The Grapes of Wrath

With a photographer's eye for honest detail and a musician's ear for the era's language and dialogue, John Steinbeck's Dustbowl epic of displacement, heartache, and hope became both a touchstone and lightning rod in American literature as soon as it was published in 1939. The novel continues to resonate and L.A. Theatre Works's full-cast performance of Frank Galati's Tony Award-winning stage adaptation hits all the high points. In this story of family and survival, Jeffrey Donovan provides a solid voice and foundation for the Prodigal Son figure, Tom Joad. Francis Guinan finds the wisdom and humor in the broken preacher, Jim Casey. And veteran Broadway star Shirley Knight shines as the matriarch, Ma Joad, bringing heart, soul, and tears to every line. A fine introduction to Steinbeck's world. B.P. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in l940, this famous protest novel is a natural for audio. The story is told almost entirely in the country vernacular of the destitute workers of the 1930's--some 300,000 strong--who had been driven from their farms and were pouring into California to face hunger, squalor and humiliation. (An inept narrator, reading their dialogue, could easily have made them sound like the Beverly Hillbillies.) Instead, Dylan Baker's sensitive interpretation has given them the dignity--even the nobility--that Steinbeck intended. He has also avoided another serious pitfall: overdramatizing some of Steinbeck's speeches in the last half of the book, avoiding what the Joads called "a preacher voice." The listener is hardly aware of occasional lapses into sentimental prose as Steinbeck delivers his many impassioned sermons against the selfishness and greed of the rich. Altogether, this is an outstanding performance; John Steinbeck would have relished it. J.C. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine