Words from the achiever
“The first book I remember that really grabbed me was a book that Miss McGuffey made us read, Tortilla Flat by Steinbeck. When I read it, I really enjoyed the book. So I went to her and said, “I like this.” She was shocked that I would show any interest in what she was making us do. So she said, okay, read this. The next one was, Of Mice and Men. So she sort of fed the Steinbeck books to me. When I read the Grapes of Wrath — we saved that for last — I knew that was a very powerful book. I don’t know if it had anything to do with my writing style, or me as a writer, because I wasn’t thinking about it back then. It had a lot to do with the way I viewed humanity and the struggles of little people against big people. It was a very important book for me.”
About the book
In this epic story of the Great Depression, an Oklahoma farm family, driven off their homestead, make a difficult journey west to the promised land of California.