminal works to a new generation of readers—and to the many who revisit them again and again.
Customer Reviews:
"I'll be there...".......2007-07-27
"Ya gotta eat..." Dad used uto say if we thanked him for taking to the local hamburger stand; he could have, just as easily, been stating the obvious theme of Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. One can easily imagine Tom Joad or, more to the point, his sister Rosasharon saying it in her "sharing" scene in the closing pages of the book. I read this book, the first time, in sophomore study hall just before lunch in small town Wisconsin; largely as a result of the wretched deprivations depicted in the book, I remember rushing home, sure I would starve to death if I didn't immediately ingest the bowl of soup and sandwich my mother had waiting for me. As the Joad family move out of Dustbowl Oklahoma toward the promised land of California, the Joads must survive on fried dough and unripe fruit (from which they are warned they may "get the skitters"); Along the way they meet tragedy and, in most cases, their dreams of a better life are smashed like last year's fallen fruit...And, yet, they still hope for the best. Maybe the next Hooverville will be different, maybe the next fruit ranch; if they could only make it there. Government offered little or no help. Long before the rest of the nation hit the skids, farmers were getting the short end of the stick; they never saw any of the prosperity of the 1920's, and the Dustbowl didn't help either. But Tom Joad sees hope in numbers, "Wherever a guy is hungry, I'll be there...", he says, urging the readers to come along, to fight injustice wherever they can: a challenge as urgent today as when Tom made it in this wonderful book.
The American Epic.......2007-05-21
"The Grapes of Wrath" is one of those intimidating "great books" that everyone knows about and no one reads. The irony is that it is a book about ordinary people, and the language and plot are hardly difficult at all. The Joads, driven off their Oklahoma farm by the encroachment of industrialization, seek a better life in California - with thousands of others in the same position. The migrants are forced to compete for survival, but only by leveraging their power as a group can they ever truly triumph. The theme of individual vs. group is further emphasized by the form of the novel. Steinbeck uses alternating chapters about the Joads and "interchapters" about the migrants as a whole. Thus the book, besides being the great American epic about the Joads, is also a social and political novel that caused an enormous uproar upon its publication. This is a book that is part of the collective American conscious and should be read by everyone who wants to feel thoroughly educated.
Terrific "Fambly".......2007-04-27
If you have not read this book, what are you waiting for? Is it because it was written before you were born? (1939) Does its name scare you, as it did me, into imagining it would be about all sorts of odd things, as I did? Well don't let your preconceived notions fool you. It's a terrific novel. It is a great piece of literature that won Mr. Steinbeck a well-deserved Pulitzer Prize, and eventually, with his other contributions to literature, earned him a Nobel Prize.
What can I say about the Joads that has not already been said in the past sixty-odd years? How could I have missed knowing them earlier? I read this story, with its "country speech" and "country ways" and wanted to take them all in. I wanted to comfort them all. I didn't know what I would find at the Joads when we first meet Tom going home. Who is this Tom Joad Jr. and why was he in jail? He must have had a HORRIBLE life to end up there, he must have. Then you meet the 'fambly.' You live with the 'fambly.' You see proud Pa try so hard to be the head of the home during the Dust Bowl migration. This family, who for generations upon generations, upon generations lived off their land. The land wasn't a piece of property, it was family. It fed them, it housed them. They raised a crop to sell, so they can pay off the loans they took when times were tough before. When the rains stopped coming, and the payments to the bank stopped being made, the 'banks' came and told all these people to leave. Imagine someone coming to tell you that the land you have lived on all your life, the land of your fathers and grandfathers belonged to the banks and you had to leave right now. Imagine the dread. All your life spent in the same place, with the same neighbors, the same strong values; "Yes Sir! Yes Ma'am!" No talking back, everyone knew their place. And then the dust came, and took away everything you knew.
The Joads sell everything they own, load up a beat-up truck with the necessities (food, water, mattresses, clothes, pots, pans) and head towards the promised land of California. Along with 500,000 other displaced people. All looking for land to work; it's all they know. You get land, you work it, it's yours. They had no idea what life outside of Oklahoma was really going to be like.
There's Ma, trying so hard to keep the family strong. She's the backbone. She eventually takes charge, which, back on their farm, was unheard of. Times were changing.
Ma & Pa, 6 kids, Grandma & Grandpa, Uncle John, the Preacher Casey, and Connie, the husband of one of Ma's daughters. Thirteen people in one truck.
I wanted to bring them home, let them eat, give them a hot bath, tell them it'll be ok. I wanted to simultaneously smack the heck out of Rose of Sharon (Rosasharn) and comfort her in the end; tell her she really did do good in God's eyes at that very last paragraph. I saw Ruthie grow in those 7 or 8 months into someone I did not like. She was mean, she was vindictive, she was 7. I saw humanity at its worse. Things like this really did happen in the early 1930's, after the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. These "Okies" were treated with contempt. They were kicked off their lands, treated like animals, paid meager wages or in some cases, they were paid with a loaf of bread for 16 hours of work, and it's disgusting. How would you fare? What would you be willing to do to feed your starving family?
