Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley

An all time classic, and for good reason. I'm very reticent about reading the so called masterpieces, the books that fill lists titled '50 Books To Read Before You Die' or some such variation, but this is on my required reading list for university so to the Library I went in search of genius.

And I found it within the pages of this futurist utopian story about conformity and capitalism.

Set in a future of mass produced humans split into castes and social roles, Brave New World explores what it is to be human, and what individualism actually means.

Themes of self, of God, of isolation, and monogamy fill the book, with the world described in such detail you really step into it from the very beginning.

Non-conformist Bernard Marx struggles to fit in, to play the role to which he was assigned, and conditioned, and a trip to the uncivilised Savage Reservation brings about a startling revelation and introduces us to John the Savage whose entrance to the world thoroughly upsets the norm.

This book has been discussed over and over by scholars and readers thoughout the years since publication, and its through John we learn the sacrifices made and what was lost to create a perfect world of happiness.

Quite spectacular. 

The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck

A gritty, ultra realistc portrayal of America in the Great Depression. An absolute masterpiece of the human condition told through the eyes of the Joad family of Oklahoma travelling across route 66 in search of work and hope.

Steinbeck's opus is poetic and powerful, heartbreaking and hopeful all at the same time. I found my heart in my mouth many times when the Joads were a-moving towards the hope of work and money and food. There was always an undercurrent of threat, of danger in the pages and in the fields. Of man's ability to help another, but also of the pain he could cause another.

As wages fell during 1930s America, families moved from one transient job to another, huges caravans of middle americans filling up California and making the locals mean and distrustful. The air was thick with fear. Fear of starvation, fear of violence, fear of someone else getting what was yours. But it was also full of hope, and goodness and kindness. As Ma Joad says, the poorer the people get the more they want to give, the more they got to do for each other. 

Frequently found on lists such as 100 books to read before you die, or 50 greatest novels of the 20th Century, The Grapes of Wrath lives up to its reputation  and then some.