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By coincidence I recently reread this book, not knowing that it was September's book club pick. I had a lot of difficulty reading this the first time around, largely due to how people's accents were written. The second time around, I had no problems.
It's a much better book than I first thought. I enjoyed "Grapes" well enough that I plan on reading either "The Portable Steinbeck" or "East of Eden" once I finish some of my current reads.
My view is on the chapter structure is that some chapters focus on the Joad family as both the main characters of the story, and as a microcosm of what was going on during the Dust Bowl years. The alternate chapters give the macroscopic view, the larger context to understand personal and impersonal interactions affected the Joads and others in similar situations.
And yes, I know it's no longer September but I felt I had to write all that.
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