Listen free for 30 days
-
The Grapes of Wrath
- Narrated by: Dylan Baker
- Length: 21 hrs and 1 min
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wish list failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for $52.63
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Buy it with
-
East of Eden
- Written by: John Steinbeck
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 25 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This sprawling and often brutal novel, set in the rich farmlands of California's Salinas Valley, follows the intertwined destinies of two families - the Trasks and the Hamiltons - whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.
-
-
Worthy of its reputation
- By M on 2019-01-16
Written by: John Steinbeck
-
Of Mice and Men
- Written by: John Steinbeck
- Narrated by: Gary Sinise
- Length: 3 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Celebrating its 75th anniversary, John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men remains one of America's most widely read and beloved novels. Here is Steinbeck’s dramatic adaptation of his novel-as-play, which received the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play in 1937-1938 and has featured a number of actors who have played the iconic roles of George and Lennie on stage and film, including James Earl Jones, John Malkovich and Gary Sinise.
-
-
Great listen, but intro/outro music needs to go
- By Amazon Customer on 2019-04-02
Written by: John Steinbeck
-
The Winter of Our Discontent
- Written by: John Steinbeck
- Narrated by: David Aaron Baker
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The final novel of one of America’s most beloved writers - a tale of degeneration, corruption, and spiritual crisis. A Penguin Classic In awarding John Steinbeck the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Nobel committee stated that with The Winter of Our Discontent, he had “resumed his position as an independent expounder of the truth, with an unbiased instinct for what is genuinely American". Ethan Allen Hawley, the protagonist of Steinbeck’s last novel, works as a clerk in a grocery store that his family once owned.
-
-
Great story...albeit a bit depressing.
- By Arthur Gruszko on 2020-04-15
Written by: John Steinbeck
-
Cannery Row
- Written by: John Steinbeck
- Narrated by: Jerry Farden
- Length: 5 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Published in 1945, Cannery Row focuses on the acceptance of life as it is: both the exuberance of community and the loneliness of the individual. Drawing on his memories of the real inhabitants of Monterey, California, Steinbeck interweaves the stories of Doc, Henri, Mack and his boys, and the other characters in this world where only the fittest survive, to create a novel that is at once one of his most humorous and most poignant works.
-
-
wonderful reading
- By Michael J. Cox on 2021-08-22
Written by: John Steinbeck
-
Catch-22
- Written by: Joseph Heller
- Narrated by: Jay O. Sanders
- Length: 19 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in Italy during World War II, this is the story of the incomparable, malingering bombardier Yossarian, a hero who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy - it is his own army, which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to excuse himself from the perilous missions he's assigned, he'll be in violation of Catch-22.
-
-
Great book, tough as audiobook
- By Andrew S on 2018-02-15
Written by: Joseph Heller
-
To Kill a Mockingbird
- Written by: Harper Lee
- Narrated by: Sissy Spacek
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Harper Lee’s Pulitzer prize-winning masterwork of honor and injustice in the deep south - and the heroism of one man in the face of blind and violent hatred, available now for the first time as a digital audiobook. One of the best-loved stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than 40 languages, sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, served as the basis for an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted one of the best novels of the 20th century by librarians across the country.
-
-
wonderful
- By Sally on 2019-01-14
Written by: Harper Lee
-
East of Eden
- Written by: John Steinbeck
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 25 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This sprawling and often brutal novel, set in the rich farmlands of California's Salinas Valley, follows the intertwined destinies of two families - the Trasks and the Hamiltons - whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.
-
-
Worthy of its reputation
- By M on 2019-01-16
Written by: John Steinbeck
-
Of Mice and Men
- Written by: John Steinbeck
- Narrated by: Gary Sinise
- Length: 3 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Celebrating its 75th anniversary, John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men remains one of America's most widely read and beloved novels. Here is Steinbeck’s dramatic adaptation of his novel-as-play, which received the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play in 1937-1938 and has featured a number of actors who have played the iconic roles of George and Lennie on stage and film, including James Earl Jones, John Malkovich and Gary Sinise.
