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A review by mermaidforlife
To a God Unknown by John Steinbeck
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
3.0
Hyper fixations dazzle me. All obsessions are tragic in some dimension, even if unreachable, yet, not all are unpleasant. The narrator’s obsession in Nabokov’s “Lolita” was pleasant. (Side note: why is it that all Russian authors are incredible?) The character Joseph's obsession in this book was unpleasant. Perhaps it was the approach to writing–the synthesis/transposition of words–, and the burdensome detail of setting as opposed to human thought.
Steinbeck was a novice writing this second novel. What I mean by this is not that one may anticipate amateurish writing (for that is ENTIRELY erroneous), but that he was utterly unarmed against his critics wishes. Critics and editors implored Steinbeck to modify his novel several times–to emphasize detail which muddied the humanity of the characters–and he did. It would only be until later that Steinbeck overcame their inadequate advisions on how to reach the crux of humanity and subverted them. For achieving this ultimate understanding, I parade for Steinbeck. Steinbeck, I’m your number one fan!
Steinbeck was a novice writing this second novel. What I mean by this is not that one may anticipate amateurish writing (for that is ENTIRELY erroneous), but that he was utterly unarmed against his critics wishes. Critics and editors implored Steinbeck to modify his novel several times–to emphasize detail which muddied the humanity of the characters–and he did. It would only be until later that Steinbeck overcame their inadequate advisions on how to reach the crux of humanity and subverted them. For achieving this ultimate understanding, I parade for Steinbeck. Steinbeck, I’m your number one fan!