A review by molly_collins
Travels with Charley in Search of America by John Steinbeck

5.0

Thanks so much to Kate for bringing this book to my attention. I really didn't expect that I would love it as much as I did. It's been a while since I've picked up any Steinbeck, and I am thinking they deserve a second chance as my high school reading probably did not do them justice.

He had me at: "In other words, once a bum always a bum... 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 not take a trip; a trip takes us."
— John Steinbeck (Travels with Charley: In Search of America)

I've had an itch to go on a trip lately, and Steinbeck's description of that urge sums up my feelings completely. His writing is beautiful, and every other phrase I think, "I should jot that down" because it is so profound or just simply lovely.