-
-
Great listen, but intro/outro music needs to go
- By Amazon Customer on 2019-04-02
Written by: John Steinbeck
-
The Winter of Our Discontent
- Written by: John Steinbeck
- Narrated by: David Aaron Baker
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The final novel of one of America’s most beloved writers - a tale of degeneration, corruption, and spiritual crisis. A Penguin Classic In awarding John Steinbeck the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Nobel committee stated that with The Winter of Our Discontent, he had “resumed his position as an independent expounder of the truth, with an unbiased instinct for what is genuinely American". Ethan Allen Hawley, the protagonist of Steinbeck’s last novel, works as a clerk in a grocery store that his family once owned.
-
-
Great story...albeit a bit depressing.
- By Arthur Gruszko on 2020-04-15
Written by: John Steinbeck
-
Cannery Row
- Written by: John Steinbeck
- Narrated by: Jerry Farden
- Length: 5 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Published in 1945, Cannery Row focuses on the acceptance of life as it is: both the exuberance of community and the loneliness of the individual. Drawing on his memories of the real inhabitants of Monterey, California, Steinbeck interweaves the stories of Doc, Henri, Mack and his boys, and the other characters in this world where only the fittest survive, to create a novel that is at once one of his most humorous and most poignant works.
-
-
wonderful reading
- By Michael J. Cox on 2021-08-22
Written by: John Steinbeck
-
Catch-22
- Written by: Joseph Heller
- Narrated by: Jay O. Sanders
- Length: 19 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in Italy during World War II, this is the story of the incomparable, malingering bombardier Yossarian, a hero who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy - it is his own army, which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to excuse himself from the perilous missions he's assigned, he'll be in violation of Catch-22.
-
-
Great book, tough as audiobook
- By Andrew S on 2018-02-15
Written by: Joseph Heller
-
To Kill a Mockingbird
- Written by: Harper Lee
- Narrated by: Sissy Spacek
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Harper Lee’s Pulitzer prize-winning masterwork of honor and injustice in the deep south - and the heroism of one man in the face of blind and violent hatred, available now for the first time as a digital audiobook. One of the best-loved stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than 40 languages, sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, served as the basis for an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted one of the best novels of the 20th century by librarians across the country.
-
-
wonderful
- By Sally on 2019-01-14
Written by: Harper Lee
-
For Whom the Bell Tolls
- Written by: Ernest Hemingway
- Narrated by: Campbell Scott
- Length: 16 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1937, Ernest Hemingway traveled to Spain to cover the civil war there for the North American Newspaper Alliance. Three years later he completed the greatest novel to emerge from "the good fight", For Whom the Bell Tolls.
-
-
Disappointed
- By Anonymous User on 2019-01-10
Written by: Ernest Hemingway
-
Lord of the Flies
- Written by: William Golding
- Narrated by: Martin Jarvis
- Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A plane crashes on a desert island and the only survivors, a group of schoolboys, assemble on the beach and wait to be rescued. By day they inhabit a land of bright fantastic birds and dark blue seas, but at night their dreams are haunted by the image of a terrifying beast. As the boys’ delicate sense of order fades, so their childish dreams are transformed into something more primitive and their behaviour starts to take on a murderous, savage significance.
-
-
Enjoyed listening to this classic
- By Thomas Armstrong on 2021-03-11
Written by: William Golding
-
Slaughterhouse-Five
- Written by: Kurt Vonnegut
- Narrated by: James Franco
- Length: 5 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Traumatized by the bombing of Dresden at the time he had been imprisoned, Pilgrim drifts through all events and history, sometimes deeply implicated, sometimes a witness. He is surrounded by Vonnegut's usual large cast of continuing characters (notably here the hack science fiction writer Kilgore Trout and the alien Tralfamadorians, who oversee his life and remind him constantly that there is no causation, no order, no motive to existence).
-
-
Where’s the old version?
- By S.S. on 2022-02-17
Written by: Kurt Vonnegut
-
The Great Gatsby
- Written by: F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Narrated by: Jake Gyllenhaal
- Length: 4 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic American novel of the Roaring Twenties is beloved by generations of readers and stands as his crowning work. This new audio edition, authorized by the Fitzgerald estate, is narrated by Oscar-nominated actor Jake Gyllenhaal ( Brokeback Mountain). Gyllenhaal's performance is a faithful delivery in the voice of Nick Carraway, the Midwesterner turned New York bond salesman, who rents a small house next door to the mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby. There, he has a firsthand view of Gatsby’s lavish West Egg parties - and of his undying love....
