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 povertyand 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 fromweather to the authorities to the California locals themselves. As TomJoad puts it: "They're a-workin' away at our spirits. They're a tryin' tomake 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 hisdecency is by takin' a sock at a cop. They're workin' on ourdecency."

The point, though, is that decency remains intact, if somewhatbattle-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 dreamsproves 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'rethe people--we go on." It's almost as ifshe'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 asever, to illuminate and humanize an era for generations of readers who,thankfully, have no experiential point of reference for understanding thedepression. The book's final, haunting image of Rose of Sharon--Rosasharn,as they call her--the eldest Joad daughter, forcing the milk intended forher stillborn baby onto a starving stranger, is a lesson on the grandestscale. "'You got to,'" she says, simply. And so do we all. --Melanie Rehak ... Read more

Customer Reviews (448)

Voice of the Migrants for Generations to come!
"The Grapes of Wrath" is a powerful indictment of the oppression endured by the migrant families of the American mid-west during the depression years of the 1930's. The farming-belt of the mid-west had suffered severe drought. "Dusters" swept across the farmland, skimming off the topsoil, leaving behind a dustbowl, only a few sparse sprigs of wheat surviving. The tenant farms were foreclosed and the families forcibly tractored off the land in a ruthless drive to maximise profit margins. Circe 250,000 migrants, "refugees from the dust", pulled up stakes and headed west on route 66, the road of flight to California, the golden land of dreams and opportunity, drawn by the prospect of picking work, harvesting oranges and peaches. The influx of rootless migrant workers centred on the San Joachin valley, California, and the huge farms therein, drifting in search of work from squatter camps to government camps to shacks in tied labour camps charging excessive rents and inflated company-store prices. The overwhelming glut of migrants flooding through the valley swamped the harvesting work available, driving down wages to peanuts level as they desperately scrabbled "to pull, to pick, to cut - anything, any burden to bear, for food".

This is the destiny that fate held in store for the Joad family in "The Grapes of Wrath". Forced off their farm, truck piled high with their meagre belongings, the Joads set forth on an epic 2000 miles haul from Sallislaw in Oklahoma through the western desert states of Arizona and New Mexico and onto the San Joachin valley. The gut-wrenching story of the Joads heroic journey is interspersed with short "relief" chapters on peripheral aspects of their route 66 experience, the trickery of used-car salesmen or a snapshot of life in a truck-stop diner, to cite but two examples; other chapters function as social commentary on, for example, the stomach turning practice of spraying mountains of oranges with kerosene or dumping potatoes in the river under armed guard to protect market prices, at a time when hundreds of thousands of migrants were literally starving. This structure enables Steinbeck at once to follow closely the fortunes of the Joads and cast a wider eye over what is happening in society during the depression years.

However, Steinbeck's narrative, in my view, is at its most powerful and compelling on the road, chronicling the Joads suffering and misfortune trucking along the endless narrow concrete miles to Bakersfield, California, revealing qualities of grit, guts and resilience in their desperate struggle for survival in the face of death, starvation, hostility, exploitation and harassment. Steinbeck's powerful voice depicting the plight of the migrants during the hard times of the 1930's depression years, the hardship and oppression endured by thousands upon thousands of families like the Joads, will resonate for generations to come. It is a voice that packs a powerful punch!

Evocative and deeply moving
This book cannot but be considered one of the greatest works of American literature. Its plot is simple, almost literally pedestrian, but it magically conveys the feelings not just of its characters, but of an entire social movement and era.

The device of alternating chapters between the tale of the Joad family and descriptive narratives of the society around them only strengthens things. This is no academic, dusty view of history; this is reality, as people lived and thought and experienced.

The human attachment to the soil, the desire for home and community, the struggle for social justice, the tyranny of property, the myth of the Promised Land, the hope and dreams of a new life - there is something here on every level, the social, the spiritual, and the emotional.

The beginning of the novel is a bit slow, but it slowly picks up momentum as it travels west. By its end, one cannot but be riveted by the Joads and the struggles they endure. And one can feel the grapes of wrath building, the knowledge that some way, somehow, the human will to survive can never be defeated.

But, despite its clear social messages, this is not a political tract. The novel's ending takes one of the most intimate of human actions into a bare, stark necessity. Eroticism, motherhood, generosity, desperation - what is it? We cannot tell for sure, but we know only that it is human. The most horrific of our trials only serve to bring out our humanity. A haunting and unforgettable message.

Beautiful...Moving....Epic
What do I say? What hasn't been said about this book?
I am sure at some point, students of all measures of education- high school to post-doctoral- has been required to explicate this novel. Sadly, the book has suffered denigration and in extreme cases, it has been banned. Critics decried flat characterization, over-emphasis on symbolism, and too frequent melodrama. If we can even begin to consider these flaws we would not appreciate the honest and unadulterated human aspect Steinbeck brought to this book. These traits allow us to relate, understand, and empathize with the characters and even more importantly the author. Regardless of condemnation, Grapes of Wrath has survived as one of the clearest examples of the 'great American novel'. It is beautiful, moving, and epic.
If you have not read it, read it. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Migrant agricultural laborers   2. Fiction   3. Rural families   4. Depressions   5. Labor camps   6. Literature - Classics / Criticism   7. Classics   8. Literary   