It's a terrific book. I wish I knew how Noah fared. I wish I knew what happened to that spineless Connie. Is Tom ok? Did he take up the cause that Casey so tragically and instantaneously had taken from him? I imagine so. I imagine Tom forcing these cities who spurned them, who burned them out, who arrested them, to have to accept them; 500,000 strong. If not directly, then inspiring others to go on and on. The packing plants who throw away food, while these people sit outside the gates dying. The orange growers who sprayed kerosene on the overstock of oranges rather than give them away for free. The food thrown in rivers, with armed guards making sure no one took the food. Pigs slaughtered because they could not sell them, and hungry people staring, not understanding that there's a profit to be made.
"And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listening to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quicklime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is a failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage."
A longer, better, agrarian, no-less-agenda-driven Jungle..........2007-04-05
Steinbeck was a red, and this book is infused with politics; but, unlike Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, The Grapes of Wrath is a fine work of literature. Not perfect, not without flaws, not as good as Zola's similarly-themed Germinal, but still a classic achievement by a truly great American author. Everyone should read it, from socialists to Shriners, and, as with any work of fiction, take it cum grano salis.
Steinbeck didn't like capitalism, because, especially during the Depression, there were many things about it not to like. His prediction that the private ownership of the means of production was soon to be over (as of 1939) hasn't been borne out...but the guy is not remembered for being a commie pantywaist, or a spectacularly-wrong prognosticator.
He was a writer, an exceptional one, and most people claim this is his best book. (I would argue that Of Mice and Men holds that distinction, but Grapes is almost five times as long...and how can a six-hundred-page book be worse'n a novella?)
Whatever you think, about politics, economics, or literature, this book is not a waste of time.
Average customer rating:
- La pura verdad-the whole truth
- Great Book
- Want to know what it's like?
- If You're Looking For NO Action...
- The Circuit
|
The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child
Francisco Jimenez
Manufacturer: University of New Mexico Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Short Story Collections
| Literature
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
Hispanic & Latino
| Multicultural Stories
| People & Places
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
Hispanic
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| British
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Contemporary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Technothrillers
| Thrillers
| Mystery & Thrillers
| Subjects
| Books
Ethnic Studies
| Special Groups
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Literature & Fiction
| Teens
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Breaking Through
-
Cajas De Carton: The Circuit Spanish Edition
-
La mariposa
-
Voices from the Fields : Children of Migrant Farmworkers Tell Their Stories
-
Esperanza Rising
ASIN: 0826317979 |
Book Description
After dark in a Mexican border town, a father holds open a hole in a wire fence as his wife and two small boys crawl through.
So begins life in the United States for many people every day. And so begins this collection of twelve autobiographical stories by Santa Clara University professor Francisco Jim�nez, who at the age of four illegally crossed the border with his family in 1947.
"The Circuit," the story of young Panchito and his trumpet, is one of the most widely anthologized stories in Chicano literature. At long last, Jim�nez offers more about the wise, sensitive little boy who has grown into a role model for subsequent generations of immigrants.
These independent but intertwined stories follow the family through their circuit, from picking cotton and strawberries to topping carrots--and back agai--over a number of years. As it moves from one labor camp to the next, the little family of four grows into ten. Impermanence and poverty define their lives. But with faith, hope, and back-breaking work, the family endures.
"A jewel of a book"--Rolando Hinojosa-Smith
"These stories are so realistic they choke the heart."--Rudolfo Anaya
A collection of twelve short stories presented from the perspective of a young boy, in which the author narrates his childhood experiences growing up in a family of Mexican migrant farmworkers.
Customer Reviews:
La pura verdad-the whole truth.......2006-06-01
This is a great family book.I am American Caucasian and my husband is a Mexican imigrant.We read this story out loud to one another,and while it is writen (very well) in simple English so that any reader could probably read it,we enjoyed it imensly.
I can tell you that so much of this story corrolated with our friends and family and was very touching,but brought on a lot of chuckles as well.A great family read.
Great Book.......2006-03-20
This book was very interesting. I loved the way this book shows how Mexicans suffer, struggle and work hard to get what they need to survive. This book has a good way of showing the different types of experiences the family goes through. It gets to a point where you get so into the book that you get frightened of what could happen to the family next. You don't know if the family is going to get caught by the border patrol or if you're going to be able to find a job for the next season. You just don't know if your going to be able to survive the only thing you have in your hands is hope and faith.
