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4.03 AVERAGE
4.03 AVERAGE
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
challenging
dark
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This is a challenging set of interwoven short stories that really narrow in on the myth of the American dream, the California dream, the challenging of dreaming at all. It gets real weird sometimes. But definitely an interesting companion to his later masterpiece.
'No sorrow can survive the smothering of a little time'
The undisputed GOAT with another banger. Old Bert 'Bad Things Happen Around Me At An Alarming Frequency' Munroe moves to town and you won't BELIEVE what happens next!!!
While his second publication doesn't hit the mega heights of his later Greatest Hits, it feels like Johnny boi is steadily finding his feet in these stories. The country gothic atmosphere, the flirtations with joy and the inevitable CRUSHING cruelty. Seeds for something like East Of Eden are being planted, but he also leaves room to experiment with ideas of the supernatural, the occult, gnome children etc.
It's jusssst possible that some of the tragic storytelling loses its impetus when repeated 12 times in a row (only sometimes! Most times I am adequately fucked up and blindsided!!!). But he more than makes up for it with the sheer vibes of the town, his beautiful characters and his boundless empathy for every one of them.
It's basically Steinbeck being unfiltered Steinbeck for 200odd pages. Which for me is like sweet fucking NECTAR. I'm not joking when I say I could guzzle this shit down all summer long. I'd actually say my main criticism of this book is that it ends. It should have just carried on. He should still be writing it now and privately sending me new paragraphs about slate roofs and tortillas and dying strangers in the post.
But no. I guess I'll just have to read one of his other 33 books like some kind of chump! (I am very happy about this I love this man I will carry his work with me for my entire life)
The undisputed GOAT with another banger. Old Bert 'Bad Things Happen Around Me At An Alarming Frequency' Munroe moves to town and you won't BELIEVE what happens next!!!
While his second publication doesn't hit the mega heights of his later Greatest Hits, it feels like Johnny boi is steadily finding his feet in these stories. The country gothic atmosphere, the flirtations with joy and the inevitable CRUSHING cruelty. Seeds for something like East Of Eden are being planted, but he also leaves room to experiment with ideas of the supernatural, the occult, gnome children etc.
It's jusssst possible that some of the tragic storytelling loses its impetus when repeated 12 times in a row (only sometimes! Most times I am adequately fucked up and blindsided!!!). But he more than makes up for it with the sheer vibes of the town, his beautiful characters and his boundless empathy for every one of them.
It's basically Steinbeck being unfiltered Steinbeck for 200odd pages. Which for me is like sweet fucking NECTAR. I'm not joking when I say I could guzzle this shit down all summer long. I'd actually say my main criticism of this book is that it ends. It should have just carried on. He should still be writing it now and privately sending me new paragraphs about slate roofs and tortillas and dying strangers in the post.
But no. I guess I'll just have to read one of his other 33 books like some kind of chump! (I am very happy about this I love this man I will carry his work with me for my entire life)
lighthearted
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Typical Steinbeck - he has a way of telling a story that quickly gets to heart of each character. No matter how absurd they may be, they feel real.
The Pastures of Heaven by John Steinbeck
Love hearing how this book came about and how he achieved writing it.
Starts in very old days of 1700's and the book explains who founded the area and who lived in the house through the centuries til Monroe's move in.
Love explanations of words as they appear, informative.
Enjoy the different households and the things that are important to them in this town.
I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).
Love hearing how this book came about and how he achieved writing it.
Starts in very old days of 1700's and the book explains who founded the area and who lived in the house through the centuries til Monroe's move in.
Love explanations of words as they appear, informative.
Enjoy the different households and the things that are important to them in this town.
I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).
Not the best book of this writer. At times I found this book boring. Putting weird people with mental illness in this book, didn't make it more believable. It just makes the stories weird.
I am not a big Steinbeck fan. I picked this up mainly because it was a collection of short stories. I found myself drawn into each story. The stories were about families, but they were also about this valley, this land called the "Pastures of Heaven". Some stories I liked more than others but as a book overall I will say it is one of the better John Steinbeck books I've read. He still isn't one of my favorite authors, but you cannot deny his ability to immerse you into the story and setting. I am from a small town, and I found these tales very relatable and in some cases I am even guilty of them. On top of that this story reminded me a lot Of Mice and Men because no matter how these families or men tried to control their lives or be the masters of their own fates it was not meant to be. I also liked the idea that this valley is described as heaven, but earthly paradise is fleeting over time and is not achievable in the way we expect no matter how much planning goes into it.
