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Peter Van Buren
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Ghosts of Tom Joad: A Story of the #99 Percent Paperback – April 25, 2014

by Peter Van Buren (Author)
3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 63 ratings
See all formats and editions

A story about growth, failure, and redemption, Ghosts of Tom Joad traces the rise of the working poor and the don’t-have-to-work-rich as it follows the fortunes of the protagonist Earl. A product of the post–Korean War era, Earl witnesses his parents’ kitchen table arguments over money—echoed in thousands of other Rust Belt towns—experiences bullying, relishes first kisses, and comes of age and matures as a man before the economic hardships of the 1980s and 1990s wear on his spirit. Earl takes his turn at a variety of low-paying retail jobs in the new economy before becoming mired in homelessness and succumbing to meth, alcohol, and destitution. As he takes a final, metaphorical bus ride, Earl reflects on his past, considering the impact of the war on his father—and, subsequently, on himself—his own demise, and the romance between himself and Angel, which ultimately redeems him. This is a tale about the death of manufacturing, the deindustrialization of America, and a way of life that has been irrevocably lost. Anyone interested in the impact of political and business policy on the American Dream will be drawn to this profound, humorous, and moving novel.

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  1. Print length
    256 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Luminis Books, Inc.
  4. Publication date
    April 25, 2014
  5. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.68 x 8.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1935462911
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1935462910
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Peter Van Buren is a former Foreign Service officer at the Department of State. He is the author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People. His commentary has been featured in the Guardian,HuffingtonPost.com, Mother Jones, the New York Times, and Salon.com, among other publications. He is currently collaborating with Academy Award–nominated documentary filmmaker James Spione on a film about federal whistleblowers. He lives in Falls Church, Virginia.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Luminis Books, Inc. (April 25, 2014)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1935462911
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1935462910
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.68 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 63 ratings

About the author

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Peter Van Buren

Peter Van Buren

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Peter Van Buren returns with a deeply-researched anti-war novel, Hooper's War. Set in WWII Japan, Lieutenant Nate Hooper isn't sure he'll survive his war. And if he does make it home, he isn't sure he can survive the peace. He's done a terrible thing, and struggles to resolve the mistake he made alongside a Japanese soldier, and a Japanese woman who failed to save both men. At stake in this story of moral injury? Souls.

With allegorical connections to America's current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the reverse chronology telling of Hooper's War ("Fighting over the covers is better than remembering the empty side of the bed," Hooper says) turns a loss-of-innocence narrative into a complex tale of why that loss is inevitable in societies that go to war. Think Matterhorn and The Things They Carried, crossed with Catch-22 and Slaughterhouse Five.

A United States Foreign Service Officer (ret.), Peter Van Buren spent a year in Iraq. Following his first book, We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People, the Department of State began legal proceedings against him, falsely claiming the book revealed classified material. Through the efforts of the ACLU, Van Buren instead retired from the State Department with his First Amendment rights intact.

His second book, Ghosts of Tom Joad, A Story of the #99Percent is a novel about the social and economic changes in America after WWII and the decline of the blue collar middle class in the 1980s. The book anticipated the conditions that led many in America's Rust Belt to help elect Donald Trump.

Peter’s commentary has been featured in The New York Times, Reuters, Salon, NPR, Al Jazeera, Huffington Post, The Nation, TomDispatch, Antiwar.com, American Conservative Magazine, Mother Jones, Michael Moore.com, Le Monde, Japan Times, Asia Times, The Guardian (UK), Daily Kos, Middle East Online, Guernica and others. He has appeared on the BBC World Service, NPR's All Things Considered and Fresh Air, HuffPo Live, RT, ITV, Britain's Channel 4 Viewpoint, Dutch Television, CCTV, Voice of America, and more.

Learn more at http://www.wemeantwell.com and on Twitter at @wemeantwell

Customer reviews

3.9 out of 5 stars
63 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the story compelling and interesting. They praise the writing quality as excellent, descriptive, and easy to read. However, opinions differ on the depressing content - some find it heartbreaking and familiar, while others feel it's dull and uninteresting.

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Story qualityWriting qualityDepressing content
16 customers mention "Story quality"16 positive0 negative

Customers find the story engaging and realistic. They describe it as a compelling novel that deftly weaves fiction and non-fiction elements. Readers find the book moving, poignant, and memorable. It provides an historical account of America's past and present.

"...It is a compassionate look at the American Dream since 1973 through the eyes of someone whose experience has been more nightmare than dream-like...." Read more

"...Good story, well told with a tragic but not unexpected ending!" Read more

"...Besides that, the story gave an historical accounting of where our country was, and is, with regards to the disappearing middle class and the..." Read more

"...And it is also a great fictionalized memoir of a "Late Boomer" (a person born between 1956 and 1964) who did not have a golden childhood,..." Read more

10 customers mention "Writing quality"7 positive3 negative

Customers enjoy the writing quality. They find the story engaging with descriptive language that draws them in quickly. The author uses authentic and convincing language to paint a vivid picture in their minds. Overall, readers find the book an easy read.

