John Steinbeck
 

Had to go to Monterey for a week last month for a conference, and bought "Cannery Row" to take along with me. How did I miss out on Steinbeck for so long? Read "Of Mice and Men" in High School, but it did not touch me the way that Mark Twain and F. Scott Fitzgerald's books did.....

Now reading "The Grapes of Wrath" - it builds slower, but wow....I was in tears on the bike at the gym at lunch....

That was only 70 years ago - within living memory - today in America we all live in a Gilded Age....

"Travels with Charley" is my recommended Steinbeck read.

Thanks. I'll pick that up too!

The first 3/4's of the book is great. You can tell he is getting tired of the road in the last 1/4 and his writing gets sloppy. I would still recommend the book along with every other Steinbeck book. He is like the Norman Rockwell of literature. You don't have to be an "artiste" to understand his writing.

I've read every book by Steinbeck. They're all worth reading. The funniest (to me) is Sweet Thursday, which takes place at Cannery Row also. The scene where they caught the frogs had me in tears.

The best are Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden. (Get some hankies for East of Eden)

Truly a giant of American literature.

+1

To me, Travels With Charley goes with A Moveable Feast.

Tortilla Flat is one of my favorites.

I'm on a pretty extended coast-to-coast road trip right now in my 3/4 ton truck with my dog, and I brought along TWC, Mice and Men and Canary Row. I just started TWC again last night, it is one of my favorite books. I just feel an incredible kinship with that guy, like I am trying to mimmic his life or something. (Without the burden of his great talent, of course). :)

Almost forgot, "America and Americans" is great as well IMO. It is sort of the companion book to TWC and filled w/ photos, about 3 or 4 years after TWC and maybe 4 years before he died.

Looks like this will be the summer of Steinbeck.

Anybody read his Sea of Cortez book?