David Guterson's Our Lady of the Forest navigates between the mystical and the cynical in its slowly paced telling of a Marian encounter in North Fork, Washington. The story opens in the North Fork campground among homeless mushroom pickers. The town is reeling from the loss of its logging industry, and its residents make their way by scavenging odd jobs and selling the produce of the forest. Living in the campground, 16-year-old Anne Holmes is a runaway asthmatic whose recent interest in Catholicism follows a period of petty thievery, drug use, and frequent masturbation (an interest that Guterson notes is shared by the town priest, Father Don Collins). While off on her rounds of mushrooming one morning, she encounters a bright light--the Virgin Mary, she believes. Soon, she has drawn a band of thousands as people flock to North Fork to witness the vision and be healed. But, through Carolyn Greer, a world-weary fellow-mushroom-picker who longs for nothing more than an extended vacation to "Cabo"-- readers learn that Anne actually sees nothing, or at least no one else shares the Marian apparition that gives Anne lofty commands each day.

At times Guterson lets his characters' pettiness, opportunism, and cynicism overrun the delicacy of Anne's world. Carolyn's vehement atheism and materialistic languor undermine what could have been a stronger counter-point to her spiritual friend. Even Father Collins, who struggles between fatherly compassion and sexual longing for the young visionary, is too full of self-loathing for readers to embrace him. Yet, the novel's exploration of Anne's abrupt and intense faith pierces the narrative and brings light to it. And as Anne's visions grow in intensity and her health begins to fail, one can't help but long for divine intervention on her behalf. --Patrick O'Kelley ... Read more

Customer Reviews (37)

A Disappointment
I was delighted to find this book in my local library after enjoying Snow Falling on Cedars so very much a few years ago. Delight quickly turned to disappointment. Guterson's main characters are all obsessed with sex - Ann masterbates, she's been sexually abused in her past; Tom Cook thinks constantly about raunchy sex and imagines himself doing it with every woman he runs across; the priest masterbates and thinks about sex and the woman that "befriends" Ann (really uses her) is worried about men being attracted to her. I felt like Guterson was having some sort of mid life crisis, couldn't stop thinking about sex and had to write a book about it. It totally overwhelmed what could have been a very interesting and imaginative story. The ending was a disappointment as well - not what I had hoped or expected. I hope Mr. Guterson's got another good book in him somewhere - this sure isn't it.

A Brave Departure!
OUR LADY OF THE FOREST is a departure from SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS. Much as Bret Ellis did in AMERICAN PSYCHO, Guterson is sticking his neck way out here.
The plot is fairly simple. A young girl encounters The Blessed Virgin Mary in the woods while digging mushrooms. Before she knows it, she's got two thousand pilgrims breathing down her neck.
The trouble with this scenario is that Ann Holmes is a homeless person who's been known to smoke marijuana now and then and is also not averse to eating magical mushrooms. And she's not even Catholic! Guterson has fun making sport of Ann's devotees; much of the book is a satire on religious groupies whose gullibility is too much to believe.
The setting for OUR LADY OF THE FOREST is Washington state; Guterson adds a little environmental conflict in the person of Tom Cross, an out of work logger whose life is slowly swirling down the toilet. He feels responsible for his son's paralysis and he latches onto Ann of Oregon as his possible salvation.
Ann is a shy young girl and all of this hullabaloo is a little bit too much for her. That's where Carolyn Greer comes in. She takes on the role of Ann's spokesperson. She doesn't believe a word of this but she knows a goldmine when she sees one. She's a sort of Jimmy Buffett character who needs to earn money so she can winter in Mexico and some of the money meant for a Our Lady's new church sticks to her fingers.
The other main character is a first-year Catholic priest who lives in a trailer home; his church smells of mildew and he's thinking of leaving the priesthood. When he meets Ann, he's enticed by her Kate Moss, heroine-babe sexuality.
All of this is a whole lot of fun if you don't take religion too seriously and I guess that's the point Guterson is trying to make.

Even the Virgin Mary was boring.....
This is an interesting group of reviews--the book at least inspired intense feelings one way or the other in most readers.
I have no problem with dark books or dark characters. I also have no problem with unresolved issues at the end of a book. However, this book was not merely dark or mysterious, it was gratingly slow, meandering, and banal.
I agree with the readers who felt Guterson, based on the wonderful "Snow Falling on Cedars," turned out a rushed and problematic book. His themes are obvious, and his efforts to illustrate them a little too close to the surface. It was as if he took his book outline and hung a lot of descriptive phrases on each character, but never got to the depth of them. That's not to say that his descriptive passages are not occasionally brilliant--but the sum total was a lot of words about not much going on. It was a great disappointment--after pages and pages of wishing he would stop fooling around and return his story to Ann--to actually see inside one of her visions, and find the Virgin Mary saying the same old stuff she's always said in visions. I appreciate Guterson's point that faith is by nature indefinable, and its messengers often seemingly unsuited to the task, but his story would have carried much more impact had he forgone the excess and included the nuances that we love in his writing. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Mary,   2. Blessed Virgin, Saint   3. Apparitions and miracles   4. Fiction   5. Migrant agricultural laborers   6. Fiction - Religious   7. Religious - General   8. Reading Group Guide   9. General   

