I am not sure which of the above novels I will be reviewing. I won’t be reading Of Mice and Men or The Pearl, I know that. Instead, I have access to a bunch of his short works and whatever I get to I will get to. I have a weird relationship with Steinbeck because I read The Grapes of Wrath in high school and unlike other books I read in high school, I have never reread it. When I pick up one of his other novels I tend […]
Wreck your day with a Steinbeck Novella!
I moved to Monterey, CA last summer and decided that while I was here I would read Stienbeck’s catalog. He’s from this area and writes a lot about it. East of Eden takes place a town over in Salinas. The town is now home of the National Steinbeck museum. Cannery Row takes place on Monterey’s Cannery Row. Needless to say, there is a lot of Steinbeck here. Before The Pearl, the only Steinbeck I’d read were East of Eden and Of Mice and Men. I […]
Epic (by the actual definition of the word) Sweeping Tale of Mythical Proportions
Boy oh boy. I finally made it! I finished East of Eden! It had been a while since I sunk my teeth into a beast of a book, and I set my sights on this heavy sucker. I think it was because I was going to tackle the Grapes of Wrath but my local library didn’t have it in stock, so I went for the behemoth, clocking in at 601 pages. It took renewing it twice, and um, checking it out twice, but I prevailed! […]
Just a nice meandering trip through America, until we get to the South
In his late middle-age, John Steinbeck decides that after 25 years living in France, but writing about America, that he needs to return to take a trek through the landscape in a souped-up truck and a French poodle named Charley. Throughout the trip, he takes wandering notes, discusses the landscape, make-up and character of Americans. He is never maligned or chagrined by what he finds, just fascinated, and where it feels like he should weigh in he doesn’t. He discusses America’s throw-away culture, our tendency […]
Trouble with mice is you always kill ’em.
“Trouble with mice is you always kill ’em. ” I read this on a plane to Athens and I am sure my fellow passengers thought I’d come unhinged right then and there. I laughed, I cried, I covered my eyes afraid to read on. This is a very well-crafted book.On a warm summer evening, at a little lake in a clearing, George and Lennie come bumbling in. George looks out for Lennie, who has some sort of mental handicap, but he is a strong and […]
Steinbeck, I can’t.
Okay, people. I really tried with this one. My friend F is a huge Steinbeck fan, so huge that she chose East of Eden for her book club pick this July. I won’t rehash how I feel about that, because I reviewed it for CBR7 and greatly disliked it. Before reading The Grapes of Wrath, I theorized that Steinbeck suffers from White Male Writer Syndrome—namely, that he literally has no clue about women. I decided to see if The Grapes of Wrath added any weight […]