50 books to read before you die discussion

Our group read for June 2017 is the 4th book from our list of 50, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, an acclaimed novel by one of America's foremost authors.

We last discussed The Grapes of Wrath two years ago. You can find that discussion here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Read this last month and it was my first Steinbeck too.
Beautifully written and felt so true. Ma Joad has become one of my favorite woman characters from books.
This book has the most memorable ending from my reading so far.

The Grapes of Wrath is probably Steinbeck's best known novel. It wasn't his first work regarding the plight of California farm workers. It shows what Steinbeck could do and it's not his only work so wonderfully written. It's why John Steinbeck is one of my all time favorites.

In the famous film, with Henry Fonda as Tom Joad, they changed things around a bit. The final scene in the book isn't in the movie. The film ends with things looking up for the Joads, and Ma makes her soliloquy about the strength of family. I think the filmmakers felt that they needed to leave the audience with an upbeat note. Steinbeck was showing how terribly dismal things were for these people.

I think that is what I most liked about the book. The author did not portray a positive ending keeping it real and leaving us to imagine what could happen.

If I were to recall correctly in the book it ends with the daughter giving her teats to the old man for some human milk. Remember throughout the book, the slogan that California would be a land of milk and honey. The milk is provided by the people themselves. It had been in them all that time.