The 25 Greatest Books of All Time Series: #25 The Grapes of Wrath

What are your top 25 greatest books of all time? How does your list compare with Jacke's list?

At #25 on his list is The Grapes of Wrath (1939) by John Steinbeck. Steinbeck's portrayal of the Joad family during the Great Depression is among America's finest literary narratives. The novel won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer. It also led to Steinbeck's receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature (1962).

Among Steinbeck's lesser known works is Sweet Thursday (1954), which is a sequel to his well-known Cannery Row (1945) and a personal favorite. Sweet Thursday expands on the world inhabited by the characters of Cannery Row, but it offsets some of the darker elements by including a bit of whimsy, marked by the non-narratively important Hooptedoodle chapters. In Hooptedoodle (2) Steinbeck writes, "When things get really bad there are some who seek out others who have it worse, for consolation. It is hard to see how this works but it seems to."

Sweet Thursday was later adapted into the musical Pipe Dreams (1955) by Rodgers and Hammerstein, which was not one of their more financial successful productions. In 1960, Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn released Suite Thursday, making it one of many literary inspirations for Ellington's music (for more, see "Such Sweet Thunder: Inside Duke Ellington's Literary World" https://www.jazzwise.com/features/article/such-sweet-thunder-inside-duke-ellington-s-literary-world; and "Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, and the Adventures of Peer Gynt in America" https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/mp/9460447.0005.205/--duke-ellington-billy-strayhorn-and-the-adventures-of-peer?rgn=main;view=fulltext).