There was nothing that I could hate about this book the only thing that I hated was to read about how bad this family suffered. It hurts to see how your own people gets discriminated but, it's ok because this family like many other Mexicans have still succeeded after all the things they have to go trough, like being discriminated. Other than that there is nothing to dislike about this book.
I would definitely recommend this book for everybody especially for people who like this family is an illegal immigrant in this country. I would like for the anti-immigrant people to read this book so they can see that no matter what they do to try to stop the immigrants from succeeding the immigrants will never stop trying no matter what they do to try to stop them. This book is a great book I am sure that this story has repeated itself many times by other Mexican families. I am also sure that it will keep repeating itself for many years, but there is always a limit and the day will come when the Mexicans will be treated the same as everybody else in this country. There are many illegal immigrants that have been more successful in life than the people that are legal in this country, and it kills the anti-immigrants to know this is true.
Want to know what it's like?.......2006-03-16
This book is a great place to start if you are interested in learning about the life of someone less priviledged than yourself. Perhaps it will help you appreciate the simple pleasures in life and everything that you've got. When you reach the end of the book, you'll be glad Jimenez wrote a sequel (Breaking Through).
Written in a language that is accessible to everyone from grade school to adulthood, Jimenez doesn't exaggerate details or go into a lot of long desriptions. It's simply his memories of his childhood in a migrant family. As all memories go, the book does not flow smoothly from chapter to chapter, but rather gives you snapshots of his life, so take it for what it is and don't worry about the chronology.
As a teacher, this book really helped me appreciate the lives and struggles of many of my students (who lead lives similar to Jimenez in his childhood).
If You're Looking For NO Action..........2006-03-08
It starts out with this Mexican family illegally coming across the border into the United States. When they get to the U.S., they go to a labor camp in California. This first labor camp is probably the best one that they go to. The whole book is about this family moving around to different labor camps during different crop seasons. Every now and then, Francisco and his brother Roberto go to school. Along the way there are more people added to the family. The book doesn't really come to a good ending. It is also kind of hard to understand because it jumps three years into the future at times and then you don't know what's going on.
This was a very good book at some times but most of the time the author put in way too many unnecessary details that make the book kind of boring. This book is exactly like it's sequel, Breaking Through. I would rate this book pretty low if like a lot of action.
The Circuit.......2005-10-14
The Circuit, one of my favorite books, is written by Francisco Jimenez. The Circuit is about a family that lived in El Rancho Blanco, Guadalajara. Francisco and his family moved to the United States crossing the border illegally. When they get to the United States in California they look for work and they work in the fields picking cotton. Francisco's family is always hiding from the border patrol which they call it "la migra." As they go on they move to different places. The reason I read this story is because it held my interest , because I wondered how it would be crossing the border illegally. Also, because some of the story reminds me about when I got here from Mexico. I really recommend this book. It's exciting and it taught me to eat all my food and not throw it away because Francisco's family did't have anything to eat sometimes. I would give this book a ten, and I really loved it a lot and I think you should try it.
Average customer rating:
- A selection of seven articles that Steinbeck wrote in 1936
- Was It Really A Novel?
- . . .a prerequisite to In Dubious Battle. . .
|
The Harvest Gypsies: On the Road to the Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck
Manufacturer: Heyday Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
History
| Subjects
| Books
| Africa
| Americas
| Ancient
| Arctic & Antarctica
| Asia
| Audiobooks
| Australia & Oceania
| Europe
| Gay & Lesbian
| Historical Study
| Large Print
| Middle East
| Military
| Military Science
| Russia
| United States
| World
Labor & Industrial Relations
| Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Steinbeck, John
| Classics
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
20th Century
| British
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Essays
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
| Classics
| Comic
| Contemporary
| Literary
General
| Steinbeck, John
| ( S )
| Authors, A-Z
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Paperback
| Steinbeck, John
| ( S )
| Authors, A-Z
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Labor & Industrial Relations
| Politics
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Journalism
| Writing
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Art
| Arts & Photography
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Labor & Industrial Relations
| Economics
| Business & Investing
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
( S )
| Authors, A-Z
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
| Shakespeare, William
| Shaw, George Bernard
| Stevenson, Robert Louis
| Stoker, Bram
Essays
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
20th Century
| British
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Classics
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
| Cather, Willa
| General
| Hawthorne, Nathaniel
| Irving, Washington
| Melville, Herman
| Poe, Edgar Allen
| Twain, Mark
| Wharton, Edith
| Whitman, Walt
Labor & Industrial Relations
| Politics
| Nonfiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
General
| Reference
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Journalism
| Writing
| Reference
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
All 4-for-3 Deals
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath
-
Life in a California Mission: Monterey in 1786 : The Journals of Jean Francois De LA Perouse
-
Steinbeck: A Life in Letters
-
Desert Exile: The Uprooting of a Japanese-American Family
-
Under God
ASIN: 1890771619 |
Book Description
Recently listed in the Top 100 List of the Century's Best American Journalism
Gathered in this important volume are seven newspaper articles on migrant farm workers that John Steinbeck wrote for "The San Francisco News" in 1936, three years before _The Grapes of Wrath_. With the inquisitiveness of an investigative reporter and the emotional power of a novelist in his prime, Steinbeck toured the squatters' camps and Hoovervilles of California. Here he found once strong, independent farmers—the backbone of rural America—so reduced in dignity, beaten in spirit, sick, sullen, and defeated that they had been "cast down to a kind of subhumanity." He contrasts their misery with the hope offered by government resettlement camps, where self-help committees, child nurseries, quilting and sewing projects, and decent sanitation were restoring dignity and indeed saving lives.
