The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.Published by Penguin Books.476 pages.
Finished the book last Friday.Watched the John Ford movie over the weekend.The film ended on a more optimistic,hopeful note than the novel.
The book changes the sequence of events.Instead of moving from the well run government camp to the prison like private Hooper Ranch camp as in the book the order is reversed.There is no sense of desperation or a downward spiral of failure.Battling the odds and losing.
The film did stick faithfully to the dialogue and conversations of the main characters.It also provided a few images that the printed word couldnt.The shadow of the family falling across the bulldozer tracks as it demolishes their house.Or the shots of the Hooverville settlements.
I dont know why it took me so long to read this.It wasnt assigned reading at school.With its tale of migrant workers and economic exploitation it raises issues as relevant and pressing today as when it was first published in 1939.