Not since Ted Conover's Coyotes has a book revealed the underground culture of illegal immigration from Mexico as well as Crossing Over by Rubén Martínez. This up-and-coming author writes of what he calls "a Mexican Manifest Destiny" that continually pierces the southern borderline of the United States--a "line [that] is still more an idea than a reality." Martínez begins with the awful story of the three Chávez brothers, all killed when a truck carrying them and some two dozen other illegal aliens tried to outrace border patrol agents and flipped. Martínez learns of their fate and travels to their peasant hometown in southern Mexico to distil the motives of migrants. Then he follows the rest of the family north as they fan into the United States. Crossing Over is written in the first person and is highly anecdotal, but Martínez constantly makes observations that break free from these narrow confines. "Mexicans have always had an uncanny instinct for finding the soft spots of the American labor economy," he notes at one point, explaining how it is that millions of poor people who barely speak English can thrive, in their way, north of the border. Crossing Over is an outstanding book, and required reading for anyone interested in Hispanics and the new America. --John Miller ... Read more

Customer Reviews (47)

A thought-provoking slice of the Mexican migrant experience
Crossing Over, by Rubén Martínez is a book primarily about the Chávez family of Cherán in Mexico and their very different experiences and choices regarding the decision about whether to do migrant work in American or stay at home, and whether to come back to Mexico after their migrant experience. To a lesser extent there are stories of other Cherán residents and their choices too.

Martínez does a great job reporting the details of everyone's lives and choices. I have a really good sense of what the people he talks about are like and why they make the choices they make. It is important that I do develop this sense, as the people he writes about are, amongst other things, regularly making potentially life-or-death choices about whether or not to cross the US-Mexican border illegally, and it would be easy for a writer not to provide enough information to understand why these choices are regularly being made.

Martínez soundly addresses the scope he seems to set out to cover, but I am left with a few questions. I would like to have found out more about the realities of the legal migrant worker experience-for instance, some people talk about how difficult getting a H1-A visa is, but is that really the case? Also, more discussion of the abuses legal migrants face would have been useful-there is some, especially towards the end of the book, but I would have appreciated more. Also, some more discussion about the role of school in the lives of his subjects would be helpful-schooling, or lack thereof, both in Mexico and in the US. I would have liked to know which of his subjects thought school might help improve their lives and which did not and why. More information about the (apparent) lack of adult education opportunities in the US and in Mexico would have also been useful.

Anyone who wants to understand why people continue to want to migrate to this country should read this book. The book would be particularly useful for teachers to read to understand the experiences that their students and the students' parents may have faced before arriving in this county. The book also would be useful for starting political discussions, particularly about the existence of rigid borders in this day and age-if the EU can relax its borders, why can't we?

The Migrant Trail
The book, Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail by Ruben Martinez, focused on an intriguing and a relevant subject in today¡¯s society. The first part of the novel focuses on the Chavez who lose three brothers in a crash in the United States when they are going to the fields to work for the summer. When the brothers are killed, the family is deeply affected and so is the whole town. The author does a nice job of depicting of how the Americans responded to this accident and the people back home. As a book filled with images of the hardships the illegal and legal migrant face when facing their journeys to America, the author does a good job of focusing on this difficult topic.

As a reader who was excited about this book, I learned about the difficulties individuals face when trying to get across the border. There are so many loopholes that are created for the migrant workers, from the coyotes all the way to their final destination. At each step of the way, the individual faces a life or death situation. Many of these migrant workers end up being slaves and they are cut off from communication with their family. This creates pain for the family back home and the individuals who are waiting for them in the United States. By showing the reader the difficulties one has to face when looking for success in America, one understands why many of these individuals have social and psychological problems.

The aspects of this book that were powerful to me are how the author can paint such a vivid picture of the hardships the migrant workers face. The author shows the struggle the migrant faces back home and the struggles they face in America. Each and every single can mean that they will live or they will die. The migrant has to come up with finances to pay for their journey, not knowing whether they will make it or not. The individual also has to face the fact that family members will be home, while they are in America; this creates psychological problems for the individual. Crossing over and being safe is the ultimate goal, unfortunately one also has to realize the dangers they will face on this incredible and dangerous journey.

As an aspiring teacher, this book can shed light on the students who have migrant family situations and show the stress they have to deal with. One can realize how migrant families are moving back and forth, trying to figure out what they afford to do. The children are put into a situation where survival is the key for them and no wonder they can sometimes miss school for months and then come back. Educators often don¡¯t have the time to realize what these children are going through. This book does a nice job of showing how survival and education have a hard time blending.

Simply a Bad Book.
I decided to quit by page 100. I don't usually give-up on a book, but in this case I think I even went to far.
From the beggining Martínez shows his gruge towards Mexico and tries to paint a totally un-true and as-far-from-reality-as-you-can picture of life in Mexico City. Of course, no book can be 100% wrong but his ideas represent the worst from mexican-americans. I am originaly from Mexico and have lived in Texas for the past 10 years. I go back to Mexico between 6-8 times per year for business and family and love the people and the country.
Sure, they have their political, economic, social problems but doesn't every country including the U.S.?
Anyway, I'm greatful to the U.S. but if my son or daughter grow up to think like Rubén Martínez then coming to the U.S would have been the biggest mistake of my life instead of the other way around. If a person is not proud of where he comes from he can never be proud of where he is presently.
DON'T BUY THIS BOOK, spend your money wisely. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Mexican American families   2. Social conditions   3. Mexican Americans   4. Biography   5. Immigrants   6. Sociology   7. Social Science   8. Ethnic Studies - General   9. Emigration & Immigration   10. Sociology - Marriage & Family   11. Sociology - General   