_The Harvest Gypsies_ gives us an eyewitness account of the horrendous Dust Bowl migration, a major event in California history, and provides the factual foundation for Steinbeck's masterpiece, _The Grapes of Wrath_. Included are twenty-two photographs by Dorothea Lange and others, many of which accompanied Steinbeck's original articles.
Customer Reviews:
A selection of seven articles that Steinbeck wrote in 1936.......2003-03-09
Readers seeking a full experience of John Steinbeck's literary style won't want to miss Harvest Gypsies, a selection of seven articles that Steinbeck wrote in 1936 about the plight of migrant farmworkers during the Dust Bowl migration. Black and white photos accompany his report on conditions and experiences, weaving a masterful selection of insights which go beyond history into personal observation.
Was It Really A Novel?.......2000-11-08
Were the "Grapes of Wrath" published today, it may like other recent books, have been classified as historical fiction as opposed to a novel. I am thinking specifically of "Artemisia" that was published as both in different countries. How the work is classified is not critical, as either way it is one of the finest pieces of literature that has been written, and for many people, Steinbeck's finest work.
"The Harvest Gypsies" is a collection of 7 articles that Mr. Steinbeck wrote as a journalist. All were concerned with the issues he dealt with in the resulting book. This small volume is greatly enhanced by the photographs of Dorothea Lange, and the introduction of Charles Wollenberg.
One of the people the book was dedicated to was "Tom", actually Tom Collins, who was a manager of a federal migrant labor camp in California. The lines of fact and fiction are eventually blurred with him, as Tom Collins was the model for the character of "Jim Rawley" manager of "The Wheatpatch Camp" in "The Grapes Of Wrath". Ms. Lange's photographs could have been illustrations for Mr. Steinbeck's book, for when viewing them you can pick out the faces that could have accounted for the members of Steinbeck's epic.
This is a very brief book, but it portrays the migratory farm workers lives, as being even worse, if that can be imagined. A novel always offers the ultimate refuge of being fiction; these 7 articles and their photographs take away that solace. The brutality, random murder, and disease that was rampant, and the State of California that allowed the behaviors, are atrocious. In the context of one of the writings, one of the large growers who sanctioned the killing and starvation that was part of the agriculture industry stated that, "without a peon population the economy of California could not function". Steinbeck takes this statement of arrogance and ignorance, that is routinely spoken by any exploiter, and logically demonstrates that were this indeed the case, the state could no longer exist. For were it to continue to exist with its fascist policies, the most basic of Democratic rights would have to be absented.
Milk, that played so prominent a role in the book is spoken of extensively in the articles. Many of the most painful parts of the book were so common in reality, that the book may seem mild at times.
No matter how many times you have read the book, once this collection of articles are read, the experience of the book will not only change, I believe it will be enhanced.
. . .a prerequisite to In Dubious Battle. . ........1999-04-15
Three of Steinbeck's social novels--In Dubious Battle, The Grapes of Wrath, and Of Mice and Men--are enhanced after reading this work. This work is the prelude to three of Steinbeck's most socially poweful novels. To fully understand what Steinbeck is striving to accomplish with Battle and Wrath, and to fully round out your history/literature lesson, it is essential to understand something about the socialist movement--birth of communisim--and the general exploitation of the fruit-pickers of California. The big businesses of that day, not much different from various big businesses of today, treated employees like machines--replacing them as needed--after being hurt on unsafe equipment, etc.--without regarding their well-being, or considering the hungry mouths of their families. The Harvest Gypsies is a crutial text in the study of California before uniouns began revolting against the machine.
Book Description
"Now in paperback, this critically acclaimed book offers readers a rare glimpse into the lives of today's migrant children. "
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful book for multi cultural interest.......2006-11-10
I used this book as an extension book for a thematic unit I created over Mexican Migrant Farmers. It is great to bring home the idea that this is not history but is still going on in present day!
Easy read, yet sad.......2002-02-02
I write that as a title because if you look into these children's eyes there is hope and sadness. It bothers me to see how these children and their families are forced to live. I live in the N CA wine country and I see the same thing going on here. Exploitation of the workers, inadequite housing, awful pay.