-
-
Great performance
- By Nika on 2018-01-31
Written by: F. Scott Fitzgerald
-
The Old Man and the Sea
- Written by: Ernest Hemingway
- Narrated by: Donald Sutherland
- Length: 2 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Old Man and the Sea is one of Hemingway's most enduring works. Told in language of great simplicity and power, it is the story of an old Cuban fisherman, down on his luck, and his supreme ordeal, a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. Here Hemingway recasts, in strikingly contemporary style, the classic theme of courage in the face of defeat, of personal triumph won from loss.
-
-
Well read.
- By Amazon Customer on 2023-06-23
Written by: Ernest Hemingway
-
One Hundred Years of Solitude
- Written by: Gabriel García Márquez, Gregory Rabassa - translator
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 14 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the 20th century's enduring works, One Hundred Years of Solitude is a widely beloved and acclaimed novel known throughout the world and the ultimate achievement in a Nobel Prize-winning career. The novel tells the story of the rise and fall of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendía family. Rich and brilliant, it is a chronicle of life, death, and the tragicomedy of humankind. In the beautiful, ridiculous, and tawdry story of the Buendía family, one sees all of humanity, just as in the history, myths, growth, and decay of Macondo, one sees all of Latin America.
-
-
waste of time
- By Ewguitars on 2021-10-21
Written by: Gabriel García Márquez, and others
-
Travels with Charley in Search of America
- Written by: John Steinbeck
- Narrated by: Gary Sinise
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In September 1960, John Steinbeck and his poodle, Charley, embarked on a journey across America, from small towns to growing cities to glorious wilderness oases. Travels with Charley is animated by Steinbeck’s attention to the specific details of the natural world and his sense of how the lives of people are intimately connected to the rhythms of nature—to weather, geography, the cycles of the seasons. His keen ear for the transactions among people is evident, too, as he records the interests and obsessions that preoccupy the Americans he encounters along the way.
-
-
Entertaining and insightful
- By Michele Webb on 2022-10-30
Written by: John Steinbeck
-
Tortilla Flat
- Written by: John Steinbeck
- Narrated by: John McDonough
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Adopting the structure and themes of the Arthurian legend, Steinbeck created a Camelot on a shabby hillside above the town of Monterey, California, and peopled it with a colorful band of knights. At the center of the tale is Danny, whose house, like Arthur’s castle, becomes a gathering place for men looking for adventure, camaraderie, and a sense of belonging—men who fiercely resist the corrupting tide of honest toil and civil rectitude.
-
-
1920s trailer park boys
- By marian on 2022-09-10
Written by: John Steinbeck
-
The Sun Also Rises
- Written by: Ernest Hemingway, Colm Toibin
- Narrated by: William Hurt
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A poignant look at the disillusionment and angst of the post-World War I generation, The Sun Also Rises introduces two of Hemingway’s most unforgettable characters: Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley. The story follows the flamboyant Brett and the hapless Jake as they journey from the wild nightlife of 1920s Paris to the brutal bullfighting rings of Spain with a motley group of expatriates. In his first great literary masterpiece, Hemingway portrays an age of moral bankruptcy, spiritual dissolution, unrealized love, and vanishing illusions.
-
-
By far the best book I've listened to
- By Mauro on 2019-09-12
Written by: Ernest Hemingway, and others
-
The Pastures of Heaven
- Written by: John Steinbeck
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 7 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Today, nearly 40 years after his death, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck remains one of America's greatest writers and cultural figures. We have begun publishing his many works for the first time as Penguin Classics. This season we continue with the seven spectacular and influential books East of Eden, Cannery Row, In Dubious Battle, The Long Valley, The Moon Is Down, The Pastures of Heaven, and Tortilla Flat.
-
-
Beautiful and Moving
- By Ben Vaughan on 2023-07-25
Written by: John Steinbeck
-
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
- 50th Anniversary Edition
- Written by: Ken Kesey, Robert Faggen - introduction
- Narrated by: John C. Reilly
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Boisterous, ribald, and ultimately shattering, Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest has left an indelible mark on the literature of our time. Turning conventional notions of sanity and insanity on their heads, the novel tells the unforgettable story of a mental ward and its inhabitants, especially tyrannical Big Nurse Ratched and Randle Patrick McMurphy, the brawling, fun-loving new inmate who resolves to oppose her.