Customer Reviews (10)

A Touching Eye-Opener
I bought The Circuit because I am working with the children of Mexican migrant families this summer. As I read, I imagined the kids in my class experiencing the difficulties described by Jimenez, especially the poor living conditions. Yet the stories are not written as complaints. The hopeful spirit of the struggling family members really comes through, and moved me to tears more than once. Reading The Circuit has helped me to better understand and appreciate my young migrant friends. I'm passing my copy around so that my friends and family can see why I care about those kids so much!

This book is a "must read."
The short stories in this collection bear
compelling witness to the strength and
vitality of the human spirit under the most
inhumane circumstances. This inspiring
tribute to the humanity of poor migrant
workers tells the right story at the right
time in this country, when immigrants,
documented or not, are shamelessly
scapegoated by politicians of every stripe.

The powerful impact of these deceptively
simple stories may be credited to their
autobiographical character, the purity of
the prose, and the strength of the images.

In reading this book you will experience the
untapped wealth of humanity that works our
fields, sews our clothes, waits our tables.
You will also be completely engaged by twelve
wonderful stories.

For me, Dr. Jimenez' "Christmas Gift" tops
O. Henry's "Gift of the Magi" for the best
Christmas story ever -- and it's the perfect
size for a stocking stuffer!

Steve Privett,S.J.[SPrivett@mailer.scu.edu] Santa Clara, California

The Pope vs The Circuit
If you want to forget your troubles and focus on someone else's, then read this book "The Circuit" by Francisco Jimenez. If you are looking for a book which is entertaining, enlightening, informative, inspirational, or even slightly interesting, look elsewhere. I would give this book a two out of ten for interest, five out of ten for content, and ten out of ten for realism, and I can safely say I will not read this book again.

The story is about Francisco Jimenez, whose parents sneak across the border with him into California in the hopes of a better life. While his parents work at various farms around the country, Francisco struggles with life as a poor illiterate Latino child growing up in America. Hardly the plot for much excitement or adventure. I honestly believe a biography about the Pope written by an eighty year old blind priest would be more interesting.

This book was alright in context, but it completely lacked sense of exploration or depth. I would say this book is best for a young child, someone still amused by Powderpuff girls and Pokemon, but not someone looking for an entertaining, enlightening, informative, or inspirational autobiography. If I am going to read a book about someone else's life, I would hope it would be something I can relate to, which is exciting, insightful, and most importantly, being interesting enough to be worthy of my time. This book however, was not.

(...) ... Read more

Subjects:  1. California   2. Social life and customs   3. Fiction   4. Migrant agricultural laborers   5. Mexican American families   6. Popular American Fiction   7. Hispanic American Novel And Short Story   8. Technological   9. Children's 12-Up - Fiction - General   10. Juvenile Fiction   11. Ethnic - Hispanic & Latino   12. Short Stories   

Customer Reviews (5)

The best of the best of the American experience
John Steinbeck hated critics. More precisely he had a fierce resentment toward the indivduals who wanted to tear apart his life. As with most successful writers, their work is their life, and in my opinion no one described the lives and ways of the American people better than Steinbeck. Writing is ultimately about the chosen word, and for him ideas often become deep, describing a story within a story. Steinbeck won the Nobel prize for literature in 1962 along with James Watson, Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkins for their work on DNA. He won the award "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social perception." This particular volume contains his strongest work. I think that critics of his work were envious of Steinbeck's ability to entrance his readers, as only master storytellers are capable of. The Library of America bindings are wonderful and are the perfect size for a hardback of fiction. The best thing about LOA editions is that they hold up. The pages do not seem to yellow and the binding is strong. I have 10 copies and they are my favoite books. To me, reading Steinbeck is reading the best of American literature, and the LOA editions are great little books you can enjoy for years.

it was great
grapes of wrath is a great book. it is about a family that goes through ups and downs every chapter. and a man who wats to get his family back on track, cause his father lost his farm land in Oklahoma. So they head to California to find new jobs but there new jobs arn't the same as having there own land, cause when they had there own land they had no boss but when they head to Cali. they are not happy cause they are bossed around.

Steinbeck's Art
It is surely a shame that Mr. Steinbeck forever will be confined to the archipelago of socio-economico-political literature. Too often a smug reviewer writes of Steinbeck's "moving" portrayal of the Joad family and their struggle against a growing America. "Oh, how I can 'identify' with the Preacher!" HUMBUG. Mr. Steinbeck wrote words, not ideas. His art is exquisite and melodious and stock-full of imagery. His structure, even in the volumunious Grapes, is compact and economical. His style, even in the scientific Log, is artistic and exact. And his ideas, even in the idea-ed Harvest, are irrelevant. Buy this book. But don't buy it because the blurb on the back says something about the Joads being an American archetype of the twentieth century; instead, buy it because it is literature - American literature - at its finest. Every sentence. Every word. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Salinas River Valley (Calif.)   2. Social life and customs   3. Fiction   4. Migrant agricultural laborers   5. California   6. Steinbeck, John, 1902-1968   7. Literature - Classics / Criticism   8. Classics   9. Literary   

Customer Reviews (14)

Crossing the border
"Coyotes" is the name given by Mexicans to the men who smuggle them into the US and transport them illegally within the US. Traveling with Mexican farm workers, writer Ted Conover crossed twice into the US. He worked with them, picking oranges in Arizona, and drove with them to farm jobs and harvests in Idaho and Florida.