I would LOVE to see a follow up book about these families now that it is 10 years later to see how they have fared. The young gang member who left his gang, the teenage mother who dreams of going to college, the little boy who wants to buy his parents a car. Did any of them make it?
Review Of Voices From The Fields.......2001-04-17
Voices From The Fields is about nine different children all of which are Mexican/Spanish. Each tells a different story about their life. All of these children have one thing in common, they work in the fields or they have a close relative that works in a field. Their stories range from being involved with gangs to the difficulty of moving up in society. As different as these nine children may be, they all care very much for their families and believe nothing is more important. Throughout the book there are photographs of the children and their families. Photographs aid the text in describing conditions and emotions of the people being discussed. Through this mix of text and photographs emotions can be amplified. Children most importantly can aid from photographs being provided since they may not understand certain things they read; yet photographs may open the doors for them. The can better see different feelings such as joy or anger as well as people of different cultures in their own environment. It can also become apparent to children who read the book just how important family is to each of the nine children. They are all care for each other very deeply and this is obvious through the photographs. Julia Hirsch says "A far more complex and elusive relationship between text and image occurs in those books which use snapshots, or other similarly dramatic image: pictures which contain some emotional charge, such as a gesture caught in midstride, an object viewed from an unusual angle, an enigmatic facial expression, a blurred background, or deep shadows and diffuse lighting."(Hirsch, 142) Manuel Araiza talks about his home in the book and such details such as the home being comprised of one room with a kitchen. Next to the text where he is discussing these conditions is a picture of the house. Immediately we feel more sympathetic towards Manuel since we are able to see with our own eyes what he is describing to us. The photographs in this book allow children readers to "experience" a minority culture that most children otherwise would never be exposed to. Hirsch later goes on to say, "Photography in recent years has also given "visibility" to yet other aspects of the human condition which have formerly been kept from most children."(Hirsch 150) One example of these "human conditions" is presented in the book for children to learn about. This condition is the life of migrant farm workers and their families. The photographs in this book depicting ethnic minorities, which also happen to be largely immigrants, provide for an excellent learning experience for children. Books focusing on different cultures and ways of life especially ones with such rich and detailed photography are good for children. These books help to educate on material that is beyond the classroom. Emotions, feelings, and different situations are better understood. It is often said that a picture is worth a thousand words, so by supplementing photographs with the text of the book children take with them a great deal more than would have been without photographs.
Picking into migrant families lives.......2000-08-23
I have recommended this book to teachers, counselors, therapists, social workers, politicians and law enforcement officials. It takes you inside migrant families lives and lets you share with them their success, sacrifice, and nostalgia. Beth Atkins captures more than images in her photographs. She captures pride, hard work, and nostalgic happy lives away from home (Mexico).
Originario de Moroleon, GTO Mexico
Customer Reviews:
read and learn.......2007-01-04
"the fight in the fields" is an excellent biographical account of cesar chavez and the farmworkers movement. it's a must read for anyone interested in making a difference.
Cesar Chavez Merits a National Holiday !.......2006-11-24
"The Fight in the Fields" compelled me to recognize that Cesar Chavez is arguably the greatest humanitarian in US history. He tirelessly and peacefully campaigned on behalf of underpaid and overworked farmworkers and migrants who were forced to toil amidst toxic insecticides and pesticides. Chavez was profoundly influenced by Gandhi, Martin Luther King and St. Francis of Assisi. He was an environmentalist, a vegetarian and animal welfare advocate who denounced dogfighting, bullfighting, cockfighting, slaughterhouses and rodeos because they are all rooted in inhumane violence. Cesar Chavez had reverence for all life and was a paragon of compassion. He was known as America's Catholic Ghandi of the Fields. The United States should have a national Holiday for Cesar Chavez's birthday, specifically, March 31.
a must read book.......2006-11-04
This is a well written book and is fun to read.
A great historical review of the "other" civil rights movement.......2006-07-06
The authors did a great job of detailing the early childhood that shaped the future leader of the farm workers movement. They also do a great job of highlighting the trails, ups and downs of Cesar Chavez and the farm workers movement. One gets a good idea of just how bad conditions were before the movement and how much improvement has been made since the inception of the movement. It also touches the heart with the human aspect of the lives that were shackled in the old system and changed for the good with the reforms that were won. Cesar Chavez is a true humanitarian that should be mentioned with the likes of Martin Luther King and Gandhi. This is truly a must read.