"...Good story, well told with a tragic but not unexpected ending!" Read more

"...Van Buren SEES so well, and writes so well. I find it incongruous that somehow he worked at the State Department for 24 years...." Read more

"...Rather than avert your eyes, read and become informed. Excellent writing and adept storytelling draw you in quickly, and soon, you are on the bus..." Read more

"...Read it, though Ghost of Tom Joad is not an easy read. The portrait it paints is depressing. This is a hard reality to face...." Read more

9 customers mention "Depressing content"3 positive6 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the book's content. Some find it heartbreaking and familiar, while others say it's depressing, dull, and sobering.

"...He was an unintelligent, unmotivated nincompoop who couldn't hold down a job and definitely did not have the wherewithall to know some of the..." Read more

"...Heartbreaking, yet familiar to anyone who has paid attention to the heartland of America over the past thirty years...." Read more

"...It is sobering reading for those who believe in the myth that any American can grow up and become the president or a millionaire." Read more

"This is a great, albeit depressing, novel about life in a Rust Belt Ohio town where the principal factory--which supported two or three generations..." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Phil Libre
    5.0 out of 5 stars The story of what makes - and unmakes - the American Dream
    Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    Read this book. If you ever wonder what happened to the American middle class over the past 30 years or to the economy in the course of the last five years.
    Read it, though Ghost of Tom Joad is not an easy read. The portrait it paints is depressing. This is a hard reality to face. And Peter Van Buren doesn’t make it any easier by writing it partly as lived experience and partly as a political statement on America. There are moments of great descriptive writing and then there are whole racks of statistics that break the narrative flow.
    But none of this can take away from the importance of this book. It is a compassionate look at the American Dream since 1973 through the eyes of someone whose experience has been more nightmare than dream-like. It is also a cautionary tale - recognize the path that brought us to this pass in order to find a way out of the morass. The references to Grapes of Wrath are well woven into the story and remind us of the need for constant vigilance to prevent exploitation.
    But this is not just a political commentary. Van Buren has written a very human story about a man’s life, his expectations and disappointments. It is the story about his decisions, the results that ensue, his limited room to maneuver because of a system that he doesn’t fully understand until it’s too late. It is also a story about the people who inhabit his world and their efforts to survive, against all odds. Heartbreaking, yet familiar to anyone who has paid attention to the heartland of America over the past thirty years.

    Every American should read this book. And the wider world as well to understand what makes – and unmakes - the American Dream.
    7 people found this helpful
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  • Pomp t carney
    4.0 out of 5 stars Good story, well told with a tragic but not ...
    Reviewed in the United States on July 23, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    This book illustrates how people In general are born into a certain social and economic class system and how they tend to remain there unless they make a conscious effort to change themselves as the progress through life. It also showed how some do not have the will or ability to adjust to changes in their life circumstances that happen around them.
    A factory closing in Reeve, Oh. Should not be a be all end all event to an otherwise healthy person. That person should be able to move on to another town, another occupation and get on with their life. The point is well made in the book though that our factory jobs are and have been being lost at an alarming rate.
    Good story, well told with a tragic but not unexpected ending!
    2 people found this helpful
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  • geevesnc
    3.0 out of 5 stars A timely story that I would recommend people read as it deals with the downfall of ...
    Reviewed in the United States on December 26, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    A timely story that I would recommend people read as it deals with the downfall of the "American Dream". My main beef with the story is that the main character, in an effort to educate the reader, kept spouting statistics that he would have no clue about. He was an unintelligent, unmotivated nincompoop who couldn't hold down a job and definitely did not have the wherewithall to know some of the stats & background info about the economy, that he would rattle off. Besides that, the story gave an historical accounting of where our country was, and is, with regards to the disappearing middle class and the ability to make a living.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • John P. Jones III
    5.0 out of 5 stars “They bring you up to do like your daddy done…”
    Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    The subject quote is from Bruce Springsteen’s lament, “The River.” At Johnstown, Pennsylvania, the setting for Springsteen’s song, the river is called the Conemaugh, which commences there as two smaller rivers meet. The waters of the Conemaugh flow into the Monongahela, which joins the Allegheny in Pittsburgh, to form the Ohio River. In Peter Van Buren’s novel, his fictional town of Reeves is located on the Ohio, and characters from both the song and the novel, in their youths, swim in their respective rivers. A continuum. And to further the continuum, in Van Buren’s own words: “We’d work in the factory here in Reeve like our daddy done because that was the way of it.”

