The Ghost of Tom Joad guitar work and the lyrics on many of the tracks are a somber reflection of life in the mid-1990s in America and Mexico. The character of Tom Joad entered the American consciousness in John Steinbeck’s 1939 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "The Grapes of Wrath", set against the economic hardships of the Great Depression. This spawned a film version starring Henry Fonda, which in turn inspired folk singer Woody Guthrie to pen "The Ballad of Tom Joad". The album's release was followed by Springsteen's solo acoustic Ghost of Tom Joad Tour, which ran from 1995 to 1997 and consisted of mostly small
The End of a Family Story The End of a Family Story The End of a Family Story () is a 1977 novel by the Hungarian writer Péter Nádas. The narrative follows a boy who grows up in Hungary in the 1950s, and whose grandfather tells him stories about their family's past. The prose frequently shifts in form and perspective. An English translation by Imre Goldstein was published in 1998 through Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Ken Kalfus reviewed the book for "The New York Times", and wrote that its "tediousness is as profound as the themes it seeks to engage." Kalfus continued: "The difficulty -- no,