The Rescue of John Steinbeck - The New York Review of Books
Posted by TFG on March 31st, 2008
The Rescue of John Steinbeck - The New York Review of Books
He’s moralizing, he’s didactic, he’s searching for big answers to big questions. He’s generous and vulnerable and touchy. And he’s more and more dismayed by what he sees around him: “I have named the destroyers of nations: comfort, plenty, and security—out of which grow a bored and slothful cynicism.” You could say that by the end he had evolved into a kind of minor and irrelevant prophet, both disillusioned and irredeemably optimistic.
Yeah, well, I’m guessing that most of us go out that way, no? I’m no Steinbeck, not by a far stretch, and damn, that’s pretty much precisely the way I feel about myself.
That’s a pretty dang good look at the life of John Steinbeck, a man whose books still adorn my shelves (right now in cardboard boxes in the garage, but still, on shelves.) Much is explained by the Explainer, which these types all seem to be. Not that I don’t enjoy it, somewhat, but I also weary of the post-humous psychoanalytics. The worst part, though, is learning of the conjecture that the conversations in Travels With Charlie is wholly made up. Ach, I sure hope not.
April 1st, 2008 at 5:46 am
Cannery Row I could read every year
April 1st, 2008 at 5:53 pm
I never did understand why Steinbeck chose a full-size V-6 (!) powered GMC pickup to make the “Travels With Charlie” trip, but it was a fine read, all the same.
The R Man
April 1st, 2008 at 6:14 pm
Heh heh, I forgot about the V6. Jeez, another two books to dig out of the boxes. I love Cannery Row, as well.
April 1st, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Steinbeck never did much for me. Just a matter of different tastes, I guess.
April 1st, 2008 at 7:41 pm
What was the problem, Mr. Austin?
April 1st, 2008 at 8:34 pm
CR was full of bums and socialistic cant. Most of his novels that I liked had the same thing. But, just like McCarthy, I love the way he strung the words together. I thought he did a fine job with characterization and had a good ear for dialouge, as well.
April 1st, 2008 at 10:12 pm
No problem, as such, I just got bored reading the novels. Maybe I was forced to read The Pearl too early or too often with too much emphasis on the “deep” symbolism forced down my throat by bad teachers. FWIW, which ain’t much, I never cared much for most of the early 20th century American writers or playwrights I can remember. That probably makes me a bad person, but I’ve learned to live with it.
April 1st, 2008 at 10:18 pm
A heinous person, you popinjay.
April 2nd, 2008 at 2:39 am
Heinous, as you say. Dreiser, Sinclair Lewis? Edith Wharton?
Hell, hon, where you been?
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Crap! Frickin’ huge post on my literary pretensions with criticism of the pernicious influence of Marx and Freud on early 20th century American literature lost in the ether. Don’t know if I can remember it all now or not…
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:02 pm
But as to where I’ve been, reading and rereading Shakespeare and a lot of nonfiction — math, science, philosophy and history. At, least, I hope most of that is nonfiction.
April 2nd, 2008 at 7:01 pm
Crap!
Did that happen here or at your place? If it’s at my end, I want to fix it — because I bet your treatise would have been awesome.
April 2nd, 2008 at 11:21 pm
At the airport in Chattanooga, Tennesee. I have got to stop travelling so much, and I will right after my Pinehurst trip next week. FWIW, I love little airports with 5 gates. So easy to get into and out of, other than the total lack of direct flights in and out that froces me through Chicago. Or Atlanta. Or Dallas. Or Charlotte.
Don’t know if it was you, me, the local access or what. Just got home and too tired to think about it now. With my accountant showing up at the office tomorrow at 0800, not sure when I’ll get back to it.