By: John Steinbeck
Narrated by: Richard Poe
Length: 25 hrs and 23 mins

An intimate epic of an Americana. This book had several stories to tell. The biblical motifs are very present, but also jarringly twisted to make it feel as if someone was playing scales and didn’t finsish the last note. It’s beutiful, but you can’t enjoy it. There is redemption, but the redemption that comes is not for those who are good. The good people die. Those who are imperfect get to attmpt to live a pointless life. In the end, it is the evil that lives on, the good only lives in memory.

I found this to be a facinating read. Books written like this, contain an interesting commentary on the history and times that the author is in, and that they are remembring. Looking back on the time leading up to the start of the 20th century from New England and then journeying to the backwater that is the Sallinas Valley is quite a journey that leaves you almost without hope.