Next Stop on the Reading-Steinbeck-Chronologically Tour

John Steinbeck

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Pertinent Data:

Title: The Red Pony

Publication Date: 1933

Setting: Ranch near Salinas

Number of Pages: 92 pages (Bantam Pathfinder edition)

Main Characters:

Jody Tiflin, Billy Buck

Carl Tiflin, Jody's Mother

Grandfather, Gitano

Gabilan, the Red Pony

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Overview of Story:

The Red Pony consists of four coming-of-age stories about Jody Tiflin. In the first, The Gift, Jody learns that his hero, ranch-hand, Billy Buck is not infallible. Billy tells Jody that 'a little rain won't hurt a pony' when he leaves the pony out while Billy is at school and goes off himself to work in another part of the ranch. That afternoon a heavy rain comes up and the pony becomes ill. In spite of Billy's life-saving efforts, he is unable to save the pony, Gabilan.

The second story, The Great Mountains, Jody learns that he has desires that his father doesn't understand. Jody is fascinated with the mountains that surround the ranch especially when an old man, Gitano, comes walking out of them. 

Death confronts Jody again in the third story, The Promise. However, this time, a colt is born that Jody's father entrusts him to raise.

Lastly, Jody learns that his father's ugliness of temper gets him in relationship trouble with those nearest to him. He also learns from his Grandfather that leading an adventurous life doesn't always translate to happiness.

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Thoughts:

Steinbeck's spare prose is on display in this book. His commitment to showing vs. telling about his character's lives also is obvious.

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Pertinent Data: 

Title: To A God Unknown

Publication Date: 1933

Setting: valley of Nuestra Senora, California

Number of Pages: 240 pages (Penguin edition)

Main Characters:

Brothers - Joseph, Thomas, Burton, Benjamin

Elizabeth Wayne, Rama Wayne

Juanito, The Priest

Inanimate Characters:

The Oak Tree

The Mossy Rock

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Overview of Story:

Joseph Wayne, a young man who heads west to settle in the Nuestra Senora valley in California, claims for his own a site beneath a large oak tree. Joseph sees the tree as a physical representation of his deceased father and believes it contains his spirit. His course in life mirrors what happens to the tree. The theme of man's relationship with nature is dominant in this novel.

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Thoughts:

Steinbeck is well on his way to becoming the author we recognize in his masterpieces such as East of Eden. He's got the "Steinbeck style" going, the dialogue between characters is like what we are used to although at times it feels a little stiff or contrived, the symbolism is prevalent (particularly with Biblical characters) and the use of a main character who hasn't lost his worldly innocence is present in Joseph Wayne. 

What occurs in this novel that I hadn't seen portrayed in other Steinbeck stories (I've read 6 of his books including this one) is mysticism. The oak tree that shelters Joseph's house has protective powers and gives him wisdom, while a mossy rock that rests in a fresh spring in a grove has the ability to influence thought and to sustain or take life. I'm used to Steinbeck offering up realistic scenarios, so this mystical twist was a surprise.

Like so much of Steinbeck's work, To A God Unknown, contains symbolic links with Biblical characters. All the brothers have Biblical names with the exception of Burton who ironically is the most religiously rigid of all the brothers. Joseph's father blesses him in a manner reminiscent of the Biblical Patriarchs before he heads West. Brother, Benjamin, is the youngest, Joseph is the favorite. Brother, Thomas, doubts the power of the land to revive after a drought not unlike his namesake, Doubting Thomas and the Wayne clan thrived as a unit rather than as individual families corresponding with Jacob's family in Genesis.

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Quote:

"...I am cut off. I can have neither good luck not bad luck. I can have no knowledge of any good or bad. Even a pure true feeling of the difference between pleasure and pain is denied me. All things are one, and all a part of me."...Joseph put his arms around the tree and hugged it tight against him.

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Pertinent Data:

Title: Tortilla Flat

Publication Date: 1935

Setting: Tortilla Flat, Monterey, California

Number of Pages: 207

Main Characters:

Danny, Pilon, Pablo, Jesus Maria, The Pirate and his dogs, Big Joe

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Overview of Story:

Danny's uncle dies leaving him the owner of two houses in the section of Monterey, California known as Tortilla Flat. This humorous story revolves around these  good-hearted paisanos who only require a few friends and a bottle of wine to enjoy life.