Fight in the Fields.......2005-07-21
This is a book based upon the successful PBS/Sundance Film of the same name. While it has several wonderful attributes (some excellent and rare pictures), it does not stand up to the earlier work of London and Anderson in So Shall Ye Reap. In reality, this is more of a biography of Cesar Chavez than a careful review of agricultural labor history. In the end, I would buy it again/
Amazon.com
Larry Brown's Fay picks up at the precise moment when its 17-year-old heroine walks out of his 1991 novel Joe. And really, who could blame her? Fay's father, Wade Jones, was one of the most enduring villains in recent fiction, the kind of man who would trade a son for a car and a daughter's virginity for a few $20 bills. Reared in migrant camps, tarpaper shacks, and, most recently, an abandoned cabin, Fay herself is pretty, goodhearted, astonishingly ignorant: in other words, trouble in a too-tight dress and a pair of rotting tennis shoes. Fleeing her father's advances, she takes to the Mississippi road in a passage that, with its rough music, is pure Brown:
She came down out of the hills that were growing black with night, and in the dusty road her feet found small broken stones that made her wince. Alone for the first time in the world and full dark coming quickly. House lights winked through the trees as she walked and swung her purse from her hand. She could hear cars passing down the asphalt but she was still a long way from that.
For the first time, Brown narrates most of a novel from a woman's point of view, and while the result is every bit as gripping as his previous work, it is also more inward-looking. Joe, for instance, reads like something carved out of a block of granite; in Fay, Brown feels somehow closer to the story--almost tender, or as tender as a writer with such an unflinching gaze can be. As Fay hitchhikes her way down Highway 55, from the woods near Oxford to the beaches and strip bars of Biloxi, she draws both men and violence to her like a magnet. Utterly without envy or self-pity, she is a force of nature, pure and simple, and Fay illuminates just how deadly her kind of innocence can be.
It's no value judgment to say this book is about white trash. Brown knows it, the reader knows it, Fay knows it; at one point, she even muses, "She never had been called a white trash piece of shit before but she'd been called white trash." But don't mistake Brown's work for mere trailer-park sociology. Despite the redneck trappings, the Jones family has been with us since the beginning of time, and their story, like all tragedies, is both larger than life and just like it too. "White trash," after all, is just another way of saying "not many choices." In writing about lives stripped down to their essentials, Brown reminds us of the dark truths our choices sometimes allow us to forget. --Mary Park
Book Description
She's had no education, and you can't call what her father's been trying to give her "love." So at seventeen, Fay Jones leaves home, carrying a purse with half a pack of cigarettes and two dollar bills. She's headed for the bright lights and big times of Biloxi, and even she knows she needs help getting there. But help's not hard to come by when you look like Fay.
There's a highway patrolman who gives her a lift, with a detour to his own place. There are truck drivers who pick her up, no questions asked. There's a crop duster with money for a night or two on the town. There's a strip-joint bouncer who deals on the side. And in the end, there are five dead bodies stacked in Fay's wake.
Fay is a novel that could only have been written by Larry Brown, whom the Boston Globe called "one of our finest writers -- honest, courageous, unflinching."
Customer Reviews:
Read This Book!.......2007-08-15
This was an amazing find and I can't believe I hadn't heard of this book sooner. It was so engaging, I couldn't put it down. You quickly got drawn into a world we know so very little about and into Fay's story. I could see this done well as an independent film.
Classic. Southern. Great Dialogue. Inspired. .......2006-01-12
Brown writes dialogue between characters in a way inspired by writers or poets like Robert Burns. It does not make fun of the people that inspire the dialogue, but makes them stand out from the page as real. Flawed persons throughout the novel mixed in with a little heartbreak. Recall the journey in Light in August by William Faulkner. Recall also the dialogue in Faulkner's characters. Brown writes in an area of Mississippi not far from Faulkner and could be seen often walking around the square in Oxford.
Fay is a sympathetic character, and one for which a couple of guys fall for. In some instances she seems callous, and then you might think you understand her. You don't hate her. You can see where she's coming from. And the men that didn't want to take advantage of her wanted to take care of her. It's a sad story, but very reflectic of the short term goals many people have, that is just getting by day by day. It's not glamourous, but is a wonderful story for what it conveys. He's a great Mississippi author. Read also from Big Bad Love, "Kabuki Rides" (a short story in the collection).
Fay, the Mermaid of Mississippi.......2005-12-13
Larry Brown uses clear simple sentences in the vein of Ernest Hemingway ("The Old Man and the Sea") to expound the journey of Fay Jones, a 17-year-old beauty, fleeing the increasingly sexual come-ons of her father, Wade Jones. "Fay" is set in the harsh world of Mississippi where the characters tend to have little education, money or choices. Fay is so desperate to leave her shack and would-be incestuous father, that despite only having two dollars, a half-pack of cigarettes and a pair of ratty tennis sneakers, she begins walking away with only the dim notion of going to Biloxi because it is on the coast and life must be better there.
