John Steinbeck is the author I was most looking forward to reading when I arrived in California on my fiction road trip. I love Steinbeck. I’ve read Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, and Of Mice and Men (several times), and I was eager to explore another of his titles. Because if anyone can write California, it is John Steinbeck.
Before I got to Steinbeck though, while I was waiting for Cannery Row to become available at the library, I saw that The Dharma Bums was there for the taking. And it is also set in California. I had read On the Road a few years back and was not super impressed, but everyone goes on and on about Jack Kerouac and how rhthmic and innovative and hip and beat he was, so I thought I’d give him another shot.
It is true that he wrote some lovely descriptions of his hikes –
Everything up there had smelled of ice and snow and heartless spine rock. Here there was the smell of sunheated wood, sunny dust resting in the moonlight, lake mud, flowers, straw, all those good things of the earth. – Jack Kerouac
but, beyond that, I found myself gritting my teeth a lot. I wrote in my notebook, “Is it just me or does Jack Kerouac think he’s the shit? #IAmCoolSoMuchCoolerThanYouIHaveAllTheAnswersIHaveFiguredItAllOut.”
Throughout The Dharma Bums I made notes to myself, “hang in there – maybe Ray will become humble, maybe the sanctimonious self-righteousness is part of his character arc.” Yeah, no. Perhaps it is Kerouac’s exhuberance that so many people love – I can see that – but he and I do not jive. His characters were self-absorbed and self-centered, and despite their quest for enlightenment, I saw no growth in them – they sit around and get drunk and spout their right way philosophies, thinking they have all the answers, looking down on everybody else who hasn’t figured it all out like they have (i.e., they think they’re the shit) – while women make no appearances except as naked bodies or beautiful faces for Ray and the boys to use when they like. Female enlightenment was judged by a single trait: a woman’s willingness to dispense free love, and women appear in the narrative for sex and parties but not as poets, philosophers, Buddhists, nature-lovers, and all the other cooler-than-thou, holier-than-thou, more-enlightened-than-thou roles the manboys assume in the book.
I was not a fan.
Now Steinbeck, on the other hand, he gives us a similar group of bums, also in California – Mack and the boys – who drink and philosophize and plan parties and hang out in nature and do all the same things that Ray’s gang does in The Dharma Bums, but somehow Steinbeck made it work for me in a way that Kerouac did not. For one thing, his women have personalities. But it was more than that. There is a subtlety to Steinbeck, and a humility, that Kerouac lacks. Kerouac wants to show you how cool he is, while Steinbeck is interested in exploring more universal themes.
And that’s what I said to myself, “I am now on the road to Heaven.” – Jack Kerouac
Our Father, who art in nature, who has given the gift of survival to the coyote, the common brown rat, the English sparrow, the house fly and the moth, must have a great and overwhelming love for no-goods and blots-on-the-town and bums. – John Steinbeck
Cannery Row is filled with poetic descriptions,
The sun came up and shook the night chill out of the air the way you’d shake a rug. – John Steinbeck
wisdom,
The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second. – John Steinbeck
and humor,
If a man ordered a beer milk shake, he thought, he’d better do it in a town where he wasn’t known. – John Steinbeck
and when I read through my notes on Cannery Row, I want to pump my fist for Steinbeck’s sentences. I laugh and I admire and I cry and I am moved. Because Steinbeck really is the shit.
I am a fan.
I guess what it comes down to for me is humility. In The Dharma Bums Ray and the boys seek only their own enlightenment, and Kerouac’s ego is always there, making itself known in the background. With Cannery Row, the entire premise is that Mack and the boys are trying to do a kindness for someone else, and Steinbeck gets out of the way and lets his sentences tell the story, lets his characters tell the story, shows us remorse and regret but also playfulness and mirth, and he doesn’t show off about any of it. He doesn’t parade himself, he doesn’t say, “Look at me, I’ve got it all figured out. Look how innovative I am, look how well I can write.” He just writes, and it’s beautiful, and it totally works for me.
Oooo.. very interesting. I enjoyed reading this. I love John Steinbeck. Only read ‘Of Mice and Men’ but this is a book I will definitely be adding to my list 🙂
Mucho love,
Andalus x
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It has been years since I read Of Mice and Men, and I think I want to read it again. He’s got several others I haven’t read yet, too. So many books, so little time!
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So very true! So many books, so little time! I love Steinbeck’s style of writing and so I will definitely be reading his other work. 🙂
I actually came across a blog post where the writer aims to select a book to read for an entire month. After, reading, she proceeds to write a review on it.
This may be a good idea in order to have time and to finish books. Perhaps, once reading time becomes faster, the deadline can be reduced to say two weeks.
I may consider doing this as soon as I can get my blog looking more presentable. I am not very happy with the way it looks to date. So my time will mostly be spent reading posts, writing and learning about how to use WordPress.
Enjoyed reading your article. If I can dig out this lady’s blog- I will definitely add a link for you. She posts a review on a book each month. I am a curious, nosy ‘newbie’ blogger, like a child in a candy store for the first time and so I have been reading a lot of blogs recently. That is why I cannot remember entirely what the name of her blog is.
Mucho love,
Andalus x
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I love Steinbeck. His voice is sympathetic and humorous and draws me in every single time. We read Cannery Road and it’s sequel Sweet Thursday for book club last year and now I’m rereading Grapes of Wrath.
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Yes, I was especially tickled by his humor. He is very funny in a very subtle way, and I don’t remember that from his other books I read. I gave my dad Travels With Charley: In Search of America, Steinbeck’s travelogue of a road trip across America with his dog, for Christmas and Dad told me I need to put everything else aside and read that one. I’m guessing it’s good 😉
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Nice essay, Andrea! I love Cannery Row, too, and please read Tortilla Flat so you can laugh and laugh!
Donna
Sent from Windows Mail
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Oh goodie, thanks for the tip, Donna. I was wondering what I should read next by him. I loved the humor element of Cannery Row – it was a surprise that caught me off guard every time, which of course made it that much more fun.
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I love Steinbeck! He is the man! Have you read Travels with Charley? Non-fiction and shows its age in parts but so fun reading about his travels across America with his puppy.
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I gave that book to my dad for Christmas! He said I need to drop everything else and read it, but that he wasn’t giving up his copy, I’d have to get it from the library 😉
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