It Just Gets Stranger Book Club discussion

While we wait for the poll to close and the book to be read, I thought we could start some discussions on books that based on the comments from the Stranger blog a number of us have read. Since Eli is/was reading The Grapes of Wrath, I decided it would be as good a book as any to select. I just finished it two weeks ago, for the first time. Somehow I was never assigned this novel in school.

It was intense. Part of me kept thinking, wow, we've come so far since then. And then half of me was thinking, why are we still dealing with these same refugee problems? When will racism and fear of the other ever end??

There were a number of things that stood out to me. One was the familiarity with death. I feel like Americans (in general) are somewhat removed from death now. Our life expectancy is so much higher, and so many fewer children die young, and workplaces are getting safer, etc. Again I'm speaking in huge generalities, but it seems like to an American each death is such a tragedy—something that shouldn't happen. But when I've lived in other countries, it seems like death is just part of life, expected. It's still sad, and they mourn, but it isn't tragic. It's common. This is just what I've interpreted, so I could be totally wrong. Anyway, the way the family handled and discussed death in this novel really stood out to me. Talking about how Tom killed two men, but it was kind of not a big deal. The younger children bragged about it and reveled in it. The older adults seemed to accept that the murders were necessary. (view spoiler)[And then when the grandpa died, and when the grandmother died, and when the baby died, they all mostly just rolled with it. They were sad, and there was sorrow, but not all encompassing, incapacitating grief. Entire novels are written these days about the aftermath of having a parent die. And in this novel it just gets a few paragraphs, and they all move on. (hide spoiler)] And then there is the discussion near the beginning of the book, something like "well, if I kill the tractor man, then can I keep my farm? Oh, well then I'd kill the bank man, too. Oh, and the business owner? Wait, can't I just kill a few people and fight for my farm and keep it?" I assume that was a prevalent "Wild West" attitude, but it's so different from my own that it kept surprising me when it would pop up.

I think one of the other most vivid moments for me was the discussion of how the crops were grown but to make profit couldn't be eaten, and so they had to be destroyed. And so starving people were held back by force as the others destroyed thousands of pounds of produce that could have been eaten. As well as the image of people owning land that they did nothing with whereas these people were desperate for just a plot of land to support themselves on.

One last thing for now: I can't fathom living in a time where you just lose contact with family members and know it is impossible to ever hear from them again. With no cell phones, no email, no permanent addresses, just moving along and hoping to find work anywhere, no plans or relatives to stay with, goodbyes were so final and terrible.

What stood out to you most in the novel if you've read it?

(Also, if there is another book that you think many people might have read, you're welcome to start your own discussion for people to join in on.)

Happy reading, strangers!!

Ok, so I️ have also never read this book, but now I️ have to. Going to my library first thing tomorrow morning! (I️ know, I’m old school, but a book like this I want to feel the pages).

Where can I find the poll? I don’t see any posts about it. I read the Grapes of Wrath years ago, it’s probably time to re-read it.

Shawn wrote: "Where can I find the poll? I don’t see any posts about it. I read the Grapes of Wrath years ago, it’s probably time to re-read it."

The poll is at the bottom of the group’s home page. Scroll past the discussions and group members. You’ll find the poll down at the bottom.

A. wrote: "Ok, so I have also never read this book, but now I have to. Going to my library first thing tomorrow morning! (I know, I’m old school, but a book like this I want to feel the pages)."

Amy, you should! Check out my review for some of my excerpts. Powerful writing. Steinbeck alternates between writing in the characters’ voices and writing as a detached narrator, giving summaries of general historical information going on at the same time.

Thanks! I was using my phone and still couldn’t see it so I had to log in on my computer. Got it and voted.

I want to read this thread so much but I can't because I'm still in the middle of the book and I'm scared of spoilers!

Eli wrote: "I want to read this thread so much but I can't because I'm still in the middle of the book and I'm scared of spoilers!"
There is a way to hide spoilers on Goodreads inside of comments like this, I wonder if people know about it? You just go like this (view spoiler)[ type type type can you believe that ending?! (view spoiler)[ NOT A REAL SPOILER! (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

Mimi wrote: "A. wrote: "Ok, so I have also never read this book, but now I have to. Going to my library first thing tomorrow morning! (I know, I’m old school, but a book like this I want to feel the pages)."

A..."

I noticed that in your review, in your excerpts and thought that was really interesting: the change in POV that he used.

A. wrote: "Mimi wrote: "A. wrote: "Ok, so I have also never read this book, but now I have to. Going to my library first thing tomorrow morning! (I know, I’m old school, but a book like this I want to feel th..."

He had a lot of chapters that were simply narration of the time period in general, and chapters that were POV of characters that were only in the story for that one chapter, interacting with the main character. The novel actually begins in the POV of a side character who is only in the novel for that one chapter, so the first time we meet one of the main characters, it’s from someone else’s perspective.