-
-
fantastic
- By Anonymous User on 2022-01-13
Written by: Ken Kesey, and others
-
Lolita
- Written by: Vladimir Nabokov
- Narrated by: Jeremy Irons
- Length: 11 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Awe and exhilaration—along with heartbreak and mordant wit—abound in Lolita, which tells the story of the aging Humbert Humbert's obsession for the nymphet Dolores Haze. Lolita is also the story of a hypercivilized European colliding with the cheerful barbarism of postwar America.
-
-
Lovely and grotesque
- By Amazon Customer on 2021-02-26
Written by: Vladimir Nabokov
Publisher's Summary
John Steinbeck's powerful evocation of the suffering and hardship caused by the Great Depression, and a panoramic vision of the struggle for the American Dream, The Grapes of Wrath includes a critical introduction by Robert DeMott in Penguin Modern Classics. "I've done my damndest to rip a reader's nerves to rags, I don't want him satisfied".
Shocking and controversial when it was first published in 1939, Steinbeck's Pulitzer prize-winning epic The Grapes of Wrath remains his undisputed masterpiece. Set against the background of Dust Bowl Oklahoma and Californian migrant life, it tells of Tom Joad and his family, who, like thousands of others, are forced to travel west in search of the promised land. Their story is one of false hopes, thwarted desires, and broken dreams, yet out of their suffering Steinbeck created a drama that is intensely human, yet majestic in its scale and moral vision. Adapted into a celebrated film directed by John Ford, and starring Henry Fonda, The Grapes of Wrath is an eloquent tribute to the endurance and dignity of the human spirit.
John Steinbeck (1902-68), winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize for literature, is remembered as one of the greatest and best-loved American writers of the 20th century. During the Second World War Steinbeck served as a war correspondent, with his collected dispatches published as Once There Was a War (1958); in 1945 he was awarded the Norwegian Cross of Freedom for his novel The Moon is Down (1942), a portrayal of Resistance efforts in northern Europe. His best-known works include the epics The Grapes of Wrath (1939) and East of Eden (1952), and his tragic novella Of Mice and Men (1937). John Steinbeck's complete works are published in Penguin Modern Classics. If you liked The Grapes of Wrath, you might enjoy East of Eden, also available in Penguin Classics.
What the critics say
"It is Steinbeck's best novel, i.e., his toughest and tenderest, his roughest written and most mellifluous, his most realistic and, in its ending, his most melodramatic, his angriest and most idyllic. It is great in the way that Unlce Tom's Cabin was great. One of the most impassioned and exciting books of the year." (Time)
"One comes away moved, indignant, protesting, pitying. A fiery document of protest and compassion, as a story that had to be told, as a book that must be read." (Louis Kronenberger, The Nation)
"A novelist who is also a true poet" (Sunday Times)
More from the same
Narrator:
What listeners love about The Grapes of Wrath
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 2020-06-13
The harmonica was a bit much!
I won’t deign to review Grapes of Wrath - I’m sure you can come to your own conclusions or else look up a review from one of the many scholars who’s written about it.
I just wanted to comment on the production. The narration was excellent, although a shade on the melodramatic side of things for me. However, the harmonica interlude that was played at the beginning of each chapter as well as at breaks within the paragraph, was extremely irritating. It was very distracting for me. Simply verbally announcing each chapter would be been a sufficient verbal cue for most readers.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- M
- 2021-07-29
That F****n Harmonica
Great story, great narrator, harmonica playing at least 100x throughout the story was TERRIBLE.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 2023-01-31
Harmonica ruins this edition.
An abrasive 15-20 seconds of harmonica precedes every chapter. Completely unexpected EVERY TIME. It has created a Pavlov effect of meanness in me anytime I’m reminded of harmonicas.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Gabe Raymond
- 2020-12-19
Amazing read masterfully written.
such an amazing story with relevant lessons. its a humbling reflection on past a collapse. I find myself drawing parallels to modern times. I really like the poetic nature of the short setup chapters. Steinbeck brings to life the perrels of this one family and the dynamic struggle of life during their terrible subijgation of capitalist progression.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Rob
- 2019-05-17
Perhaps the best ever..