Conover writes with a clear eye and doesn't disguise his feelings for his subject matter. He is able to create and sustain suspense over many pages, including a days-long journey through a blizzard in a broken-down car, crossing miles of Arizona desert on foot by night, being pulled over by police in Utah and jailed under suspicion of transporting illegals -- a felony. In an episode both foolhardy and hilarious, he helps four of them get from Phoenix to Los Angeles by escorting them on their first-ever airplane flight.

"Coyotes" is a book about friendship and winning trust, and Conover shares his pleasure in becoming a trusted friend of the men he comes to know. He even makes a pilgrimage to the Mexican village his friends come from, where we meet their families and relatives.

After reading this book, it's difficult to maintain one's stereotypes of alien workers and illegals. And when you read the headlines and see TV coverage devoted to stories about border control, you feel you have a better idea of what it's like to be walking in their shoes.

Exciting and suspenseful.
Conover travels with various groups of illegal immigrants and immerses himself in their world. His firsthand accounts cover an impressively broad set of immigrant experiences--the small Mexican towns filled with adventure-seeking youth, journeys to the border, negotiations with smugglers, run-ins with police, finding work in the U.S., and adjusting to a new life. Through it all, Conover maintains his point of view as a middle-class American Everyman, making the book accessible to the average Joe. Yet he always keeps his eyes and ears open to the people and events he encounters.

The book makes it apparent that a criminal industry of smugglers, thieves and corrupt cops has sprung up to take advantage of cash-carrying immigrants before they even leave Mexico. Meanwhile, the relatively small Border Patrol is spread too thin to turn back all but a few crossers, who with a little persistence can try their luck the next night.

Though the media tends to portray illegal immigrants as simply the latest generation of noble achievers looking for the American Dream, Conover's work shows how the current wave of immigration from Mexico is different. The new immigrants are often more loyal to their homeland than to their adopted country, travel back and forth with ease, and can find ethnic comfort zones where they can make American dollars but never have to learn American culture. The book describes events that happened in the mid-1980s, but it's more timely than ever as continued high immigration levels keep this issue on the front burner.

Fantastic work
I am a bilingual teacher living and working among recent immigrants to the US, and I found this book very enlightening and well written. This book spoke directly to my heart. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Alien labor, Mexican   2. United States   3. Illegal aliens   4. Aliens, Illegal   5. Underground economy   6. Migrant Workers   7. Sociology   8. Social Science   9. Emigration & Immigration   10. Labor & Industrial Relations - General   11. Ethnic Studies - General   

Subjects:  1. Alien labor, Mexican   2. United States   3. Mexican Americans   4. Employment   5. Migrant labor   6. Business / Economics / Finance   7. Business & Economics   8. Labor   9. Sociology - General   10. Americas (North Central South West Indies)   11. History   12. General   13. Political Science   14. Ethnic Studies - General   15. Social Science   

Customer Reviews (10)

The best guide for serious hawk watchers
There is no other guide which even approaches Hawks in Flight for thoroughness, clarity, and utility. Anyone who seriously pursues the sport of hawk watching must have this book.

For those just starting out in hawk watching, and for general use by even the most serious hawk watchers, I strongly recommend another work by Dunne et al., Hawk Watch: A Guide for Beginners, which is a large-format condensed version of Hawks in Flight. this book does focus exclusively on eastern species, however. Having both books is ideal.

Hawks in Flight, great source
This book is a must have for any raptor fanatic. I used to be so confused on how to tell all those buteos apart, except when it was an obvious red tail. It is definatly worth the money, it is not meant to be a "ooh look at the pretty pictures kind of bird book", it is a holistic approach to identification, you learn about flight traits of each raptor, overall impression, plumage, etc. Read the whole thing so you really get whats going on. I am much more confident and knowledgeable after having studied this book. Buy it, worth it.

excellent book
This is a really interesting book. It has some photographs (which have inspired me to get out to Cape May and other cool birding havens) but most of the pictures are black & white drawings. The detail I think is actually pretty good. The drawings do not give specific detail of color shading etc but instead provide the broader strokes of major markings or wing shape or how the bird might look looking down at you. There are head-on profiles (in different modes of flight), some top down drawings, but mostly looking up and side. The raptors are segmented into the different groups of Buteos, Accipters Falcons, Kites, Northern Harrier, Eagles & Vultures, and Osprey. Within each section each bird has a few pages with pictures and really neat info about their migration patterns as well as tips for id.

I'm still not very good at id of these birds but I love watching them and trying to id them. This book is a really good resource! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Birds of prey   2. North America   3. Identification   4. Birds   5. Nature / Field Guide Books   6. Nature   7. Birds & Birdwatching - Guides   

Subjects:  1. Migrant labor   2. Fiction   3. Books and reading   4. African Americans   5. Preschool Picture Story Books   6. Children's 4-8 - Picturebooks   7. Juvenile Fiction   8. School & Education   9. Lifestyles - Farm Life & Ranch Life   10. Ethnic - African American   

Subjects:  1. Hadramawt (Yemen : Province)   2. Emigration and immigration   3. History   4. Politics and government   5. History - General History   6. Middle East - General   7. Asia - General   

As much as 10% of the American economy, and perhaps more, is comprised of illegal "underground" enterprises, according to author and Atlantic Monthly correspondent Eric Schlosser. And while this segment is never discussed in the newspaper business pages, Schlosser tackles it with the same in-depth analysis and compulsive readability that made his Fast Food Nation a best seller. Reefer Madness spotlights marijuana, migrant labor, and pornography, three of the most thriving black market industries, and analyzes the often-tenuous place each holds in society as a whole. While each of the three could be the subject of its own book, Schlosser keeps his scope narrow by concentrating on the lives of the participants in the underground economy, especially Mark Young, an Indiana man given a life sentence for participating in a marijuana sale, and Ohio porn magnate Reuben Sturman. At just 21 pages, the treatment of migrant laborers in the California strawberry fields is dealt with more briefly but is just as compelling thanks to the first-person narrative of Schlosser’s investigation. In telling these stories, which are both personal and universal, Schlosser deftly explores the manner in which his subjects are treated (and punished) compared to others in more above-ground ventures. Along the way, he asks hard questions as to what that treatment says about America. Schlosser writing is passionately opinionated, but this is no mere opinion piece: his perspective is amply supported by extensive research and clearly reasoned interpretation of data. His direct and forceful writing style makes the impact greater still. After reading Reefer Madness, readers are likely to be shocked, appalled, and flat-out bewildered by what’s happening in the cracks and crevices of American business. --John Moe ... Read more

Customer Reviews (63)

Interesting Essays, But....
Eric Schlosser's Reefer Madness has three interesting essays in it, but I can't quite figure out why the three are in this book together. In the introduction to the book, Schlosser says his intent is to expose the underground economy of the US for what it is. The first essay concerns marijuana and the ridiculous way it is handled in the US. Next, he focusses on the miserable lives of migrant strawberry pickers. Finally, he exposes the seedy underside of the American porn industry. All three essays are interesting and provocative--the marijuana chapter may be viewed by some as especially controversial. Schlosser's writing is well-researched and clear. But, the book just doesn't hang together as a cohesive whole, which I think it could if he had given it a couple more drafts--it almost seems that this book was rushed out before it was truly finished. Still--it is definitely worth the read.

solid but disappoints after Fast Food Nation
When looking at the title of Schlosser's newest work, one's first response has to be 'how did he manage to cover sex, drugs, and cheap labor all in a single book?'(some might even say he couldn't have covered their own personal experience with all in a single book). The answer, as one might have assumed, is simple'sketchily. A look at America's underground economy, the editing begins immediately with the decision to limit such an analysis to these three gargantuan topics'clearly there's a lot more going on in the shadow economy-- just ask the folks at RIAA.
Any one of these topics would have been enough for an entire book, so if Schlosser is to be criticized for skimming through the information (which he does), it's hard to see how, once the original decision for the book was made, he could have done otherwise. The look at cheap labor, for instance, is only a few dozen pages. The section on 'drugs' is really only focused on marijuana and the laws surrounding it, and even these are occasionally tossed out more as lists than in any sort of more reflective analysis. The section on pornography is longer, which might lead you to think it's more in depth, but just as with the drug section, Schlosser narrows his field and focuses more on a single pivotal figure in the development of pornography as a mainstream business. Its general history, modernization, feminization, incorporation, etc. are mentioned, but all too briefly. Finally, anyone who has read any recent lengthy article on any of these topics will probably not find much (beyond the individual figures themselves) new here. Even the context of the underground economy is not particularly original, as all three are oftentimes analyzed in just that context in their own right (how many articles on pot does one see that doesn't mention the estimated amount of money spent on growing or consuming it?). And that context is weakened somewhat by the section on pornography. After all, when The Greatest Hits of Nina Hartley is being distributed daily by AOL-Time-Warner or the Marriot and Larry Flint is running for governor of California, just how underground is this business?
That's the bad. The good, and there is a lot of it, is just what one would expect from the author of Fast Food Nation. The prose is highly readable and extremely lucid. The research is well-documented, effective, clearly explained, and (mostly) seamlessly interwoven into the stories. And the personal stories (a man sentenced to life for being a middle-man in a pot deal, the long-time attempt of the federal government to indict porn purveyor Reuban Sturman, along with others) lend a sense of humanity, realism, and intimacy to the discussion, which all too often remains on the abstract level in most analyses'so many people in prison, blah blah blah. Schlosser rifles off the statistics as well, but he grounds them in the stories of real people, and that is what makes this book at least somewhat effective, despite its sketchy nature.
Anyone coming to this from Fast Food Nation is probably bound to be disappointed and one wishes his publisher had convinced him (or agreed to allow him) to do a single book on each topic. Anyone not coming to it with preconceived high standards set by the author himself, and just looking for a readable, quick, informative look at each and any of these could do a lot worse.