    I see lesser Tom Joads, real people, not ghosts, a couple of times a week. Tom Joad was the principal character in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. Driven off his farm in Oklahoma, by the dust bowl, and bankers, he took famous Route 66 west to California, and in the process passed through Albuquerque, NM. Joad still retained some hope of a better life, out there in California, when he passed through. The ones that I see appear to be devoid of hope, just so much “industrial waste,” which is the title to one of Van Buren’s chapters. And they haunt. All too many have that hole in their arm where all the money goes, another aspect of the “new economy.”

    Van Buren has written a brilliant and scathing novel on the detritus left behind by the de-industrialization of America. And we did it to ourselves; no foreign power imposed its will on us. As Van Buren states: “Somehow we got from there to here, where cars are made by foreign companies and Detroit looks like Dresden after WW II and Dresden looks like Detroit before WW II. Still, if our state could give the Germans enough of our tax money as an incentive, and enough work visas for their most skilled workers and managers to come over from Germany, they’d build cars to sell us here in Ohio and we’d have some more jobs that the Germans didn’t get, which was a lot like stealing tips.”

    And our political leadership?: “Same there, as it was four years ago and four years before that. Every four years the president comes back into western Pennsylvania like a dog looking for a place to pee. He reminds us that his wife’s cousin is from some town near to ours, gets photographed at the diner if it’s still in business, and then makes those promises to us while winking at the big business donors who feed him bribes they call campaign contributions. I’m tempted to cut out the middle man and just write in ‘Goldman Sachs’ on my ballot next election.” And that “elite media”?: “Meanwhile the coast reporters will write another story about the ‘heartland’ and then get out as fast as they can, acting as if something might stick to them if they stood still too long.”

    Small town Reeves, southeastern Ohio. The school and the factory, where everyone knew each other. Not a perfect world, by far, but a “bargain,” between the factory owners and workers, with each side cheating a bit. The big hope was to get that football scholarship to Ohio State, but if that didn’t work, the factory was the safety net, before some folks in Dubai, or was it Korea, bought it, and started downsizing. Van Buren says that it was in 1973 when Patient Zero of the “new economy,” the first steelworker, got laid off. Springsteen’s “The River” contained that evocative line of first love: “Her body tan and wet down at the reservoir.” Always possible for last love too. In the novel, Earl’s first love is Angie, and he quips: “Our version of an STD was poison ivy.” So I was not alone!

    Earl’s dad, Ray was in the Korean War. Not the mad dash north part, but rather guarding some hill known by its meters, for a year. And brings back a haunting memory, much akin to one of the first foreign movies I saw: Sundays and Cybèle.

    Van Buren packed in his novel more gut-wrenching social critiques than Steinbeck did in more than double the space. Van Buren takes us into one of the massage parlors that now populate virtually every strip mall in ABQ (and elsewhere). We learn what it is like to work at “Bullseye,” a stand-in for various big box stores that never quite allow you to work full time, and try to squeeze every ounce of work out of you, with nary a benefit. The slide into homelessness and drugs is fully there too, including the police who cover up for this growth business. Remember the four trillion dollars? So few do today, the bailout of 2008-09. Van Buren remembers, and asks how many jobs Reeves received out of it.

    I marked virtually every page: a sign of an excellent book. Here are just a few more choice quotes:

    “Plenty of people willing to slap my back because I was a soldier but nobody gave me a job.”

    “… a good portion of our labor force is focused on protection rather than production.”

    “One third of all working Americans are ‘contingent.’ “I allow companies to be flexible and nimble over my dead body.”

    Van Buren SEES so well, and writes so well. I find it incongruous that somehow he worked at the State Department for 24 years. Yet he did, and no surprise, got into a bit of trouble for again SEEING, and writing about what the United States did wrong in Iraq. His book: We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People (American Empire Project) is now on my “must read” list.

    In my idiosyncratic rating system, I have given only two 6-star, pluses, for: "Hearts and Minds" and Where Pigeons Don't Fly. Van Buren’s brilliant cri de Coeur from the heartland is the third.
    9 people found this helpful
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  • Joseph Glynn
    5.0 out of 5 stars How One of the 99ers Live
    Reviewed in the United States on July 14, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    A sad, angry, intermittently funny, and unforgettable book about one of the 99ers.
    While it echoes Steinbeck, it is actually closer to a 21st century version of Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio. Peter Van Buren does a terrific job of depicting life and work in small-town Ohio. And it is also a great fictionalized memoir of a "Late Boomer" (a person born between 1956 and 1964) who did not have a golden childhood, saw one hope after another destroyed, and never found his pot of gold.
    The book's biggest flaw is that some of the characters talk like left-wing propagandists rather than ordinary people struggling to survive. This robs some of the realism of the novel.
    But in the end, it shows how for one person the American Dream is--just a bad dream. It is sobering reading for those who believe in the myth that any American can grow up and become the president or a millionaire.
    3 people found this helpful
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