Las uvas de la ira: (Spanish language edition of The Grapes of Wrath) (Spanish Edition) [Mass Market Paperback]

John Steinbeck (Author), Maria Coy (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 6, 2002

Forzados por la sequia y el acoso de los bancos, los Joad, una familia de granjeros de la Oklahoma rural y empobrecida de los anos treinta, emprenden un atribulado exodo a lo largo de la Ruta 66 con la intencion de buscar trabajo y una vida digna en California. Pero ni las advertencias de quienes regresan, pobres y desenganados, ni la muerte y la progresiva desintegracion de la familia, bastan para que cejen en su empeno. Y en su afan de supervivencia, conservan la entereza y la dignidad frente a la miseria moral de quienes se aprovechan de la miseria real. Posiblemente haya que huir del infierno para descubrir que no existe la tierra prometida. / Forced by drought and harassment of banks, the Joads, a family of farmers at the impoverished rural Oklahoma during the thirties, began a troubled exodus along Route 66 with the intention of seeking work and a decent life in California. They might discover that there is no promised land.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (August 6, 2002)
• Language: Spanish
• ISBN-10: 0142002534
• ISBN-13: 978-0142002537
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #213,718 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #33 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Foreign Language Fiction > Spanish
  • #100 in Books > Libros en español > Padres y familia

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excelente, May 14, 2000

By 

Luis Méndez (Republica Dominicana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Las uvas de la ira (COLECCION LETRAS UNIVERSALES) (Spanish Edition) (Paperback)

cuando lei este libro hasta llegue a sonar unas cuantas veces con estar en la carretera polvosa camino a otra comunidad donde pudiese conseguir un mejor empleo, y durmiendo en una hooverville. la historia es fascinante y es tan buena que la novela no parece las paginas parecen cortas. la familia que emigra, la lucha por un trabajo, la muerte, el crecimiento y distaciamiento de la familia. esta novela pinta un cuadro dramatico aunque lleno de hermosura narrativa de la gran depresion de los anos treinta, narrada en un lenguaje humano. es una de las mejores de este autor. muy recomendada..

LUIS MENDEZ

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most relevant and poignant books of all time., August 20, 2011

By 

Ned Middleton (British professional underwater photo-journalist & author) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Las uvas de la ira: (Spanish language edition of The Grapes of Wrath) (Spanish Edition) (Mass Market Paperback)

Who am I to review one of the greatest literary works of all time? Could I possibly give this book anything less than the maximum rating it so richly deserves? Should I even commence? Those were just some of my private thoughts as I finally put down a copy of this book - read. This is the book which stirred the American conscience, caused political reform and brought about change when first published in 1939. This is the book which described how families were starving to death because of corruption. This is John Steinbeck at his exceptional best. For those people who never got around to reading this engaging and absorbing account of the Joad family, may I suggest you actually purchase a copy (any copy!) and finally read it.

Today the world is either in recession or emerging from the dark grip of this latest financial catastrophe. Whilst we may live in a time when millions of families are no longer allowed to starve to death - well, not in the developed world at any rate, I earnestly believe there are lessons to be learned from this book about the rich and powerful who care not for their fellow man but only for personal gain. More importantly, those lessons are as relevant today as they were in 1939.

Another similarity also failed to escape my notice; In this book we see how US police and other officials use their positions of authority to threaten and even blackmail the many thousands of American migrants who were simply looking for work in order to feed hungry mouths. These people had not arrived from any foreign country and were not even black - something which would have made their persecution much easier. No!, these ordinary white American folk were honest farmers who had been forcibly evicted from their homes and the land they had worked for generations. Seventy years on, here in the UK, we are besieged by TV programmes depicting our different police forces undertaking their various duties around the country. Yet more cheaply produced "reality" television! Significantly, however, I have occasionally noticed how some police officers deliberately provoke a hostile situation where exists. Whilst not on the scale portrayed in this outstanding work, it is interesting that I should recognise that underlying attitude of arrogant superiority.

Whilst some may find the book slow going at the start, Steinbeck quickly gathers in those loose strands until they suddenly pull together to assume a story, reveal a mental photograph and produce a relevance into which the reader becomes fully immersed. I promptly learned local words and understood the dialect in which they were spoken as the Joad story unfolded. I could hear those southern accents as hardships are endured and explained through the actions of those who lived them. This was the organised, legalised daylight robbery and exploitation of the poor by the rich who were actively supported by the law enforcement agencies. A week's work for 1,000 fruit pickers paying 50 cents an hour is advertised to 3,000 hungry people who then pass on the message. Consequently, 5,000 starving workers arrive in search of that employment. With so much competition, the rate is lowered to 30 cents - take it or leave it! It was a deliberate ploy repeated time after time. Anyone attempting to organise his fellow workers is photographed, black-listed and branded a communist. Now feed that to your children. Then the banks insist the farmers reduced the rate to 25 cents and any landowner who questions that decision is swiftly reminded of his own vulnerability as a mortgagee! In short, either you pay them 25 cents or you join them! My own immediate reaction was to recognise a similarity between then and now - specifically with those modern banking practises which preyed on the sub-prime market. Anyone who cared to consider precisely what "sub-prime" meant, knew it was a policy destined to fail. And fail it did in spectacular fashion - and yet, the fat cat bankers still draw bonuses based on "personal performance" and not on their company's overall profit or loss...

I note from some of the comments appended to certain editions of this book, that various issues have been produced in which, apparently, Steinbeck's prose are changed to make the work an easier read. Please don't take the easy option, take the version written as it was intended to be read - i.e. the version written by Steinbeck. If not, you cannot claim to have read this book at all - instead you have the equivalent of, say, a Romeo and Juliet story - set in Manhattan in the 21st Century - and there are plenty of those...

In closing, I would urge anyone (indeed everyone) who has not already read an original version of this book If to go out and buy a copy - any old copy and then simply read it. Having done that, you too will draw parallels with our modern age and understand what I mean. You will also be richer for having done so - as would those fat cats who, unfortunately, will probably never bother. Having finally finished reading this outstanding work, I wonder how many of you will still be wondering whatever happened to that perfectly matched pair of Bays! I do...

NM