Disjointed
It's really three separate books, or perhaps three magazine pieces. Each is an excellent piece of investigative journalism. He investigates the marihuana industry, migrant labor, and pornography, in each case using the stories of one or two individuals as a focus. There's a lot of gripping human interest, suspense-filled action, and crusading exposure of injustice.
He does have an unifying message, about the opressiveness of government, which is spelled out in a short afterword but really each piece stands alone and this affects readability. There are no cross-references between the three pieces. Taken individually each one is great. Advocates for marihuana legalisation will cheer through the first piece but yawn through the other two.If you're a First-Amendment-loving card-carrying ACLU member you'll enjoy the third piece best.
The other problem with constructing a book in this way is that each piece is too short to give full space to opposing viewpoints. If these had been articles in Atlantic Monthly or the New York Times we would have had an interesting extra dimension. Readers' letters would have come in, with corrections and counter-arguments, and Schlosser would have replied to them. We miss this in book form. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Amelia's Road
Amelia's road is an excellent resource for teachers. It can be used as part of a multi-cultural unit or to start off a unit on maps. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Migrant labor   2. Fiction   3. Hispanic Americans   4. Children's 4-8   5. Juvenile Fiction   6. Ethnic - General   7. Social Situations - Emotions & Feelings   8. Social Situations - General   

Subjects:  1. Painting, Mexican   2. Christian art and symbolism   3. Mexico   4. Votive offerings in art   5. Folk art   6. Art & Art Instruction   7. Art   8. Techniques - Painting   9. Criticism   

Customer Reviews (2)

Close to Home
An extremely realistic portrait of the area that I was born in to and spent the first twenty years of my life. This book is so well researched and insightful that I learned many things about the industry that sustained my home town. More importantly though it introduces the reader to the poor immigrant workers that slave away to produce the sugar that most give no thought. If you would would like to be immersed in a world that you know nothing about and learn of a culture, while American, is as different as you may find this book will entertain and educate you.

An important work
This documentary of the life of Florida's sugarcane workers should be required reading for every legislator voting on the sugar industry's subsidies, every citizen living in the State of Florida, and every person who consumes sugar in the U.S. As the book is focused social ills, it subsequently fails to adequately address the issue of the crop's environmental damage; and while it is a bit dated, it is yet a compelling look at the darker side of sugar. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Sugar workers   2. Florida   3. Migrant agricultural laborers   4. Alien labor   5. Migrant labor   6. Migrant Workers   7. Politics - Current Events   8. Political Science   9. Labor & Industrial Relations - General   

Customer Reviews (3)

This book is one of Twayne's best
Owens is a fine Steinbeck scholar, and this text is one of Twayne's best sellers due to his careful examination of the text and generous interpretive skills. One wonders how the dim bulb in the next review managed to read this entire book to reach such an unwarranted conclusion. For fans of Steinbeck who require scholarly discussion for their research, Owens is excellent.

This is a good study aid for students of Steinbeck.
Many literary reviews and criticisms are so technical they are almostunapproachable, but Owen's analysis of The Grapes of Wrath is accessible, clear, andprovides many useful bibliographical resources. Stolen from many university libraries, it is so useful. Buy your own; let the library keep its copy!

A good study aid for anyone wanting help with Steinbeck
Many literary reviews and criticisms are so technical theyare almost unapproachable, but Owen's analysis of The Grapesof Wrath is accessible, clear, and provides many useful bibliographical resources. Stolen from many university libraries, it is so useful. Buy your own; let the library keep its copy! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Steinbeck, John,   2. 1902-1968   3. Grapes of wrath   4. Migrant agricultural laborers   5. Rural families in literature   6. 20th Century American Novel And Short Story   7. Literature - Classics / Criticism   8. Fiction   

Customer Reviews (4)

Creative Courage - A Great Read
I loved this book. It is a tribute to the human spirit. Children really understand the underlying theme. Beatifully written.

First Day in Grapes is First Rate!!!!!
The main character in this book, Chico, is Hispanic, but his story is universal and engaging. I was delighted when my third-grader, who is a reluctant reader, read this book without stopping. She loved how Chico stood up for himself and solved his problems with Math. The illustrations are wonderful and the story has a terrific moral without preaching.

Great book for any child who is starting at a new school!
I just loved this book, and my nephew who is starting a new school this year wants me to read it to him every time he comes over.
This book is beautifully illustrated and has something for all children, especially our growing hispanic population. The main character moves around a lot because his parents are migrant farm workers. What a wonderful story. A must read for 4 to 9 year olds ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Self-confidence   2. Fiction   3. First day of school   4. Migrant labor   5. Mexican Americans   6. Juvenile Multicultural Studies   7. Children's 4-8 - Picturebooks   8. Juvenile Fiction   9. Ethnic - Hispanic & Latino   10. School & Education   11. Social Situations - Self-Esteem & Self-Reliance   

Customer Reviews (69)... Read more

Subjects:  1. Ethnic - Hispanic & Latino   2. Migrant labor   3. Fiction   4. Hispanic Americans   5. Spanish language materials   6. Spanish language   7. Children's 4-8 - Picturebooks   8. Juvenile Fiction   9. Social Situations - General   10. Family - General   

Customer Reviews (3)

Positve depiction on the contents of the book.
Read This Book! The book With These Hands, is a very accurate depiction of migrant farmworks today. The author, Daniel Rothenberg, is an anthropologist that spent three years living among workers and getting to know the people who work in the labor camps. He compiled more than 250 interviews to try and gain insight on the numerous hardships that these people face. Many people only hear about migrant workers who get into run-ins with the law, therefore giving these people a stereotypical view of how many of these migrants actually are, and what they go through to make such horrible wages. Every aspect of these farmworkers lives are explored, from wages to the farm labor market to consequences of labor practices. This book is really a reality check to people because of how much these workers have an affect on our lives. People don't stop to think about how all of their fruit products are gathered and how the workers are treated for doing such back breaking work. This book differs from many others that have been written on this same topic because it covers all different angles of migrant farmwork for yesterday and today. A definite two thumbs up!

