读过 The Grapes of Wrath 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕
应该是斯坦贝克最著名的作品了，开始共读这本之后我一连读掉了四本斯坦贝克（包括这本），每本都很喜欢……斯坦贝克是会写小人物的，无论是这本的Joad一家，还是《俄国纪行》里与他接触过的苏联人们，或是《罐头厂路》和《人鼠之间》里描绘的形形色色的人物，无论是真实还是虚构的人，在他的笔下都是这么生动和有血有肉，在艰难困苦中保留着对生活的热情和执着。
回到《愤怒的葡萄》，这本当代经典中记叙的Joad一家人在失去土地后长途跋涉到加州找工作的悲剧经历，正是大萧条时代游走于不同的短工之间、为满足最基本的生活所需而苦苦挣扎的农工的缩影，他们带着希冀前往加州这个应许之地，却发现面临的是不断突破底线的薪酬、居无定所食不果腹的生活和永无宁日的胡佛村……作者用从近处记叙故事和从高处叙述背景交替的写法，把这一家人生活中的种种充分融入当时大背景，更营造了一种不祥的预感逐渐实现却无力改变的悲凉感。
全书最吸引我的角色是牧师Casy，对于众多深陷生活泥淖的人而言，思考本身已是一种奢侈，因此不断思考和寻找灵魂的Casy有着巨大的光环，仿佛站在更高维度俯视着当下的痛苦，他虽然多少有点絮絮叨叨，但显然也影响了包括Tom在内的许多人……我读到中间一度以为他会成为革命领袖式的人物，或是为反叛点亮火把的人，尤其是他为Tom顶罪入狱后又突然与Tom重逢的时候，谁曾想他当晚就猝然暴死，成了尚未开始的反抗的殉道者，受到他影响的Tom也很快离开了Joad一家人，成为了组成巨大灵魂的一点星火，我震惊之余又很认同这样的处理……受压迫的人联合起来反抗本非如此轻而易举，只能耐心地等着愤怒的葡萄在心中逐渐成熟。
难能可贵的是，斯坦贝克笔下的女性角色也是千姿百态、弧光完整、熠熠生辉，坚韧无比的母亲角色且不提，Rose of Sharon这个角色让我印象非常深刻。一直到中后段都不太喜欢这个孕妇角色，因为她看起来太柔弱，有太多的抱怨，一直嚷嚷着想见那个不告而别的懦夫丈夫、抱怨着伙食不好没有牛奶、无时无刻不想着腹中胎儿——可回想起来，这怎么能怪她呢？她，还有其他的孕妇和弱势者，难道不值得更舒适、更安稳的生存环境吗？想喝两口牛奶又怎么能是过分的要求呢？全书最后的场景，Rose of Sharon生下死胎后，用自己的孩子永远无法喝到的乳汁哺育了一个濒临饿死的男人，这一幕充满了宗教感，让我联想到圣母哺育圣婴的神圣画面，正是在穷途末路中人们互帮互助的画面，让人性之光熠熠生辉。
The Grapes of Wrath [Book] Google Books Douban
10.0 (7 ratings)
author:
[美国] John Steinbeck
publishing house:
Penguin Classics
2006
- 3
The Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression, a book that galvanized—and sometimes outraged—millions of readers. Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read
A Penguin Classic
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 into the very nature of equality and justice in America. At once a naturalistic epic, captivity narrative, road novel, and transcendental gospel, Steinbeck’s powerful landmark novel is perhaps the most American of American Classics.
This Penguin Classics edition contains an introduction and notes by Steinbeck scholar Robert Demott.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,800 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
A Penguin Classic
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 into the very nature of equality and justice in America. At once a naturalistic epic, captivity narrative, road novel, and transcendental gospel, Steinbeck’s powerful landmark novel is perhaps the most American of American Classics.
This Penguin Classics edition contains an introduction and notes by Steinbeck scholar Robert Demott.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,800 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.