The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck

The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck

Steinbeck is my favorite author.  I never remember reading his work in high school having discovered him only after listening to a park ranger speak at the bottom of the Grand Canyon about The Grapes of Wrath. I found a copy of The Winter of Our Discontent at the local library book sale.  There was no passing it up.

Ethan Hawley is a proud New Englander who is struggling to make sense of his life.  He works as a clerk in a grocery store after having lost the store he owned to his poor business skills.  Providing support to his lovely wife, Mary and two growing children, eats at his core.  In Ethan's mind he must be poor since he is a "clerk".  It's his mind that holds him back. When Ethan is faced with the choice between right and wrong, it's his mind that propels into a place he's not sure he wants to go.

The Winter of Our Discontent is Steinbeck's view of life in America in the late 1950's.  The story focuses on thought more than plot which is what I love about reading a book.  It's also what I love about Steinbeck.  He writes a novel that plucks my heart strings and makes me think. This is the last book Steinbeck published.  He didn't save the best for last, but he gave us a timeless story on what it takes to be human.  

Amity & Sorrow by Peggy Riley

Amity & Sorrow by Peggy Riley

Thank you to Netgalley for my advance reading copy.  Release date February 11, 2014.

I have to admit, I didn't look closely enough at the cover of this book before I selected it.  The cover is a big draw for me so that would be highly unusual.  Based on the title, I figured this was a story about sisters and I like to read about sisters, since I have two of my own.  Family dynamics can be interesting.

I started to read and thought,  "What did I get myself in to?'  But then I couldn't stop reading.  Amity and Sorrow are sisters raised in a religious cult.  Their father, Zachariah, and leader of the cult has proclaimed himself "God".  Amaranth, the children's mother, leashed the girls together at the wrist, packed them in a stolen car and started driving in order to escape, .  They end up on Bradley's failing farm somewhere in Oklahoma when she crashes the vehicle into a tree. A new world they have been sheltered from opens up in different ways for each of them.

I don't want to reveal any more of this story because I love to read a book that surprises me.  Amity & Sorrow revealed something unexpected on each turn of the page.  The author tells this emotional story by moving from the present to the past and back again. The characters were full of emotion, each having processed life in the cult in a different way.  Riley expertly broke down the rules followed in the restricted cult by exposing the sisters to books, television, and a way of life they knew nothing about.

Amity & Sorrow pulled me in and never let go.  I was so invested in this story, I didn't want it to end.  This is not the kind of storyline I would choose to read but the author brought it to life for me in a highly creative way.  Brilliant.

Classic versus Modern

I get many comments about how I come up with my ratings.  It's not really very scientific and as I've said before I wobble between my reader's mind and my writer's mind when I try to determine what the rating should be for a particular title.

I was posed a question after I posted my review of Mark Twain's The Innocents Abroad.   If I was reading Shakespeare would I feel comfortable giving him a rating of less than five?  The answer is, 'of course'.   I don't read Shakespeare because I find it slow and uninteresting.  Just because I don't like it doesn't mean Shakespeare wasn't brilliant in his own right.  I'm learning not to spend my time reading what I don't enjoy.  There are too many choices and not enough time to read everything.

In the 19th century while Mark Twain was writing, there was no television or radio or big box bookstores with tens of thousands of titles to choose from.  A book entertained, passing the time between dinner and bed.  Each word savored by the reader, shared with the rest of the family by being read aloud, and read over and over until the pages were worn.  Mark Twain used lengthy descriptions to describe people and places unknown allowing readers to transport themselves to a faraway land.  Today we call that watching television.

John Steinbeck is another one of my favorites.  He wrote in the mid-twentieth century in a world with radio but not television.  Steinbeck tells poignant tales of the life during the depression, again in a time when books were cherished. His style is long and lingering but has a faster pace in step with our evolving and more complicated lives.

Today we have become used a life of instant gratification.  Books are everywhere.  If we don't feel like lugging around 500 pages, we can simply download it and read it on the computer.  Huge bookstore chains along with Amazon indulge our each and every whim.  We read a story and then discard it  before moving on the the next latest and greatest new idea.  Our society doesn't linger over anything anymore.

Shakespeare, Twain, Steinbeck are all wonderful storytellers and in the end are all writing about the human condition.  We want to discover ourselves in a book, what makes us tick, why we do the things we do.  Modern writers are all out to write the story that discovers who we are in a modern society just as the classic writers wrote about life that was relevant to their time.   Can we learn from these classic authors?  Absolutely.  I learned plenty as both a reader and a writer.  Are they worth investing my time in?  Absolutely!  Do I feel guilty I didn't rate them all as a five?  No.  My goal is to give my own readers a fair and balanced picture of what they are investing time and energy in.  Sometimes my personal bias creeps in.  I'm only human.

If we take the time to look at life as a learning experience, then the books we choose will enrich our lives and entice our palates. Will we read some dogs along the way?  Yes.  But we will have been made a more interesting human being because of it.   And we just might unlock the secret to our own lives.
 

The Bottom of the Barrel

Richard wanted to go to the bookstore yesterday.  He likes to sit and read the magazines.  Today however he wanted to look at travel books on Florida to plan a trip to see his favorite baseball team, the Tampa Bay Rays.  It took all of a nano second for me to say "Let's go.  I'll drive."

I know that I'm an easy target for marketers.  I want to buy every get rich quick system and amazing time saving cooker I see on television.  I have over time learned to show some restraint.  Same is true for the bookstore.  I'm learning how to show some restraint.

I decided that I should look at the books on the bottom shelf.  I never seem to browse below eye level for my reading treasures.  I know I'm the marketers dream.  There must be something down there worth reading that I've missed.  I crouched down.  No covers here grab me.  I moved to another shelf.

John Steinbeck.  I breathed a sigh of relief.  He's my favorite.  The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, Of Mice and Men.  All favorites.  All classics.  I didn't need to buy them though.  I have them already.  His son did write a book recently.  That might be worth reading but it wasn't on the shelf.  I moved along.

Carl Hiassen.  His titles filled an entire shelf.  He's the master of character development.  His stories are funny and quirky and I love to write in a similar sarcastic fashion.  But I'm not much of a serial reader.  I've read a few.  That's enough for me for now.

What did I learn about the bottom shelf?  Unless you're an author who's been around the block a few times, it's a curse.  If you're established with a following, readers will come looking for you regardless of where you are.  But I think I'll spend more time at the bottom shelf.  As a writer I should aspire to be on the bottom shelf.  There's alot of good company down there.  And for the record.  I left the store empty handed.