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Thoughts:

The theme of friendship being of the highest importance accentuates this novel. The all for one and one for all theme rings true throughout, although  the attempts to help one another often end hilariously. When I first started reading, I had no idea this book would be a satire on society's values (the "sweeping machine" anecdote), a question of what comprises freedom (can a person work and be truly free?) and the value of friendship and what does friendship look like.

Unlike so much of Steinbeck's work, I didn't catch any Biblical reference or symbolism. This story was more about the values of socialism vs. capitalism than any of Steinbeck's books I've read so far. It is also the first book to use humor and satire. The mystical theme reoccurs when a blue light shines over a supposed treasure.

I enjoyed Steinbeck's use of quaint vocabulary words such as "kyoodling". In context: But the dogs waved their tails happily and sought out a rabbit and went kyoodling after it. A quick look at Dictionary.com states pronunciation is as follows:
kahy-ood-l

 and the definition is "to bark or yelp noisily or foolishly; yap"

Steinbeck's use of old-style chapter titles such as these:

How Danny, home from the wars, found himself an heir, and how he swore to protect the helpless,

How, under the most adverse circumstances, love came to Big Joe Portagee,

How Danny's Friends threw themselves to the aid of a distressed lady

The only knock I have this novel is that some of the chapters don't flow smoothly one to the other as  in other parts of the story. What I mean is that some chapters almost seemed to be individual short stories introducing new characters for the paisanos to interact with. What made it herky jerky is that this happens for several chapters consecutively. I had a similar feeling with Pastures of Heaven, although Tortilla Flat was much better because Danny and some of the paisanos are featured in each chapter.

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Quote:

Danny arose unsteadily and held himself upright against a tree.  "Pilon, I swear, what I have is thine. While I have a house, thou hast a house. Give me a drink."

"I must see this to believe it, " Pilon said in a discouraged voice. "It would be a world wonder if it were so. Men would come a thousand miles to look upon it. And besides, the bottle is empty."

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 A look at some Southern Lit classics.

(J)ohn Steinbeck - Part I of a chronological tour through his writings

In the beginning of this year, I undertook a personal challenge to read through the alphabet. I made sure it wasn't too difficult in order to fit in all the good reading that I wanted to get to that had been piling up while I read challenge books and group reads. I decided that this was the year that I would read what I wanted. The alphabet challenge has become a fun vehicle to do that.

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!STEINBECK!

I blame it on the Chunksters group read of East of Eden a couple of years ago. That's where my love for John Steinbeck's writing began, thanks to fellow-readers who enhanced my appreciation with their knowledge of his works and good analysis of his writing. I fell in love with his easy style, believable characters, inclusion of California history, and the contrasts and similarities that draw the reader's eye. Since then I've devoured several other books and unabashedly count myself one of the horde who consider Steinbeck their favorite author. Here's to John Steinbeck, the first of a series of posts dedicated to reviewing all his works in chronological order.

Does Steinbeck have an

Errol Flynn thing going on?

Errol Flynn

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Cup of Gold: A life of Sir Henry Morgan, Buccanneer, with Occasional Reference to History introduced Steinbeck to the literary world in 1929.  It only sold 1537 copies in its first printing but 939 copies were sold from a second printing in 1936, surely due to the success of Tortilla Flat which published in 1935.

This is what I wrote in my GoodReads review upon reading Cup of Gold: Cup of Gold launched Steinbeck's literary career and has the distinction of being his only historical novel. From a Steinbeck fan POV, this book fascinated me. The flashes of Steinbeck phrase-ology peeked through like the sun on a mostly overcast day in the first and last chapters, while the middle chapters consisted primarily of vintage Steinbeck. I felt I could see him fishing in the deep blue sea for his voice and style in the two chapters mentioned before, while the mid-voyage was awash with the patented Steinbeck smoothness of speech.

Personally, I'm glad he abandoned the historical novel ship and flew his own colors writing novels that encompass what he learned in his own life and about his family history. The advice 'write what you know' cannoned him to fame and served other writers well. However, I enjoyed my time asea with Captain Henry Morgan in the golden pages of this first treasure. My spyglass is now trained on the next novel, The Pastures of Heaven. 

