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4.07 AVERAGE
4.07 AVERAGE
My favourite one so far, the guy just put a house on a pickup truck and drove through America with his dog
adventurous
challenging
funny
lighthearted
sad
fast-paced
i have been reading this book forever. and i realize that coming from me, that means a week or two. but this book has existed, albeit in the back of my mind and in some form or another, since december or january. normally that would be repulsive to me, but i don't think this book should be read in even a week. i think it should be read in snippets over time. it feels most like a voyage that way, at least for me.
i don't feel qualified to even rate this book. i honestly can't believe i finished it.
i love steinbeck--he's up there with fitzgerald for me: an author i adore, an author whose breadth of work i will likely never read, as i selected each as a favorite after a couple of novels. and yes, this work contained those classic steinbeck irritations: the old man superiority to change and to the young; the ignorance of women--somehow his characteristic flat female characters exist, or fail to, even in nonfiction; the quiet racism that refuses to recognize itself.
yet this was a book about travel, about America, in the sharp, simple, philosophical voice i love. i marked this up over and over with an orange highlighter and blue Post-It scraps. steinbeck may have come to know america like few--maybe no one--have, and i feel fortunate to have seen a changing country through his eyes.
i suppose i must give this 5 stars, though i'm tempted to give it 4. but reading this was as much a labor of love as writing it must have been, and it isn't a work i'll soon forget.
i don't feel qualified to even rate this book. i honestly can't believe i finished it.
i love steinbeck--he's up there with fitzgerald for me: an author i adore, an author whose breadth of work i will likely never read, as i selected each as a favorite after a couple of novels. and yes, this work contained those classic steinbeck irritations: the old man superiority to change and to the young; the ignorance of women--somehow his characteristic flat female characters exist, or fail to, even in nonfiction; the quiet racism that refuses to recognize itself.
yet this was a book about travel, about America, in the sharp, simple, philosophical voice i love. i marked this up over and over with an orange highlighter and blue Post-It scraps. steinbeck may have come to know america like few--maybe no one--have, and i feel fortunate to have seen a changing country through his eyes.
i suppose i must give this 5 stars, though i'm tempted to give it 4. but reading this was as much a labor of love as writing it must have been, and it isn't a work i'll soon forget.
adventurous
relaxing
slow-paced
Doesn’t live up to his fiction work and some parts are outdated (to be generous) but I still enjoyed it.
A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.
In our time a beard is the one thing a woman cannot do better than a man, or if she can her success is assured only in a circus.
It is the nature of a man as he grows older, a small bridge in time, to protest against change, particularly change for the better.
Once you are in Texas it seems to take forever to get out, and some people never make it.
One goes not so much to see but to tell afterward.
In our time a beard is the one thing a woman cannot do better than a man, or if she can her success is assured only in a circus.
It is the nature of a man as he grows older, a small bridge in time, to protest against change, particularly change for the better.
Once you are in Texas it seems to take forever to get out, and some people never make it.
One goes not so much to see but to tell afterward.
A descriptive (sometimes overly so in true-to-Steinbeck form) drive around the country with timeless observations and interactions
Ook al heeft Steinbeck hier en daar iets verzonnen, het blijft een vermakelijke roadnovel. Goedkoper kan je niet reizen.
Overall, it's an enjoyable account of Steinbeck's road trip. But the book's episodic structure can be a weakness. The occasional non sequitur vignettes will disrupt the narrative flow, and the author's transparent dime-store philosophizing is a little too folksy at times. Also, the account is a little dated, with references to the Cold War, desegregation, and the "modernization" of the country's highways and industry 50+ years ago.
Still, there's a certain timeless appeal to the story of a man and his dog setting off on the road to see the land. And the book does do a good job of portraying the country and the people as Steinbeck saw them.
Still, there's a certain timeless appeal to the story of a man and his dog setting off on the road to see the land. And the book does do a good job of portraying the country and the people as Steinbeck saw them.
Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck. I had high expectations for this because I love Steinbeck. LOVE love. And it was phenomenal. I adored its honesty and humor, the commentary, the sidestories, the striking similarities and differences that were apparent between 2018 America and 1960s America, and the prose, OH, the prose! I love the cadence of Steinbeck's writing, and I always leave wondering, "Was that poetry?". Okay, I'm done gushing, but really, if you need a wanderlusty read with a healthy dose of truth, curl up with this book during the next winter storm.
"For I have always loved violently, drank hugely, eaten too much of not at all, slept around the clock or missed two nights of sleeping, worked too hard or too long in glory, or slobbed for a time in utter laziness. I've lifted, pulled, chopped, climbed, made love with joy and taken my hangovers as a consequence, not as a punishment. I did not want to surrender fierceness for a small gain in yardage."
"For I have always loved violently, drank hugely, eaten too much of not at all, slept around the clock or missed two nights of sleeping, worked too hard or too long in glory, or slobbed for a time in utter laziness. I've lifted, pulled, chopped, climbed, made love with joy and taken my hangovers as a consequence, not as a punishment. I did not want to surrender fierceness for a small gain in yardage."