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    Travels with Charley in Search of America
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    Travels with Charley in Search of America
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    Travels with Charley in Search of America
    Audiobook7 hours

    Travels with Charley in Search of America

    Written by John Steinbeck

    Narrated by Gary Sinise

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    A stunning evocation of America on the eve of a tumultuous decade and a moving elegy for more innocent timesIn September 1960, John Steinbeck and his poodle, Charley, embarked on a journey across America, from small towns to growing cities to glorious wilderness oases. Travels with Charley is animated by Steinbeck's attention to the specific details of the natural world and his sense of how the lives of people are intimately connected to the rhythms of nature to weather, geography, the cycles of the seasons. His keen ear for the transactions among people is evident, too, as he records the interests and obsessions that preoccupy the Americans he encounters along the way.“Pure delight, a pungent potpourri of places and people interspersed with bittersweet essays on everything from the emotional difficulties of growing old to the reasons why giant sequoias arouse such awe." The New York Times Book Review
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighBridge Audio
    Release dateJun 15, 2011
    ISBN9781101530979
    Unavailable
    Travels with Charley in Search of America
    Author

    John Steinbeck

    John Steinbeck (Salinas, 1902 - Nueva York, 1968). Narrador y dramaturgo estadounidense. Estudió en la Universidad de Stanford, pero desde muy joven tuvo que trabajar duramente como albañil, jornalero rural, agrimensor o empleado de tienda. En la década de 1930 describió la pobreza que acompañó a la Depresión económica y tuvo su primer reconocimiento crítico con la novela Tortilla Flat, en 1935. Sus novelas se sitúan dentro de la corriente naturalista o del realismo social americano. Su estilo, heredero del naturalismo y próximo al periodismo, se sustenta sin embargo en una gran carga de emotividad en los argumentos y en el simbolismo presente en las situaciones y personajes que crea, como ocurre en sus obras mayores: De ratones y hombres (1937), Las uvas de la ira (1939) y Al este del Edén (1952). Obtuvo el premio Nobel en 1962.

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    Reviews for Travels with Charley in Search of America

    4.5/5

    63 ratings56 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I'm not much of a Steinbeck fan, not since I was assigned The Red Pony in junior high and hated it so much. I'd tried other books of his, but didn't finish. This was different. I loved this trip, this view of America, this man and his dog. I picked it up because a friend challenged me, and she was right.
    • 5/5
      This is one of the books that inspired me to take to the back roads of our great country. It is must read for those of us with asphalt in our veins.
    • 5/5
      Two segments of the book are memorable and for separate reasons. The first thing that I found intriguing was that the author divulges information on East of Eden. He self-reflects on the inspirations that brought some of those characters to life. This is much different from the East of Eden Letters, which discusses the book before it was finished and published. Secondly, the author's meditation on civil rights is honest and filled with trepidation.
    • 5/5
      I haven’t read Steinbeck since it was required reading in high school, so when this showed at my doorstep thanks to a friend I was admittedly a little apprehensive. I’m not even going into my fear of dry, boring non-fiction. After reading the blurb and some of my friends’ earlier comments I decided to take the plunge and travel with Charley. I must say Charley makes one hell of a traveling companion.

      This didn’t read like typical dry non-fiction, rather it was full of beautiful descriptions, insightful thoughts and at times even funny. I thoroughly enjoyed Steinbeck’s account of his chosen route and what he found at each state. It really made me appreciate the beauty and diversity of America and yes, even inspired me to want to travel more…particularly to places like the Grand Canyon and Redwood National Park. It was neat seeing these places through someone else’s eyes, but I would love to see them through my own someday.

      I also enjoyed Steinbeck’s observations of people. Steinbeck was more liberal minded than I thought. I also think he was way ahead of his time with some of his observations, particularly those thoughts related to the environment and racism. I found myself nodding in agreement most of the time.

      What I particularly loved were Charley and Rocinante, which I think were the best part in this trip. Charley was a hoot and I would love a traveling companion like him. Ftt!
    • 4/5
      Engaging story of a sort of road trip made in Steinbeck's later years. Hilarious and tragic incidents combined with sharp and mournful observations.
    • 5/5
      Ah, John Steinbeck.

      Travels with Charley is the thirteenth work by Steinbeck that I have had the pleasure to read. Part travelogue and part rant, Travels with Charley is a very conversational piece. It is strengthened by Steinbeck’s wit and insight. No matter what he is talking about, Steinbeck is able to pull his readers in and make them interested. I’m by no means a dog person—and definitely not a poodle person—but Steinbeck’s words about Charley, and his conversations with Charley (yes, Charley talks once or twice), make me love Charley. I want to hug a dog because of this book. And I will.