The Pastures of Heaven is a collection of twelve stories all set in a valley the book is named after; or Las Pasturas del Cielo. You could say they form a novel - now I tend to think so, but I remember how keen I felt the switch of subject when I was younger. Every story appeared to me unfairly separated by another. But Steinbeck called them a novel, saying that reading the book as a collection of stories would sabotage our reading. So I think I was right the first time round when I expected something else.
For sure, what is memorable about them is not the depictions of the valley itself 'nor the atmosphere, as surprising as it may sound, but the people. Each of the characters is peculiar and disturbed more or less visible or dangerous to the society. There are characters that reappear in stories they are not the central figure of. It's easy to make an image of them beforehand: as socially-normal people, living on the land of heaven. Because if we are sure of something, that is the fact that valley was serene, the place we want to live our elders life in or even as youngsters, abandoning the rat races of city-life and retreat: knit by the fire in the winter and have a little garden to look after in the spring. And maybe that's why the characters lack that rural normality we picture: they are placed in a natural estate, left with their big plans they've made for life, their (dis)illusions that blow up in their face and (almost pathologic) obsessions that grow and come out easily - when they could've never been revealed. Considering the bucolic, agrarian dreams they've made, doesn't the name become a tad ironic?
And the concentration of all these expectations & hopes is Bert Munroe, the hero of story no. 2. Steinbeck declared he came up with his arrival in the valley for a better cohesion of the stories. And so it is: Bert Munroe settles after a series of misfortunes that would make anyone think he's a Schleprock in a formerly thought haunted & ill-lucked house and proudly declares to the locals he's chased away the curse following him. Like a premonition, Pat Humbert suggests the two cursed merged and then spread small copies of them all around the valley. And with that we get the "red wire" going through the novel. Bert is the outsider, he goes there with his hopes and curses and from his arrival, the locals' lives are persistently eroded by their owns.
Although I made it sound like that, the stories aren't that sad and gloomy or depressing: you don't get much time to hope for happy-endings, it's clear there won't be any here, but the sad endings aren't awe-inspiring either: and there' also Steinbeck-irony at people and human behavior.
For sure, what is memorable about them is not the depictions of the valley itself 'nor the atmosphere, as surprising as it may sound, but the people. Each of the characters is peculiar and disturbed more or less visible or dangerous to the society. There are characters that reappear in stories they are not the central figure of. It's easy to make an image of them beforehand: as socially-normal people, living on the land of heaven. Because if we are sure of something, that is the fact that valley was serene, the place we want to live our elders life in or even as youngsters, abandoning the rat races of city-life and retreat: knit by the fire in the winter and have a little garden to look after in the spring. And maybe that's why the characters lack that rural normality we picture: they are placed in a natural estate, left with their big plans they've made for life, their (dis)illusions that blow up in their face and (almost pathologic) obsessions that grow and come out easily - when they could've never been revealed. Considering the bucolic, agrarian dreams they've made, doesn't the name become a tad ironic?
And the concentration of all these expectations & hopes is Bert Munroe, the hero of story no. 2. Steinbeck declared he came up with his arrival in the valley for a better cohesion of the stories. And so it is: Bert Munroe settles after a series of misfortunes that would make anyone think he's a Schleprock in a formerly thought haunted & ill-lucked house and proudly declares to the locals he's chased away the curse following him. Like a premonition, Pat Humbert suggests the two cursed merged and then spread small copies of them all around the valley. And with that we get the "red wire" going through the novel. Bert is the outsider, he goes there with his hopes and curses and from his arrival, the locals' lives are persistently eroded by their owns.
Although I made it sound like that, the stories aren't that sad and gloomy or depressing: you don't get much time to hope for happy-endings, it's clear there won't be any here, but the sad endings aren't awe-inspiring either: and there' also Steinbeck-irony at people and human behavior.
Using this for my Senior project since it's a short story cycle.
I love Steinbeck. This wasn't as intensely moving as some of his work - it's basically the Steinbeck version of "Winesburg, Ohio," which means it's better because I like Steinbeck a lot.
All the stories center around the premise that you can dream and plan and work, but some force, whether self-imposed human nature or the words or actions of an outsider, will get in the way.
I love Steinbeck. This wasn't as intensely moving as some of his work - it's basically the Steinbeck version of "Winesburg, Ohio," which means it's better because I like Steinbeck a lot.
All the stories center around the premise that you can dream and plan and work, but some force, whether self-imposed human nature or the words or actions of an outsider, will get in the way.