I’m just an old Steinbeck junkie: The Winter of Our Discontent
June 17, 2011
Steinbeck does wonders at creating real, vivid, introspective characters who feel so strongly and live so ardently their lives, one cannot help but feel a part of the tapestry of human emotion and drama he weaves.
The Winter of Our Discontent was published in 1961 and, except for some technological advances that we appreciate today, fits right into the lives of today’s audiences. Steinbeck said himself as introduction to the tale:
Readers seeking to identify the fictional people and places here described would do better to inspect their own communities and search their own hearts, for this book is about a large part of America today.
Steinbeck is as well a master of ending a story. Never anticipated, always heart wrenching. I reread the last several paragraphs over and over….I still get goosebumps.
Steinbeck, John. The Winter of Our Discontent. New York: Penguin Books, 1961.