Fay's one advantage is her beauty, but Brown does not go into detail about her appearance, except to say that her bosom is quite ample. It seems because of her outstanding looks that she is helped several times throughout the novel. At times it seems she is so innocent and would never use her "assets" to her advantage, but then there are several instances where she blatantly takes advantage. Most clear example being is Fay decides after a shower to slip off her towel in front of the recently widowed Sam Harris, the state trooper who picks up Fay on Highway 55. She never ate popcorn, went to a movie or made a telephone call, but she is far from innocent. Already at her young age she has a hankering for beer and cigarettes, and continues her habits even though she becomes pregnant due to Sam's inability to resist Fay's siren call.
Sam and the other man who is her main squeeze in the novel, Aaron, a strip-club bouncer who moonlights as a drug dealer, is also enticed by Fay's song. Perhaps their only chance was to tie themselves to a mast like Ulysses did in Homer's "The Iliad." Nonetheless, Fay, a girl with a woman's body, who left school early and lived in conditions that would be considered more akin to a third-world country can not be wholly to be blamed. For the milieu Fay has been born into and is struggling to survive in would be considered a society of dregs, or better known as white trash since the novel takes place in the American south. One roots for Fay, but there is also a sneaking suspicion in the back of one's mind: nothing good can come out of the gumbo of a mess that these people's lives are. Despite knowing the character's propensities, the ending still felt too neatly tied up and a cheat in some ways. However, an overall astounding look at characters living to just survive, often on a daily basis, by using simple, but beautifully written prose.
Bohdan Kot
larry brown, fay.......2005-08-14
contemporary candide. unusual and gripping story of the underebelly south. larry brown is a superb writer.for any serious reader.
A worthy follow-up to "Joe".......2005-03-23
In the late Larry Brown's fine book "Joe," about a hard drinking and smoking ex-con trying to do right in his bleak Southern world, we were introduced to 15 year old Gary, honest and hard-working, and Gary's impoverished, homeless family. Gary's father Wade was almost a caricature of an evil drunk, who beats his wife and kids when he's not trying to molest one of his daughters, not to mention his thieving, usually from his own family. We are also introduced to Gary's naive but resilient sister Fay, who is the central character in this second part of what Brown intended to be a trilogy.
"Fay" tells of the adventures of a seventeen year old attractive girl, amongst unsavory men (with one important exception) and beaten down women, most of whom are out to take advantage of her. Sometimes Fay herself seems too naive, and sometimes remarkably sophistated given her destitute background. She survives, even while many around her don't.
Unlike "Joe" where Brown keeps us in basically one place, Fay gets around, and, in fact, despite some other reviews, there is more "plot" in this book than in "Joe" (which generally received better reviews). I have to admit that Brown's frequent descriptions of someone lighting a cigarette, or popping open a can of beer, or asking a companion to "fix" a drink, can be quite distracting; however, that being said, the writing is lyrical, and the story, memorable. I suppose that Larry Brown is a matter of taste, but one cannot debate the fact that he is a superior Southern writer with a unique voice. It is unfortunate that he died at the young age of fifty-three, before he could complete the trilogy (perhaps the third book would have been entitled "Gary").
Book Description
“He would never leave us.”
Just like that, business investigator Callie Webber finds herself involved in the life of a young wife and mother whose husband has disappeared. . . possibly the victim of foul play.
“I won’t go away until my husband comes back,” Luisa said, her face threatening to crumble into tears once again.
“Your husband left you?” I asked.
“No,” Luisa said, sniffling. “He didn’t leave. Something happened to him. And we’ll stay here until we find out what that was and where he is!”
Callie has come to the beautiful Smoky Mountains hoping to award a million–dollar grant to the charity set up in her late husband’s honor. But in the search for a missing migrant working, a body is discovered, which puts the grant on hold and her new romance with her mysterious boss in peril. Trusting in God, Callie forges steadily ahead through a mire of clues that lead her deeper and deeper into danger.
Customer Reviews:
TLA.......2007-09-04
Like Mindy Starns Clark as a writter and enjoyed this book. Hard to put down.
Books are a dime a dozen....but this one is quite good!!.......2006-07-07
As I sit here and reflect on this book, I'm amazed that Ms. Clark can tie together so many story lines in one book, and still have the finished product be so well put together, and really, an all-around inspiring read. The problem with most mysteries, I feel, is either the plot lines are nothing new and interesting, or they have so much blood and gore that you get either lost by the end of the book, or you become disgusted. Neither is the case with Ms. Clark's book. While it is number 3 in a series of 5 books, the pre-existing relationships are well explained, so this book can be read as a stand-alone, as I did.
Callie Webber is an investigator for J.O.S.H.U.A. foundation, which supplies grants to non-profit start-ups. In this novel, her assignment is to return to her hometown and review her former in-laws company, M.O.R.E. Callie is a bit nervous about this, as she hasn't returned to her hometown for several years, evr since her husband was killed in a tragic accident. While she has grieved and begun loving again, she's a bit hesitant to return and see her in'laws, as well as the canbin where she spent so much time with her husband. Happily, when she arrives she is instantly comforted, as she sees that the cabin she spent so many happy moments at has been completely redocarated by the leasing agency, so she relaxes right away.