I finish this book with tears in my eyes. Masterful, simply masterful. Dylan Baker's performance is absolutely STUNNING. A book and performance that will stay with me forever.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Julie Arthey
- 2023-06-30
Loved this!
Very well written. The themes of poverty, generosity, ingenuity and hope gives the reader so much to contemplate. The narrator is enjoyable to listen to. His ability to differentiate the characters is invaluable to the reader’s imagination.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Duncan Jackman
- 2023-01-23
Superb
This masterpiece doesn’t age at all. And the flawless performance is up to the task of bringing it to life.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mike & Bourbon
- 2023-01-01
Poignant and engrossing; this extraordinary novel is thoroughly captivating
This is one of the best audible novels to which I have ever listened. I was thoroughly captivated by the story, the characters, the virtuoso narration by Dylan Baker and feel truly blessed to have experienced this seminal work between Christmas and New Year’s 2022. Just wonderful!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Nate/Ana Justice
- 2022-12-22
An excellent Audio!
I was drawn in right away. I’m so glad I listened to this book before reading it. Excellent audio! Thank you.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Matt
- 2022-09-14
Just great! I loved it.
One of the finest works I have ever experienced. A true masterpiece.
The narration was solid and I really liked the harmonica (unlike some other reviewers).
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- P. Minor
- 2014-07-18
Wish I could give it 10 stars!
I don't give many 5 star ratings. I listen to too many books to be impressed by many of them but I honestly wish I could give both this book and this narrator 10 stars. They were perfectly matched and I did not want this story to end.
Like most people of my generation (mid 60's), I read this book in high school and found it boring and didn't like it at all. It is wasted on the young who haven't faced any hardships in life yet and they can't possibly understand the impact of it's lessons.
But now when I listen to it I can feel the dust in my throat and the bugs biting my skin and the heat beating down on me. I know the pain of the parents watching their children starve and the humiliation of the men , especially, who could not take care of their families.
And, I could see how we as a country are starting to repeat those same mistakes that culminated in the massive poverty of the majority of Americans in those years.
This is a must read for all adults.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
147 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Josh Mitchell
- 2015-01-20
Book's as good as I remembered.
How could the performance have been better?
Dylan Baker does a solid job differentiating the voices of the different HEY DO YOU LIKE HARMONICA MUSIC? YOU'RE GOING TO LISTEN TO SOME JOLTINGLY LOUD HARMONICA MUSIC RIGHT NOW WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT! characters. But the producer who put this audiobook together didn't OH LOOK IT'S TIME FOR MORE REALLY LOUD HARMONICA MUSIC! I HOPE YOU LIKE IT BECAUSE IF YOU DON'T IT'S REALLY GOING TO MESS WITH THE STORY! consider the way it would sound if every chapter was separated with some lousy harmonica playing at nine thousand decibels. The overall experience of listening to this OOPS NOW HERE'S ANOTHER SUPER LOUD HARMONICA INTERLUDE!! audiobook as an exercise in patience. Not recommended if, for example, you like listening to audiobooks at bedtime.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
126 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Danielle
- 2018-09-22
Harmonica..
PLEASE stop the harmonica in between every chapter!!! It breaks the mood and is so loud! The narrator does a great job at the voices I think.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
67 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- James Tuttle
- 2019-05-03
Jarring Harmonica
The loud, harsh harmonica music between the chapters is wholly unnecessary and unpleasant. Otherwise a good book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
64 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- J. Monaco
- 2013-10-18
Wonderful Tale Punctuated with Loud Harmonic Licks
Would you listen to The Grapes of Wrath again? Why?
Yes, the story is wonderful. The narrator is excellent and does a great job with all the character voices. He seems to be channeling Henry Fonda as Tom Joad, for he sounds just like him.
Any additional comments?
Overall the book was wonderful except for the jolting harmonica music transitions from each chapter that were so loud I had to turn down the volume. I absolutely HATED that. I appreciate that the tunes were of the period and the instrument would be easily carried on the road. But it doesn't work for me and spoiled an otherwise wonderfully written and narrated story.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
60 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Kathy in CA
- 2013-07-24
Don't Miss This Classic!
