Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.03 AVERAGE
4.03 AVERAGE
Though this book was assigned reading for me, I really liked it. Since I now have my own copy as a result, I am going to read it again.
I read this concurrently with a few stories from [b:The Long Valley|186345|The Long Valley|John Steinbeck|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1355824636s/186345.jpg|3085054], and I was in quite a Steinbeck mood at the time—I felt particularly inclined to appreciate him. The characters are great, each story is thoughtful, the setting is near to my own heart.
Steinbeck has a way of getting the worst of people. It's both disturbing and fascinating.
challenging
reflective
sad
medium-paced
emotional
funny
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
hopeful
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
The Pastures Of Heaven is comprised of twelve short stories that are connected quite loosely centering around a town in the Salinas Valley in California called Las Pasturas Del Cielo, aka the Pastures of Heaven.
Read the rest of my review here
Read the rest of my review here
adventurous
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Steinbeck's second book is a collection of loosely connected short stories centering on the people who live in the Pastures of Heaven, a seemingly idyllic valley outside Monterey, CA. One immediately gets the sense that his collection was inspired by Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio, from the grotesque characters and melancholy settings to the central family that plays a part in each story. Indeed, I was surprised how dark and somber were many stories in this collection, considering Steinbeck's later work was populated more by quirky or sometimes sad characters, but never quite as dark as in this one. Here we have lonely losers, prostitutes, failed marriages, insanity, death, and even a half-wit à la Faulkner.
The theme of unachievable dreams--or perhaps, put another way, the disconnect between what we desire and what we might realistically achieve in life--is best illustrated in the tenth story, where a man spends his life keeping the parlor of his house locked up after the death of his over-bearing parents. The room had served as their living room and, later, as their funeral parlor, and now stands as a mausoleum for all the parental burdens and unachieved dreams he blames on his long-dead parents. Like the part of our brains in which we lock up our most troubling fears or memories, the room protects him from ever having to face the painful reality of his own social paralysis, while also blocking him from ever moving on with his life. One day he overhears a young neighbor woman compliment the exterior of his house. Instead of approaching her or opening his home to invite her inside, he spends months refurbishing the parlor--taking away every item and piece of furnishing, ripping out the carpets and wallpaper--and slowly redesigning the perfect room to fit what he perceives to be the young woman's ideal parlor. During this time he spends every day imagining what it might be like to bring this young lady into his new, beautiful parlor and live with her as a loving couple. But the obsession with the renewal of the parlor becomes a fetish that actually prevents him from contacting the young woman. (He must finish the parlor before he can even think of talking to her!) The room becomes the impetus of a drawn-out fantasy that actually supplants his own sense of reality. He lingers so long on the fantasy-room that by the time he finishes the restoration months later, the young lady has already met and become engaged to another man. So the poor devil again locks up his pristine parlor, which now houses the ghosts of his lost dreams, as opposed to those of his dead parents, and continues his life of unfulfilled dreams and isolation.
The story is brilliant and memorable in its understanding of human nature and the empathy (and perhaps identification!) we feel with the protagonist. I can only wonder why it isn't considered a classic short story and anthologized in textbooks. It epitomizes the melancholy, grotesque, and beautiful stories in this collection that show Steinbeck at the beginning of a wonderful career, and is well worth a look after readers have delved into the more well-known Steinbeck works.
The theme of unachievable dreams--or perhaps, put another way, the disconnect between what we desire and what we might realistically achieve in life--is best illustrated in the tenth story, where a man spends his life keeping the parlor of his house locked up after the death of his over-bearing parents. The room had served as their living room and, later, as their funeral parlor, and now stands as a mausoleum for all the parental burdens and unachieved dreams he blames on his long-dead parents. Like the part of our brains in which we lock up our most troubling fears or memories, the room protects him from ever having to face the painful reality of his own social paralysis, while also blocking him from ever moving on with his life. One day he overhears a young neighbor woman compliment the exterior of his house. Instead of approaching her or opening his home to invite her inside, he spends months refurbishing the parlor--taking away every item and piece of furnishing, ripping out the carpets and wallpaper--and slowly redesigning the perfect room to fit what he perceives to be the young woman's ideal parlor. During this time he spends every day imagining what it might be like to bring this young lady into his new, beautiful parlor and live with her as a loving couple. But the obsession with the renewal of the parlor becomes a fetish that actually prevents him from contacting the young woman. (He must finish the parlor before he can even think of talking to her!) The room becomes the impetus of a drawn-out fantasy that actually supplants his own sense of reality. He lingers so long on the fantasy-room that by the time he finishes the restoration months later, the young lady has already met and become engaged to another man. So the poor devil again locks up his pristine parlor, which now houses the ghosts of his lost dreams, as opposed to those of his dead parents, and continues his life of unfulfilled dreams and isolation.
The story is brilliant and memorable in its understanding of human nature and the empathy (and perhaps identification!) we feel with the protagonist. I can only wonder why it isn't considered a classic short story and anthologized in textbooks. It epitomizes the melancholy, grotesque, and beautiful stories in this collection that show Steinbeck at the beginning of a wonderful career, and is well worth a look after readers have delved into the more well-known Steinbeck works.