Callie goes to begin investigating M.O.R.E., and in quickly immersed in many mysteries. Why is migrant worker Luisa the target of so many crimes? Stink bombs, a murder, attempted burning of her home, and many other tragedies are befalling this poor woman. Also, there is the puzzling question - what happened to Luisa's husband? He was a fine, hard worker who loved his family. Now, a letter has arrived from New York, supposedly from him, saying he was there. Why on earth would a settled family man up and leave? Luisa suspects foul play, and soon, Callie also does. Many more smaller mysteries are intertwined throughout this book, but, at the end, I came away feeling that all my questions were answered, and Ms. Clark successfully tied up all the loose ends throughout the book. I would recommend this book if you love a good mystery, and are fed up with the gore found throughout so many of today's books.
Another great book by this author! .......2006-01-30
I love Mindy Starns Clark! This is another wonderful addition to this series. The characters are so great and the depth of the story is astonishing! I love to see the slow progression of Callie and Tom's relationship!
Intrigue in the Smokies.......2005-05-12
Callie Webber is coming home - sort of. Her latest assignment for the J.O.S.H.U.A. Foundation is to investigate MORE, a non-profit set up by her in-laws in her late husband's memory. This is the first time Callie has been back to visit his death, and she's a little nervous about how it will go.
She's just relaxing at an impromptu family reunion when an explosion at the church shocks them all. It's just some stink bombs, but the body nearby is definitely dead. It's just the latest in a series of crimes targeted at Luisa, a migrant who stayed past harvest season because her husband is missing. It doesn't take Callie long to realize that these events directly relate to her investigation of MORE, so she begins to investigate. Will she be able to track down a migrant missing 6 months? Who is behind the vandalism aimed at Luisa? And who killed that John Doe in the church parking lot?
I was once again thrilled to be in Callie's presence. She's a great character I've really come to care about. Unlike the last two in the series, I didn't feel the second half had quite the breakneck pace, but I did feel the novel was more evenly plotted overall. There were still several twists I saw coming only a few pages before Callie, and the ending was certainly a surprise.
With each book, I'm more and more glad I found this author. If you haven't discovered Mindy Starns Clark, pick up the first book today. You'll be very glad you did.
Can't I give this book more than 5 stars?.......2003-08-03
This is my 3rd Mindy Starns Clark book and the 3rd time I dropped everything to read a book.
(The 1st time was with "Penny", during my 25th anniversary trip to Bermuda, which did not sit well with my husband).
This is a great pass-along book; I have already passed "Penny" and "Nickels" along to my mother, an aunt, and a cousin.
They have all been anxiously awaiting the arrival of "Dime", in fact, my mother has been asking me almost weekly "when are you going to get me that next book?".
It's too bad Mindy doesn't write faster, although nothing would get done at my house - and I'm sure, at her home as well- I could read one of her books every day!
We're all anxiously awaiting the next book of the series and especially looking forward to seeing Callie find happiness with Tom. My mother is a self-confessed romance novel addict (has read thousands of them) and I never thought I could get her to open a book of another genre. My own mystery experience has been more on the line of Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes.
"The Million Dollar Mysteries" have bridged our literature gap and we are delighted to share them with each other, the people we know, and now, through this review, to the reading public.
Buy it - Read it - Enjoy it - You'll love it!
Thanks, Twnkls28
Books:
- The Handbook of Fixed Income Securities
- The Irresistible Offer: How to Sell Your Product or Service in 3 Seconds or Less
- The Landmarks of New York: An Illustrated Record of the City's Historic Buildings
- The Loyalty Effect: The Hidden Force Behind Growth, Profits, and Lasting Value
- The New Division of Labor: How Computers Are Creating the Next Job Market
- The Politics of Social Risk: Business and Welfare State Development (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics)
- The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church
- The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything
- The True Story of the Three Little Pigs
- Tough Choices or Tough Times: The Report of the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- National Geographic Concise History of the World: An Illustrated Time Line
- Bone Walker: Book III of the Anasazi Mysteries
- The Accelerating Universe: Infinite Expansion, the Cosmological Constant, and the Beauty of the Cosm
- The Economics of Tropical Farm Management
- The Way of the Wild Heart: A Map for the Masculine Journey
- Designing Organizations: An Executive Guide to Strategy, Structure, and Process Revised
- A Good Hanging
- Prefab Modern
- The Farmhouse: Classic Homesteads of North America
- The South African what flower is that
The Great Gatsby
Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck Centennial Edition)
The Catcher in the Rye
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Bantam Classics)
The Scarlet Letter (Penguin Classics)
