Book Jacket for The Grapes of Wrath

One Book Lunchtime Discussion

The Grapes of Wrath

Thursday, October 25, 2018 - 12:00pm to 1:00pm
  • Conference Room - Administration Wing
ONE BOOK STEAMBOAT book club discussions of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, led by Steinbeck scholar Susan Shillinglaw.

About the Book 

First published in 1939, Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads, driven from their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California. Out of their trials and their repeated collisions against the hard realities of an America divided into haves and have-nots evolves a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision, elemental yet plainspoken, tragic but ultimately stirring in its human dignity. A portrait of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless, of one man's fierce reaction to injustice, and of one woman's stoical strength, the novel captures the horrors of the Great Depression and probes the very nature of equality and justice in America.

About the Club 

Join your friends and neighbors for one one of two discussions of this great American novel that captures the plight of millions of Americans whose lives had been crushed by the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. Led by Steinbeck scholar Susan Shillinglaw, former director of the National Steinbeck Center and SJSU's Center for Steinbeck Studies, these discussions are open to everyone.

  • Wednesday, October 24 at 5:30 pm
  • Thursday, October 25 at Noon

Need a copy of the book?
The library has purchased extra copies of The Grapes of Wrath for our collection so everyone is able to check out a copy of the book, read it, and participate in the community conversation.