Tobacco Road

By: Erskine Caldwell

Narrated by: John MacDonald

Set during the Depression in the depleted farmlands surrounding Augusta, Georgia, Tobacco Road was first published in 1932. It is the story of the Lesters, a family of white sharecroppers so destitute that most of their creditors have given up on them. Debased by poverty to an elemental state of ignorance and selfishness, the Lesters are preoccupied by their hunger, sexual longings, and fear that they will one day descend to a lower rung on the social ladder than the black families who live near them.

Caldwell's skillful use of dialect and his plain style make the book one of the best examples of literary naturalism in contemporary American fiction. The novel was adapted as a successful play in 1933.

©1932 Erskine Caldwell (P)1998 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Caldwell's book is...well served by this classy performance, which manages to highlight the realism amid the rambunctiousness." ( AudioFile)
"An original, mature approach to people who ignore the civilization that contains them as completely as it ignores them." ( The Nation)

A Depressing and Baffling Drama

A well read audiobook with a good attention to the separation between narrative and dialogue.
The story is a sort of unfortunately relatable drama about poverty. The characters are mostly strange, disfigured people with stubbornly ignorant behaviors. The events are a series of theatrically evil occurances which amount to an engrossing drama.

Contrived and Unreal

The author tried at absurdity and suffering. Lack of human qualities, however, make his characters nothing more than paper dolls — lifeless, that is. It strains me to believe such 'absurdities'.

Not My Cup of Tea

A very well read performance but the story was not for me. Too slow to develop.

Preachers has got to preach against something.

“He sometimes said it was partly his own fault, but he believed steadfastly that his position had been brought about by other people.”
― Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road

Sometimes, when I'm unable to understand Georgia's ability to support and defend Judge Roy Moore, it helps to read a little bit of Erskine Caldwell. 'Tobacco Road' reminds me a bit of Hemingway, a bit of Twain, and a bit of Steinbeck. It is both a social justice novel and a darkly comic novel that paints the ugly corners of human poverty and depravity. The Lesters are a family of white sharecropers that are basically rotting into the earth. Social and economic norms and even the family are lost. Religion is abused. Even new cars are abused and quickly swallowed by the Earth. The land is fallow, burned, and everything is going to Hell.

It is a good thing the novel was so short, because it was painful to read.

By a nativee Georgian of 4 score and 7 years .

To listen to this was almost painful due to the reader trying to claim a Southern / Georgia accent . .... and failing insultingly ! This is dark exagerated humor , to begin with , yet with an underlying truth of the plight of dirt poor , ignorant , mentally deficient and bone lazy sharecroppers in the depression era. I know the type since my Dad had two similar white families as free tenants who , though living in the middle of lush forest of free firewood, were too lazy to haul wood to the house choosing rather to strip the housesand barns of weatherboards to cook and heat with. The government gave them seed to plant for food, yet they ate the corn seed and feed the rest to a few scrawny chickens rather than plant a garden . . No worry, Government and church handouts matured into the most LOYAL members of one of our major political parties , all ultimately with government jobs .

Parody Sublime

Erskine Caldwell isn't much read in these parts today -- but he should be. His ear for the language of the sand hills of Georgia is sublime, his ability to portray a swath of the forgotten south unparalleled. Those who contend this south never existed are mistaken. All you need do today is take out an electoral map and you will see the flaming red that consumed the Lesters' home still raging.

John Macdonald's telling of this tale was nothing short of masterful. Caldwell would have approved.

The story of USA today

The stupitity that is portrayed in the story, really tels the truth about the insane situation in the USA today. Ignorance seems to be the normal situation for a large minority due to the brainwashing by a media, controled by those who benefit from keeping it so. In the time of the story it was ignorance due to illitterasy but now people can read but dont read only listen to lies told by the servants of the rich. This situation will end in a disaster like the story.

Wonderful Book!

I really enjoyed this book as a vivid picture of the history of rural Georgia during the Great Depression.
This depiction of an dysfunctional ignorant family was amazing.

White

Trash lives in this book. I have lived long enough to have known people that fit into this story... Interesting!

Bleak is an understatement!

This book is well written and performed very well but the lives of the characters are so unfavorable that's it's almost comical.