So believe it or not, I actually do intend to keep this feature alive, partly because simply blogging about my reactions to a book I’m reading as I’m reading it seems like it could be pretty fun even if everybody who winds up reading the post already read the book anyway, and also because I really do need to get myself to read more often.
Anyway, right after I wrote about how the ex-preacher Jim Casy was my favorite character in my first Currently Reading, he went and got arrested and we haven’t seen him since. This is kind of a bummer. Granted, he set up a nice, ironic Christ motif for himself by taking the fall for Tom Joad, who couldn’t afford to get in any legal trouble what with having broken parole and all, but I’m definitely missing his insight, and I’m kind of annoyed that Tom doesn’t seem too bothered by his absence either, having, you know, gone to jail for him.
So the Joad family just made it to California the last time I posted, and the warnings that it’s far from the land of opportunity promised them have all come true, and although the Joads have actually been really lucky so far, all things considered, there’s clear signs they’ll inevitably lose what little gains they’ve made since their arrival. Again, I don’t know how the novel ends, not having read it before, but I can’t see it steering away from the powerful sense of impending doom Steinbeck has so heavily embedded in the narrative. The Joad family feels not too much unlike a time bomb, and though they’ve managed luck so far, I don’t think things are going to end well for them.
Without Casy though, my current most interesting character is probably Rose of Sharon, not because I like her a whole lot, but it’s interesting how while the rest of the family deals with the paranoia of making a living, she deals with the paranoia of her pregnancy. She absolutely freaks out whenever so much as a hyper-religious old lady comes along condemning such deplorable sins as dancing and acting and, I dunno… breathing, maybe. It’s kind of like her paranoia manifests everyone else’s. Makes me wonder if when she finally gives birth if that baby doesn’t serve some metaphorical purpose too?
Yeah, you might already know, but don’t tell me! I’m almost done!
