Oh wow – here’s a great book. I haven’t read much of Steinbeck’s work and I was pleasantly surprised to find this just so easy to read. Sometimes books that are touted for their “greatness” can be hard to get into, but maybe thanks to the familiar setting of a rural California valley it caught me right up in the story.
One of the pleasures of reading this book was absorbing the wide variety of themes and characters. They really bring to life the place and diversity of human beings that live there. Steinbeck doesn’t spend time explaining every single event that happens in each character’s life, but things are hinted at and set up in a very satisfying (and sometimes tragic) way.
The story is told from various points of view while moving through time, and sub-stories build on each other to contribute to an overall theme that is surprisingly brought into view near the middle of the book (almost like breaking the “fourth wall”). But besides this main theme, the portraits of people, what drives them, and what it means to be a good person – it is a great writer that can juggle all these into a cohesive whole. I’ll be thinking about this book for a long time, and for me that is the surest sign of a very well-written book.
Next book is “The Life-Changing Science of Detecting Bullshit” by John V. Petrocelli. The second book I’ve read recently with “bullshit” in the title, but no special reason for selecting it other than I’ve been enjoying books on critical thinking recently.
