While searching for new and interesting travel books this title sometimes comes up – Steinbeck and his dog travel America by camper in 1962, trying to get a feel for what “America” is.
I thought I should finally read it since I liked East of Eden so much. There was a lot to like in this book – beautiful descriptions of the United States, and excellent writing about people, places and even conversations with a dog. Sometimes the dated expression and old fashioned English idioms appear, and the modern reader is left clueless and searching the internet to figure out what these things mean. But for the most part it is a pleasurable read.
By the time he wrote this Steinbeck was a famous and successful author, and the same year this was published he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. I imagine writing this work of non-fiction came with some pressure – even though he traveled anonymously around America his words were read widely and his opinions therefore seem slightly tempered here. There is a lot of responsibility in writing when you reach his level.
One of his goals was to go out and talk with regular American people and he had conversations with people that he met and their comments are related in the book. In the foreword of my edition it was mentioned that some of the people he met were in fact fictional, and that in order to tell a story of his journey he made up a few things to make it work. Because of this it is hard to compare it with other travel books. I certainly would have liked to have heard from more people – Steinbeck is comfortable with his own (and his dog’s) company. I thought the balance of the content was tilted more towards Steinbeck’s opinions and less toward what regular American people were thinking at the time.
I liked reading this book because the author had some real insight into the trends at the time and ultimately what might end up happening in the future (our present) if these trends continued. This was a unique chance to see Steinbeck’s America in the early 1960’s, but it should be read as his story – not America’s.
Next I am reading Ruffage by Abra Berens.
