Challenge 7: Read a book by an author you have never read before.

Almost anybody familiar with American literature has heard of The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck. People growing up in the US probably read that or Of Mice and Men in school. A quick admission: when I was in junior high, I read Of Mice and Men. As a disinterested adolescent I had no interest, and remember almost nothing about it. Are these books the best representations of Steinbeck's work? If he is supposed to be an example of great American authors, surely his other books are just as good. He wrote fifteen novels in his career, so how do the rest compare with his “greatest”? Are Grapes... and Of Mice and Men the best examples of Steinbeck's character and style? If I read a few of his novels while staying away from his best known works, what would I take away from his less popular books? Combing through his body of work I found a few books that seemed to veer away from the misery experienced in Grapes..., and I was anxious to find out if he could write a story that would effect me without dragging me through the misery of the Great Depression. For this challenge I selected his first novel, Cup of Gold, one of his middle novels, Cannery Row, and his final work of fiction, The Winter of Our Discontent.

Cup of Gold, written in the Roaring Twenties and published in when Steinbeck was in his twenties, displays flashes of the prose that would make Steinbeck a household name a century later. It's a fictional account of the famous pirate Henry Morgan, starting when he was a adolescent sitting in the dirt in his family hovel dreaming of the wonders awaiting him on the other side of the world. He makes the decision to leave his home and before long he is working in a ship's galley. A chapter later he is an indentured servant to a man loaded with books and slaves, becoming an indispensable part of the slave operations there. Another chapter later and five years have passed. Morgan's servitude has ended, and he leaves loaded with money and a boat. Before you know it he is known and feared across the high seas. Still searching for that illusive wonder, he sets his sights on Panama, known as the Cup of Gold, for its riches, and hopefully, La Santa Roja, or the Red Saint, a woman of legendary beauty.

Steinbeck goes to great lengths to paint a picture, especially early on, but frequently jumps forward and leaves large holes for us to wonder about, such as barely touching on the years of servitude that undoubtedly left a huge impression on him as he poured over his master's books, learning to command, fight, and lead large groups of bloodthirsty swashbucklers. The same thing happens at the end, when he is suddenly a discontent old man on his death bed. It was worth a read, but if I was a big Steinbeck fan I might put this on the back-burner until I read most or all of his other works.

Cannery Row was written in 1944, when the second world war was raging, and published in 1945. Set primarily in one destitute corner of Monterey, California, it follows the chronicles of its denizens as they prepare a party for one respected resident. Steinbeck proved he could write an amusing tale when he wanted, though I wouldn't call it laugh out loud funny. What affected me more that the humor was the generally blissful and content state the of the characters, despite living in squalor. The main characters, who are homeless and mostly penniless, talk their way into staying in what was formerly a fish-feed storage building with not a single possession to their name. Another character lives in a boat propped on blocks in a grassy lot. A husband and wife move into an abandoned boiler and make a good business charging people for sleeping in the granite pipes lined up nearby. Reading about these people trying to live their best lives despite their immense poverty was more inspiring than humorous. Of course, this book wasn't all fun and games, as was true to the times. One short chapter follows a suicidal character, another involves a depressed husband and his wife's attempts to cheer him up, still another involves finding a corpse on a beach. After finishing it I found this was one of his more popular books, and between its comedy and endearing characters I understand why.

The Winter of Our Discontent was written in 1961, his last work of fiction, though he would continue writing non-fiction for several more years. The plot surrounds Ethan Hawley, a man working as a store clerk, doing his best to provide for his wife and kids. The Hawley family is renowned and respected, having deep roots in their community for generations. People across town, from the insidious banker, to his childhood friend who has become the town drunk, to his own family berate him over his job as a store clerk. Facing a growing financial disparity and ceaseless attacks on his station in life, he makes several decisions that change will change his life forever. Some are the cold, calculating decisions of a man who might say he sees things as they really are, but other times he seems desperate to hang onto the nobility and honor that comes with the Halsey family name and history.

I would call this my favorite of the three, but I had no idea when I chose this that it was a Nobel Prize winner. I guess it goes to show that only a precious few books withstand the test of time. It might have swept across the world and impacted all who read it in 1962, but sixty years later I couldn't find a single person familiar with it. Perhaps because Grapes... was both inspirational as well as a spotlight on a specific turmoil in American history, it is revisited by each new generation of readers.

Because of my preconception of Steinbeck's work, I never had any interest in reading any of it. I figured he was a one-trick pony, and if there was nothing for me there, there wouldn't be anything for me in his other works. Honestly, I still don't plan on reading Grapes..., especially after finding out that he used notes written by Sanora Babb for her own novel Whose Names Are Unknown. I might read that someday, but even if I stay away from Grapes..., I see Steinbeck's books in a new light, with colorful landscapes and interesting characters. A few of his books are now firmly on my must-read list. Had I been given any of these books in school instead of Of Mice and Men, who knows, maybe I would be a lifelong Steinbeck fan.

D. Raymond