First published in 1932, this book is considered one of the key novels written about the Great Depression, often compared with Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. It's the story of the Lester family, sharecroppers in Georgia. Jeeter Lester's ancestor had been a man of some importance in the area, owner of a large tobacco plantation; over the course of several generations, the family's fortunes had turned, to the point that Jeeter's father had sold off the last of the family lands. Jeeter now lives as a sharecropper on land that his family once owned; he is so poor he can't even afford to buy the seed and fertilizer to plant crops on the land, and his family survives mostly by scrounging for bark and berries in the nearby woods. The family is so hungry that, when Jeeter's son-in-law, Lov, comes to talk to him, carrying a bag of turnips, they beat him with sticks to steal the turnips from him.
The book details the severity of the Lester family's poverty, and the various things they do to try and improve their condition. Their biggest fear is that their condition will worsen to the point that they are lower on the social ladder than the black families that live near them. They have sunk so low, due to their poverty and hunger, that they are reduced to the most primal of animal urges - finding food and finding someone to mate with. The family's interaction with Lov is reminiscent of a pack of wolves or hyenas - they are all sitting and lying around their yard as he approaches, but their minds and bodies prick up when he comes in sight, carrying the bag of turnips, and they move as a pack to trick him out of the food.
The book is an easy read, and a good illustration of the problems faced by poor farmers in the South during the Depression.
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