This is a fine, very readable book about migrant farmworkers
With These Hands is an excellent book that contains oral histories -- astonishing interviews -- with farmworkers, growers, labor contractors, government officials and labor union officials. These statements are interspersed with excellent but brief summaries of various issues. The full range of the complexity of farmworkers' lives is explored, from wages and benefits to the structure of the farm labor market to the international consequences of agricultural labor practices. As a lawyer for migrant farmworkers, I'm all for books about them but have been disappointed by a lot of what has been written. This book does not disappoint.

Everyone who eats should read this book.
"The Poorest of the Invisible Working Poor" could be an alternate title for Daniel Rothenberg's "With These Hands." Most of us know migrant farm workers only when one of them breaks the law and get written up in the newspaper. However, just about every piece of produce we routinely select at the supermarket has passed through their hands. I particularly liked the format of Rothenberg's book, alternating factual explanation with monologues by those involved in farm labor. I appreciated the wide variety of viewpoints exposed, not just those of migrant workers, but also of contractors, farmer employers, government officials and labor organizers. Most migrant farmworkers are Hispanic, many of them in this country legally, and some are U.S. citizens from years back. Many others, out of economic desperation, risk their lives sneaking across the U.S./Mexican border to find honest work doing the most backbreaking labor, under the most inhumane living conditions, for the most miserable wages. Their sheer numbers help keep farmworker wages low, but the power of the agricultural lobby has helped maintain the dismal conditions of farm labor since the Depression. Everyone who eats should read this book. Every politician should read it twice. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Migrant agricultural laborers   2. United States   3. Interviews   4. Legal status, laws, etc   5. Politics - Current Events   6. Political Science   7. Labor & Industrial Relations - General   8. Agriculture - General   9. Anthropology - General   10. Social Science   

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.

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 ... Read more

Customer Reviews (57)

Stark, Gritty Tale of Southern Poverty
In just a few books, Larry Brown has proven himself to be a master storyteller. Hopefully, his critical recognition will spread to a greater popular acclaim with Fay, another of his wonderful novels of the South.

Brown is equally adept at stark, haunting descriptions of the beautiful desolation his characters inhabit, and the sudden, shocking violence they often confront. Much like Cormac McCarthy, another of my favorite writers, Brown's scenes of violence are almost poetic in description, gorgeously composed but shocking to the core. And, also like McCarthy, his characters seem always to be on the edge of redemption when one bad choice, one wrong turn, pulls them back under.

Fay is a fantastic character, one of the better female characters ever written by a man, and she will make you feel hope and despair for her as she struggles to make a life for herself in a harsh, strange world, but keeps sliding into pitfalls created by her own naivete and her ignorance of the havoc her beauty causes.

Read this book, and don't forget to read Joe as well, the novel in which her character was first introduced.

I'm perplexed
I am of two minds about FAY. On the one hand, I simply cannot put it down. I read most of the book yesterday and I will probably finish it tomorrow. It is gripping beyond reason. On the other hand, there is no easy way to explain why this book has such a hold on me. It is an excruciatingly simple story wherein not much happens and what does happen is almost unbelievable.

I accept that what I am suggesting is a paradox.

FAY is not Larry Brown's best work, but it is one of the most engaging reads I have encountered in, perhaps, years.

Those 1 and 2 star reviews are missing the point: Yeah, not much really happens in this book, but Larry Brown makes the little things count.

Dirty Work is a classic, as is Joe, as is Big Bad Love, as is On Fire, as is Father and Son, as is Facing the Music. I'm not sure that I'm ready to say that FAY is a classic, but I don't believe I was as desperate to turn the pages in any of Brown's other wonderful books as I have been with this one.

Nope, can't explain. Yep, read this book.

Good but not Great
This is my first Larry Brown read and I liked it. It is a compelling story and Brown does a good job of painting his charachters as real people with elements of good and bad. The world these people live in is often dark and ugly and none of the main players are black or white. They all have moments of conscience and strength and moments of weakness.

My main criticism is that he tends to over do it with the prose. Describing every minute detail is one thing in a short story, but at nearly 500 pages it tends to bog down a bit in a novel.

All in all a good read though. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Children of migrant laborers   2. Fiction   3. Teenage girls   4. Hitchhiking   5. Mississippi   6. Popular American Fiction   7. Fiction - General   8. Literary   9. General   

Subjects:  1. Farm life   2. New York (State)   3. Fiction   4. Migrant labor   5. Mexicans   6. Family - Parents   7. Children's 9-12 - Fiction - General   8. Juvenile Fiction   9. Social Situations - Prejudice & Racism   10. Social Situations - Values   11. Lifestyles - Farm Life & Ranch Life