Steinbeck returns to California

Pastures of Heaven  is an odd book for Steinbeck when compared to his more popular books. He clearly begins to find his writing style, skill at characterization and he is comfortably at home writing about California vs. Panama City as in Cup of Gold. This book could almost be labeled a collection of short stories vs. a complete novel. Could Steinbeck have felt uncomfortable writing a complete novel and opted to write 10 chapters about different folks who live in the fictional setting of Paradise of Heaven? I don't know, but look forward to reading a biography or two that perhaps will address this question. Anyhow, the unique stories struck me as practices in drawing up characters and then stuck together with the scotch tape of a few characters who make appearances in multiple stories. (eg. Bert Munroe and members of the Whiteside family) This is no complaint. Being the Steinbeck aficionado that I am, I found it highly interesting to observe his growth as a writer. The growth between Cup of Gold and The Pastures of Heaven is significant and I look forward to comparing it with takes place in his next book, Tortilla Flat, his first commercial success.

Here is a chapter-by-chapter summary of The Pastures of Heaven:

Chapter I   -   The disciplinarian corporal felt weak in the face of so serene a beauty. He who had whipped brown back to tatters, he whose rapacious manhood was building a new race for California, this bearded, savage bearer of civilization slipped from his saddle and took off his steel hat. 
     "Holy, Mother!" he whispered, "Here are the green pastures of Heaven to which our Lord leadeth us.
     ...After a long time a few families of squatters moved in to the Pastures of Heaven and built fences and planted fruit trees....
Chapter II   -   Bert Munroe and his family come to the valley. Before Bert Munroe took possession of his new property, there were a dozen stories about him circulating through the Pastures of Heaven. He knew that the people who were to be his new neighbours were staring at him although he could never catch them at it. this secret staring is developed to a high art among country people. They have seen every uncovered bit on you, have tabulated and memorized the clothes you are wearing, have noticed the colour of your eyes and the shape of your nose, and, finally, have reduced your figure and personality to three or four adjectives, and all the time you thought they were oblivious to your presence.

Chapter III   -   Enter Edward "Shark" Wicks..."Shark?" they said, "Oh, I'd guess he was worth around twenty thousand, maybe more. He's nobody's fool."

     And the truth was that Shark had never had more than five hundred dollars at one time in his life.

Chapter IV   -   The origin of Tularecito is cast in obscurity, while his discovery is a myth which the folks of the Pastures of Heaven refuse to believe, just as they refuse to believe in ghosts.

Chapter V   -   Helen Van Deventer was a tall woman with a sharp, handsome face and tragic eyes. ...At twenty-five she married Hubert Van Deventer, a florid, hunting man who spent six months out of every year trying to shoot some kind of creature or other. ... As he lay dying under a tree, one of his companions asked whether he wanted to leave any message for his wife.
     "Yes," said Hubert. "Tell her to have me mounted for that place in the library between the bull moose and the bighorn! Tell her I didn't buy this one from the guide!"

Chapter VI   -   Meet Junius Maltby, the Robert Louis Stevenson adventure-reading fiend...

Chapter VII   -   Hola, here are the Lopez sisters... Old Guiermo Lopez died when his daughters were fairly well grown...For a time, with grim martyrdom, they went hungry, but in the end the flesh conquered. They were too fat and too jolly to make martyrs of themselves over an unreligious matter like eating.
Chapter VIII   -   The story of Molly Morgan, one of a couple about school teachers.

Chapter IX   -   Of all the farms in the Pastures of Heaven the one most admires was that of Raymond Banks.

Chapter X   -   Pat Humbert's parents were middle-aged when he was born; they had grown old and stiff and spiteful before he was twenty.

Chapter XI   -   May I introduce to you, Richard Whiteside.  On the evening of a fine clear day, he drove his two bay horses to the top of the little hills which surround the Pastures of Heaven. He pulled up his team and gazed down on the green valley. And Richard knew that he had found his home,...

Chapter XII   -   At two o'clock in the afternoon the sight-seeing bus left its station in Monterey for a tour of the peninsula. ... "It's called Las Pasturas del Cielo," the driver said. ...The name means Pastures of Heaven.""If I had the money, I'd buy the whole thing. ..."

Steinbeck does a nice job of book-ending the ten stories between short chapters entailing the founding of Pastures of Heaven and a bus tour observing the "modern-day" Pastures of Heaven. Overall, an enjoyable read and a nice stop on my Steinbeck tour. The next Steinbeck book in my chronological tribute is Tortilla Flat.

I'm going to put an Australia update, more Steinbeck and a side trip to explore some Southern Lit in a tumbler, shake it up and see which post comes out first.