2026 Spring Read: Dust, Wind and Rain

Dust, Wind and Rain
by Shane Timson

For High Plains Public Radio Readers Book Club, I’m Shane Timson in Colby, Kansas.

Today we are going to discuss the Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I want to talk about the beginning and the end of the book before we get into the middle because the way Steinbeck frames it is just brilliant.

The opening part of the book is dry and dirty. The wind is blowing for miles. The wheat fields are dry. The dirt is blowing. It’s terrible. Everything is a desert. Everything is coated in dirt. Then, when we get to the end of the book, the rains come and everything is caked in mud. So, it’s interesting. The beginning, no rain. The end, rain.

Now let’s talk about the middle part of the book. To do that, we go back to the beginning. So, the first part of the book we don’t meet anybody but the dirt and the wind and the heat. But then we see old Tom Joad walking up the road, hitch-hiking. He wants to go home and see his Pa. He finds out they are leaving. There is nothing for them where they live. They are going to go to California. It’s interesting because you hear about them going to California and all the different people they meet on the road.

It reminds me of what it must have been like in the gold rush days, but this is in the 1930s.They are plodding along doing the best they can. One of my favorite characters is the preacher. He doesn’t preach anymore, but ole momma still wants him to preach. Even when he says, “I don’t believe in it anymore. I don’t do it anymore,” Momma says, “Sure you do! Once a preacher, always a preacher. ”Every time there is a meal, he has to pray whether he wants to or not. Or even some nights when they can’t sleep, she requests that the preacher pray.

This book is a tale of the haves and the have-nots. As I read this book that takes place in the 1930s, some things don’t change. There are all kinds of people that are called names because of what they are whether it is because of what they are or the color of their skin. We haven’t really changed a whole lot even with all the laws, even with everything we say we are doing to make life fair for everyone. There is still the struggle out there just like there was in the Grapes of Wrath.

This book is a classic in the fact that they haven’t censored it. Yes, they use the “N-word” in there, but that’s how they would have talked back in those days. I think this book paints a picture that we need to read. We need to see it because the thing is, if we don’t look at it, we’ll never change.

This was a portrait of America back in the 1930s but even with all the progress that we’ve made, it is still somewhat of a portrait of America today. It’s just the people that face discrimination might be a different color or even a different nationality. But it is still there, so this is a book that we can certainly learn from and should learn from.

For High Plains Public Radio Readers Book Club, I’m Shane Timson in Colby, Kansas.