The Grapes of Wrath

First Line:

To the red country and part of the gray country of Oklahoma, the last rains came gently, and they did not cut the scarred earth.

Description:

John Steinbeck lived and worked with a group of migrant workers in California, from whom he drew the material for his great Dust Bowl saga of a wandering Okie family, the Joads. This Pulitzer Prize-winning novel awakened the American reading public to the plight of migrant workers and made Steinbeck famous worldwide. One of the most popular novels of the Great Depression, it has come to be regarded as a classic work of social realism and was made into an acclaimed movie.

Selected Reviews:

"As a high school kid struggling to write fiction, some books meant more than others, and some burst upon me with the power of a thunderbolt. John Steinbeck's 'Grapes of Wrath was one of those. The humanity of the story lifted me as a reader, but as an apprentice in the craft of writing, I was excited--almost breathless, really--with the audacity of Steinbeck's technique. He shifts, especially in the early going, from the wide focus (as the Okies stream west toward California) to the narrow with the aplomb of an acrobat. Probably the best example of Steinbeck working in tight focus is the turtle-crossing-the-road segment in 'Grapes'...I was moved by his ability to indicate the eternal by delineating the prosaic."

--Stephen King