I put off listening to this book for quite a while after getting it on sale. I knew it was a well-rated classic that I really wanted to read. My reluctance, however, was due to the fear that it might be outdated, slow moving, or even boring. Oh how wrong I was!
Listening to Dylan Baker's awesome narration of Steinbeck's masterpiece, it felt like I was carried away to a different time and place. Each character had their own particular voice--it was hard to believe there was only one narrator.
I was always engrossed in the story, I learned much about a period in our history that never caught my attention before, and I felt very sad as I followed the Joad familly's desperate plight for survival.
Steinbeck's writing style made it so easy to visualize the story and the characters. I felt like I was immersed in their lives, almost a fly on the wall. I really cared what happened to each and every one of them. And finally, I was prepared for an abrupt ending, but that brought quite a surprise. I wasn't sure I believed my ears. It was totally unexpected and will remain with me for a long time to come.
Highly recommended book! Don't procrastinate. Jump right in!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
51 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- H. Martin
- 2018-02-23
Book quality reduced by terrible sound effects
I enjoyed the narrator's many voices and the story was quite compelling. The book was nearly ruined for me by jarring loud harmonica at the ends of scenes and chapters. It was too loud and inappropriate. A terrible decision by the producers. I cannot recommend this audio book. Find another version or read it in print.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
49 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Dan Harlow
- 2013-07-07
Almost more relevant now than when it was written
Any additional comments?
Replace farmers from Oklahoma with migrant workers from Mexico and I doubt you'd be able to tell that this novel was written back in 1939. And that's what really stuck me about this novel - how relevant it still is - in some ways even more now than then.
The first similarity is economic. As I write this we are still either going through a 'great recession' or are slowly emerging from an economic downturn. The causes are different, of course, here in the novel it was bad farming techniques mixed with new technology that drove the farmers from their land. Today it's an over-saturated housing market - people banking all their futures on the bubble of hope that perhaps the value of their own home will increase enough for them to make a tidy profit. And just like land that's been worked too hard, people worked the housing market too hard and it collapsed. Banks came to take the farms in the novel and banks came to take the homes in our own time.
And both examples were of people running as fast as they could just to stay a little ahead of disaster. The farmers grew crops that destroyed the soil because they had no choice - they couldn't compete with the new farms, the corporate farms and machine efficiency. A family can't compete with a fleet of harvesters and tractors - working the land by hand can't keep up with a tractor. And the same goes for the people with houses these days. Everybody borrowed on cheap credit from the bank to hopefully 'buy low' and then 'sell high', but when everyone does it then there isn't no value in any of it and it all falls apart and everyone still owes the banks. And all they wanted was a piece of a dream, a chance to stay afloat economically, to send their kids to a good college, to make the car payments, put food on the table.
In the novel the Californian's hated the Oakies, called them lazy, called them animals, called them thieves; in today's world we call the homeowners who lost it all idiots, greedy, lazy. But we also hate the banks. Call the banks greedy, inhumane, a great machine that's too big to die and too big to fail and everybody has to keep feeding it because nobody is really too sure how to control it anymore.
But there is one difference, and that's the work. When the people lost the value on their homes, when the banks realized that the amount of money in the economy was based on a weak speculation and that there was actually a lot less money than there really was, when that caused credit to dry up, and when that caused smaller businesses to close up because they couldn't run the businesses with no credit, which in turn caused people to lose their jobs, and that caused the economy to drag down deeper and created a vicious cycle that made it worse and worse - after all that, the people had nowhere to go because all the 'poor jobs', the type of work Steinbeck writes about in the novel had all been taken by the immigrants.
And that cussed more issues. The poor American middle-class blamed the Mexican's and now militia patrol the borders to kick the Mexican's out or do worse things in the desert at night when nobody is looking. A man like Casey in the novel is no different than a immigrant getting killed by some militia border patrol.
And that causes resentment on all sides and the center can't hold.
And that's just the economic similarity between the novel and today's times. Politically it's the same too. A conservative will say the poor just gotta work, but the conservative will also be on the side of the businessman and when everyone needs work, the businessman can keep wages down and in turn keep the poor really poor. But that's supposed to be ok because the conservative will say the poor can take help from a charity or a church - but that's easy to tell someone else when it's not you having to beg and take charity, easy to tell another man to beg. But the conservative man is holding on by a thread as thin as can be too and he's causing his own demise because soon the corporation will put him out of work too, his job will be lost and he'll have to go begging and he won't be so mean and conservative anymore. He'll see the value of sticking by your fellow man instead of blaming him for his troubles.
