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Tobacco Road
Tobacco Road | Erskine Caldwell
14 posts | 22 read | 18 to read
Caldwells bestselling, controversial classic: the story of a Southern sharecropper family ground down by the devastation of the Great Depression Even before the Great Depression struck, Jeeter Lester and his family were desperately poor sharecroppers. But when hard times begin to affect the families that once helped support them, the Lesters slip completely into the abyss. Rather than hold on to each other for support, Jeeter, his wife Ada, and their twelve children are overcome by the fractured and violent society around them. Banned and burned when first released in 1932, Tobacco Road is a brutal examination of povertys dehumanizing influence by one of Americas great masters of political fiction. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Erskine Caldwell including rare photos and never-before-seen documents courtesy of the Dartmouth College Library.
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Addison_Reads
Tobacco Road | Erskine Caldwell
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The Lester family is a group I have not forgotten since I first encountered them in my 9th grade reading class.

Tobacco road is disturbing, funny, depressing, and realistic to the time frame in which it's set. You follow a family of poor Southerners who keep making the same bad choices. It always made me wonder how different this story might play out if it wasn't set in the rural South.

#GratefulReads @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @OriginalCyn620

OriginalCyn620 👍🏻📚 4y
25 likes1 stack add2 comments
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Lcsmcat
Tobacco Road | Erskine Caldwell
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October reads. 12 books - 3 audiobooks, 3 ebooks, 6 print books.

jewright I read Tobacco Road in grad school and liked it a lot. I wrote a poem about it, for the creative assignment, but I have no idea where it is. 4y
Lcsmcat @jewright It‘s a shame you lost that poem - I‘d have liked to read it! 4y
38 likes3 comments
review
Lcsmcat
Tobacco Road | Erskine Caldwell
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Pickpick

I don‘t know how to review this. It was funny, and depressing in equal measure. And in the end, there was no character growth, which seems to be the point. #bannedbooks

ljuliel I agree, this would be hard to review. Unfortunately, I had the opposite opinion of the book and the people in it. I just got so doggone frustrated with them, when they actually had an opportunity to usefully use the cash they received, and it was more or less just squandered, then they were back, fighting over turnips. I wanted to smack them all. 5y
Lcsmcat @ljuliel When I said no character growth, that‘s what I meant. They kept repeating the same behaviors that got them nowhere. And then Dude starts spouting Jeeter‘s words at the end. (edited) 5y
jewright I read this book in grad school and agree with you! 5y
CarolynM Sounds quite realistic to me 😖 5y
46 likes1 stack add4 comments
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Lcsmcat
Tobacco Road | Erskine Caldwell
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Started this on my lunch hour today. #currentread #bannedbooks

38 likes1 stack add
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emilyhaldi
Tobacco Road (Revised) | Erskine Caldwell
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Leftcoastzen Wow! 5y
LeahBergen Nice!! 5y
Reviewsbylola A little bit freaky but ok. 5y
emilyhaldi @Reviewsbylola I like freaky 5y
Mdargusch 🤣🤣🤣 5y
78 likes1 stack add5 comments
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KellyHunsakerReads
Tobacco Road | Erskine Caldwell
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Reading this little classic. I know nothing about it going in.

Kaye Good southern writing, but I wanted to toss it across the room when I was done. I‘ve never gotten so irritated by a group of book characters in my life ! They all needed a good whoopin. 5y
KellyHunsakerReads I ended up loving it. There was a lot of humor in there despite it being so full of tragedy. 5y
17 likes1 stack add2 comments
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Lcsmcat
Tobacco Road | Erskine Caldwell
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Early Bird Books has 1300 books on sale today, because it‘s Friday the 13th. I might have gone overboard. ☺️

ravenlee I‘d say as long as you didn‘t buy 1300 you didn‘t go overboard. 6y
42 likes1 comment
review
Listener15
Tobacco Road | Erskine Caldwell
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Panpan

Read for @bookriot s #ReadHarder Challenge to read a book set within 100 miles of your location. If this book wasn't 108 pages I would have DNF it. Dialogue was annoyingly repetitive, did not connect with any character, and found it creepy. It did not help that the formatting and typeset of this printing was HORRIBLE. If you want to read this find an older used copy, DO NOT BUY THIS PRINTING.

11 likes1 stack add
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emilyhaldi
Tobacco Road | Erskine Caldwell
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Here's a look at the book I got earlier today. It's a first edition in great condition and came with this little card explaining the history of the book. Really cool!
@Reviewsbylola do you know anything about it? Sounds like the original Hillbilly Elegy..

451Degrees Good find!😍 7y
lynneamch I haven't read the book, but have seen the 1941 movie on late night TV. 7y
LeahBergen Lovely!!! 7y
Reviewsbylola Sounds really good. But no, not familiar with it. 7y
99 likes1 stack add4 comments
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emilyhaldi
Tobacco Road | Erskine Caldwell
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Passed by the Alabaster Bookshop today and just has to pop in for a minute! So many old, rare books in there... but I walked away with just one! Very proud of my restraint ☺️

Julsmarshall What a beautiful bookshop! Where is it? 😍😍😍 7y
Reviewsbylola What was the one book? 7y
emilyhaldi @Julsmarshall the store is in NYC, Union Square. It's very unique! (edited) 7y
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Hobbinol 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻❗️ 7y
Gissy Beautiful! How could you leave with only one book? You have control of yourself! So proud! 👍I don't know what would happen if I visit this store! ☺️What is the name of the store? 7y
emilyhaldi @Gissy I think I left with only one purely due to being overwhelmed 😂 it's the Alabaster Bookshop. 7y
Gissy Yes! Too many books to see and choose 😳 7y
137 likes1 stack add7 comments
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JacintaMCarter
Tobacco Road | Erskine Caldwell
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Pickpick

If you combined Honey Boo Boo, Duck Dynasty, the Beverly Hillbillies, and As I Lay Dying, you'd end up with the Lester family in Tobacco Road. Every character in this white trash Southern novel is absolutely awful, but that just makes them that much more interesting.

SharonGoforth It is downright disturbing, yet it is so good! 7y
kristina_with_a_k You had me at Honey Boo Boo. 😂😂😂😂 7y
31 likes3 stack adds2 comments
quote
GoneFishing
Tobacco Road | Erskine Caldwell

Though it sometimes looks like a rich man will never help the poor; whereas the poor people will give away everything they has to help somebody who ain‘t got nothing. That‘s how it looks to me. Don‘t seem like it ought to be that way, but I reckon the rich ain‘t got no time to fool with us poor folks.

8 likes2 stack adds