I’ll be ever’where…

A few years ago I started a book club with a two friends from my high school days. Frankly, they are two of the smartest people I know, and I wanted an excuse to hang out with them. Also, I dream of a Finnegans Wake reading group to replace my Ulysses group, and I had high hopes I could lure my pals into it. So far, that hasn’t happened, but the reading group, the Tobacco Valley Inklings, has grown in membership and provides a delightful way to meet up and have intellectual conversations with friends.

A few moments ago, I finished our current selection, The Grapes of Wrath. I’ve read it at least two other times, and I always enjoyed it. This reading, though, in times when the nation is under duress again, gutted me. I often play around in my mind, creating lists of those books I feel qualify on a list of Great American Novels. There is no doubt that this is one.

One passage, in particular, made me weep, and I feel compelled to share it here. For context, the lines are Tom’s as he explains to Ma why, even if he dies, she does not need to feel he is gone.

“I’ll be ever’where-wherever you look. Wherever they’s a fight so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there. Wherever they’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there. If Casy knowed, why, I’ll be in the way guys yell when they’re mad an’ –I’ll be in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry an’ they know supper’s ready. An’ when our folks eat the stuff they raise an’ live in the houses they build–why, I’ll be there. See?” (419)