Finished reading this and I heartily recommend it to everyone on /lit/, I loved it. Thinking back on it, it is a bit of a "literary, moral all-American who quotes poetry all day gets revenge on the immigrants and bankers with power" but the way it's executed, it's highly engrossing and moving. It was Steinbeck's final novel and it won him the Nobel. some quotes,>“A day, a livelong day, is not one thing but many. It changes not only in growing light toward zenith and decline again, but in texture and mood, in tone and meaning, warped by a thousand factors of season, of heat or cold, of still or multi winds, torqued by odors, tastes, and the fabrics of ice or grass, of bud or leaf or black-drawn naked limbs. And as a day changes so do its subjects, bugs and birds, cates, dogs, butterflies and people.”>“Men don't get knocked out, or I mean they can fight back against big things. What kills them is erosion; they get nudged into failure. They get slowly scared.[...]It's slow. It rots out your guts.”>“He saw something that makes a man doubtful of the constancy of the realities outside himself. It was the shocking discovery that makes a man wonder if I've missed this, what else have I failed to see?”>“When a condition or a problem becomes too great, humans have the protection of not thinking about it. But it goes inward and minces up with a lot of other things already there and what comes out is discontent and uneasiness, guilt and a compulsion to get something--anything--before it is all gone.”>“Hurry home, darling," she said. "Hurry home." And how's that for a man to have! When I hung up, I stood by the phone all weak and leaky and happy if there is such a condition. I tried to think how it had been before Mary, and I couldn't remember, or how it would be without her, and I could not imagine it except that it would be a condition bordered in black.”If I inspire even one anon to read it, I'll be happy. Anyone else here enjoy or even love this novel?
You inspire me to read it; I've only read The Pearl and Of Mice and Men. Oh, and In Dubious Battle, but that one I've kinda forgotten.
>>25491205I'm happy to hear! You won't regret it. And yeah I've only read Of Mice and Men otherwise, but after this, I'm definitely gonna get around to reading Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and whatever else.
>>25491217The Pearl is a worthy read; I highly recommend it. In Dubious Battle, less so. I remember liking it, at least.
This was my first Steinbeck and I consider it his best of the ones I’ve read. I appreciate the contrast between the very beginning and the end of the book.
>>25491344The only thing I'm still not quite clear on is why did he nearly commit suicide at the end when he found out his son had plagiarized his essay? Everything else was coming together, so there must be some deeper significance about the incident, but I'm not quite seeing it. I mean yeah, it's not great, but killing himself? Seems a bit much.
Just cop’d a copy thanks for the rec
>>25491710Happy to hear. Hope you enjoy!
>>25491711I’m certain I will I love Steinbeck, thanks brother.
>>25491717:DI'll have to read that one myself soon. Definitely that and East of Eden by the end of the year at latest.
singular morning bump
Alright OP Ill get a copy from my uni library But if it sucks then you have to give me a handjob
>>25492670How can I decline, that's practically free money for me
>stop at uni library for copy>its autographedP coolCheck it out OP
>>25492772That's sick. Is this a library at a first-tier university? Is it near where Steinbeck grew up? Or just pure happenstance? Either way, what an auspicious sign.