And that's what the book is about - about family, about sticking together, about helping, about not letting the fruit on the vine rot when others go in need. And that's why it's an even more radical novel today than when it was written because it 'smells' of Communism or of Socialism. And the conservative man doesn't want to hear about that, he doesn't want a union because union men are lazy and he doesn't want socialism because the government will tell him what to do and he doesn't want communism because he can take care of his own family.
That is until he can't, then he'll be singing a different tune or he'll be turning on his own people like some of the people in the novel who turned against their own just to put food on the table; the great selfishness.
That's the saddest thing about the book - how spot on Steinbeck was about human nature. And for as beautiful as the novel is, as well written as it is, nothing can compare to how true it is. And maybe that's the thing that makes people still so angry about it - that it reveals a truth we don't want to accept about ourselves, that deep down we know that they way we live, that the American dream is not working, that it never really worked and that we either side with the people who will toss us on the heap of irrelevance or we fight the powers that be. And maybe if we worried a little more about if their neighbor has enough in his bowl and a little less about if we have enough in our own then maybe things would be better.
The novel is a microcosm of American, then and now. And that's quite an achievement because how many novels ring this true 75 years after they were written? And the novel is a damning indictment too, and that's why it still scares people.
And that ending. What an ending too. It's both hopeful and sad. It's religious and it turns religion on it's head too. It's bleak and yet it's also comforting.
Now I didn't realize it at first, but this is the third in a series of books I've been reading that deal explicitly with society - 'The Seven Pillars of Wisdom' talked about a people fighting for their independence in the deserts of Arabia, '100 Years of Solitude' about a village coping with modernity, and now this novel about a country having to find a new direction. And they are also about the poor, about people who have been taken advantage of by a government or an economy and have been cast aside. And that's been a struggle since man understood ownership and it will continue to be a struggle as long as some men side with the very forces that could steamroll everyone in the end.
'Don't turn on your own kind', Tom says. Well I hope Tom is still somewhere out there keeping an eye on everyone, helping where he can, beat up and bloody but still fighting. The world needs more Tom's and more Ma's. Someone's gotta keep the family together.
Anyway, brilliant novel. Pure genius.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
41 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- RSolomons
- 2013-05-21
Every Character a Gem!
What made the experience of listening to The Grapes of Wrath the most enjoyable?
I felt as if I lived the pain and the sorrow of The Joad family. In this trek from Oklahoma to California i traveled and suffered with these people. The way Steinbeck weaved hope, despair and the struggle of the human spirit for something better into this story places him in a class by himself
What other book might you compare The Grapes of Wrath to and why?
Night by Elie Wiesel, The Canterbury Tales, The Painted Bird
Which scene was your favorite?
I enjoyed the introduction of Tom Joad. When the trucker picked him up and started to talk to him he knew right away he was being sized up. Having just been released from prison, he was edgy, truthful and proud and wasn't going to be looked down upon. The dialogue and characterization in this scene brought his character to life as the hopeful hero.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
From start to finish each one of the characters, because they were so well formed and realistic, evoked empathy but never to the point of pity. Every character bore their share of hardship. You walk away from this experience feeling stronger for having been in their company. These were people to be admired.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
33 people found this helpful
-
Overall

- Parola138
- 2011-06-20
Pleased
I've literally waited 5 years for this audio to be released of what is hands down the best piece of American literature ever written. I think the pace and clarity of the narrator is perfect. It does have odd, blunt interludes of harmonica music that can snap you out of the trance the book puts you in, but other than that its a pretty flawless rendition of an American Classic.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
32 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- mikalo
- 2021-12-22
Well read aloud. Story of resilience.
Voices are great. Story of resilience is still relevant today. Some show solidarity and some don't in the face of hard times.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- paolo
- 2021-06-18
A great novel, very well read
This is truly a masterpiece, a compelling story extremely we'll narrated. And the reading is very expressive. My favourite audiobook so far!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!