The John Steinbeck Thread

[Bick]

It didn't seem to me that there was a thread dedicated to Steinbeck at all, so I thought I'd set this straight. I was reading around about the Nobel Prize in Literature (which of course Steinbeck won in 1962) and was reminded that he didn't personally think he deserved it. Indeed, there was quite a bit of suggestion at the time that he was too lightweight to have won. I always thought this was a strange viewpoint, as I've always considered him to be a great author, and certainly more substantial and important than some of the obscure Nobel winners over the years. As well as winning the Nobel prize, he also won the Pulitzer for The Grapes of Wrath. I've read several of his books and have enjoyed them, including:

The Grapes of Wrath - his greatest work?
East of Eden - I thought this was very impressive, though its years since I read it
Of Mice and Men - a classic novella
The Pearl - another near perfect novella
The Winter of our Discontent - less well-known perhaps, its moving and impressive
Tortilla Flat - the book that made his name - very entertaining
Travels with Charley - a travelogue with his dog Charley around America, its very enjoyable

I have a copy of To a God Unknown on the shelf, so that's in the tbr pile. I also keep meaning to read Cannery Row (in fact I'm not sure I didn't 30+ years ago). So, has anyone read any of these or anything else by Steinbeck? Impressions? Was he a worthy winner of the Nobel, in hindsight?

 

[Alex The G and T]

I spent the first twenty some years of my life on the opposite shore of Monterey Bay from so-called "Steinbeck Country." I actually aced a high school literature class devoted entirely to Steinbeck. I enjoyed his writings so much that I read far more broadly than the syllabus required. I think I've read most everything he wrote; albeit something in the order of (egad!) forty years ago.

Steinbeck wrote a very sympathetic exploration of good, or at least, well intentioned people who had to struggle to survive. An additional attraction, for me, was the familiar geography.

He makes us fall in love with the scabrous, derelict winos of Tortilla Flats. Cannery Row is a sequel, or at least a companion piece to Tortilla Flats, with many of the same characters. If we enjoy the first; we have to want to read the second.

To add to the Bick List of top choices, I'd say "Pastures of Heaven" sort of a Dynastic Saga of dirt poor farmers in the upper Carmel Valley. Very poingnant and empathetic.

The Red Pony, of course, is one of his more famous shorter stories. A quite powerful study of a fugitive crossing the Los Padres Mountains, there, inland of the California Big Sur coast.

"Doc" Ricketts of Tortilla Flats and Cannery Row fame was a real-life naturalist. The World Famous Monterey Bay Aquarium and oceanic research center, standing on the shoulders of, and paying homage to Ed Ricketts, currently sits at the foot of Cannery Row, more or less on the site of Ricketts' Laboratory. You can actually go online there and view a real-time, robotic dive into the profound depths of the Monterey Canyon. Monterey Bay Aquarium – Official Site

Speaking of Ed Ricketts, and the travelogue department... I recollect Travels with Charlie as being highly entertaining, and maybe a little bit profound in some of its philosophical musings. There's another Steinbeck travelogue in which John and Doc Rickets bum around the Gulf of Baja California on a boat. I don't remember that as having any particularly compelling narrative; but the notes on the observation of the native critters was a bit fascinating. Which diary is alternately noted as Log From the Sea of Cortez, or Sea of Cortez: a Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research. (Gulf of Baja = Sea of Cortez... don't ask.)

I'm thinking of a few other shorts that left an impression but I can't seem to nail any titles down. I'm looking at a bibliography that seems incomplete, to me. Perhaps the Pastures of Heaven book contained some additional stories, or maybe I once had a book Of Mice and Men which had an additional collection of shorts. The topper that comes to mind is about a boy nicknamed Pilarcitos ( spanish: "Little Frog") which I thought was the title, but I can't find it. I recollect that as the rather humorous, yet poignant, adventures of a kid who would, nowadays, probably labeled as "Down's Syndrome."

To answer Bick's query, then. I never read any Steinbeck that I didn't find, somehow, profound or significant; in addition to being highly entertaining. (Is that what "literary" means?)

 

[hitmouse]

I am very fond of both The Log From The Sea of Cortez and Travels with Charley. The former makes me wish I could have sailed around Baja California in the late 1940s.

 

[Toby Frost]

I've always thought that his fantasy novel, The Acts of King Arthur and his Noble Knights, deserves a lot more credit than it gets. It's probably not to everyone's tastes, but I think it's a serious piece of work that deserves to be known better.

Here is a short review: The Acts of King Arthur and his Noble Knights by John Steinbeck

 

[Bick]

Thanks for the feedback, folks. You've obviously read him widely Alex, and so I may add Pastures of Heaven to the tbr pile next time I'm in the mood. Travels with Charley was the last Steinbeck I did read, and I was struck by how immensely readable and good it was. I may even re-read it soon. Trouble is, it was sent to me by a friend and I passed it on so I'd need to get another copy.

 

[Toke]

I have read The Pearl and Of Mice and Men. The Pearl didn't quite catch my interest, it didn't speak to me. Of Mice and Men is a masterpiece. Definitely a story to recommend and to reread. Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden are coming up in my pile and I have moderately great expectations of them. Which one of them would be the easier/quicker read?

 

[Bick]

Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden are coming up in my pile and I have moderately great expectations of them. Which one of them would be the easier/quicker read?

i'm sorry I missed this somehow and never replied -I do apologise. Grapes of Wrath is shorter, but it is, in memory, more dour and bleak. So, while EoE is longer, I would probably say it's the 'easier' read.

 

[dask]

I only read The Grapes Of Wrath and Of Mice And Men and thoroughly enjoyed them both. I suppose he deserved the Nobel Prize as much as anybody who was born to write.