      Perhaps I’m adding my own hopes, but past all of Steinbeck’s sensational insight and humor, I see a story of sadness. It feels as though Steinbeck is saying goodbye. He was in the twilight of life at the time of his travels. When he returns to the place he grew up he finds that many of his friends and associates have died. Goodbye Salinas. Goodbye America.

      Steinbeck is at his best the first half of his journey. From New York to his hometown of Salinas, California, every word Steinbeck lays down is golden. He is humorous, philosophical, and genuine (though his story may not have been as we’ll discuss in a moment). The second half Steinbeck has run out of steam. He rushes through the South and back to NY in a daze.

      Maybe this departure of self and project is because Steinbeck was sickened by what he saw from the moment he reached Salinas and as he continued throughout the South. Salinas was no longer his home. Then he encountered elitism in Texas (which he took part in) and bigotry in Louisiana.

      Or it could be he was struggling with his project—a fictionalization of a journey spent largely in the company of his wife and friends throughout America’s hotels. Yes, Steinbeck’s account in Travels with Charley was exaggerated (if you couldn’t tell already). It’s not surprising to me. The conversations Steinbeck shares with these people seem too perfect. I wonder if he met any of them. And if he did, he certainly was changing their words around. Plus, this is Steinbeck we’re talking about here; despite the popular myth, Steinbeck was far from a realist, he liked to blur lines between fact and fiction.

      For me, it doesn’t matter in the least. Yes, I would’ve appreciated knowing that some of these wonderful characters in Travels with Charley were real, that genuine people actually walked the streets of America, but I know what Steinbeck knew, that they’re out there somewhere. Just because he didn’t give them rides in his truck in the fall of 1960 doesn’t mean they weren’t out there somewhere. It doesn’t mean Steinbeck hadn’t met them at sometime in his life. Or at least wished he had.

      People put too much stock in fact or fiction. They’ve done plenty of damage to contemporary literature, so they’ve moved back in time, looking for the fiction that masqueraded as non-fiction of our fathers’ and grandfathers’ eras. Yes, you can do all the research you want and learn that it would’ve been impossible for Steinbeck to travel some of the distances he claimed to have traveled in a day, or learn that he actually spent the days conspiring with politicians. It doesn’t matter. Because in the end, Steinbeck is still insightful and Travels with Charley is still a damn good book.

      Steinbeck wanted to see his country, his home, one last time. He wanted to chronicle the nation’s people and the times. He wanted to provide the world with insight into a people and offer hope to future generations standing on the threshold of a difficult time. Regardless how he went about it, he was successful with each of his goals.

      Goodbye America. Goodbye Charley.

      Goodbye John.
    • 5/5
      Right from the beginning, Steinbeck admits to always having a bit of wanderlust and wanting to travel. This particular trip is brought on by his realization that, for all his writing about America, he hadn't actually been outside his small corner of America for some time. So, he buys a truck specially made for his trip, equipped with everything he will need, takes his trusty poodle Charley, and hightails it out of New York on a cross-country trip.This is a short book that contains much to think about. You might think that reading about a trip taken over fifty years ago would have little to say about our country and Americans today, but you would miss a lot if you focused on that aspect alone. Steinbeck recounts specifics of his journey and conversations with individuals, yes, but it is also a rumination on the human spirit - particularly the American spirit - and has many passages that are even more relevant today than they were then (his thoughts on change, the growth of cities, and regional speech differences come immediately to mind). Steinbeck's journey is as much a quest and a window into his own internal world as it is a discovery of the country. His observations are witty, often humorous, and always thought-provoking. I found myself lingering over a sentence or paragraph here and there, wanting to draw out my reading experience instead of just finishing the book quickly and ticking it off. Whether you enjoy travel narratives, books about authors, or just plain good, descriptive writing, I highly recommend this book.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this book, but I thought it bittersweet. Steinbeck was "In Search of America" and he did discover both the beauty and ugliness found in America in 1960 but I couldn't help but feel that he was searching for his youth and hoped to discover it in his old stomping grounds. He was a stranger there, however, old friends saw him differently and rehashing old memories only lasts for so long. Like most trips I've been on that seem to go on just a little too long, it seems both Mr. Steinbeck and I had the same feeling about his journey. Let's go home already!Charley was indeed a wonderful traveling companion.
    • 5/5
      Okay, let's start with the obvious. I love the dog. Charley is a great character and Steinbeck captures his intelligence and personality with Steinbeck-like brilliance. That's going to bump up the star-rating right there. Otherwise, this memoir of Steinbeck's tour across the continental US in a lovingly tricked out camper truck during the last months of 1960 is just plain good reading. Steinbeck beautifully describes the land through which he travels, some of the people he meets, and occasionally the philosophical musings generated by his solitary driving adventure. Among the best bits, though, are those during which he describes his internal experience while on the road. He explores the deep loneliness of human experience with reverence and appreciation - and the recognition that "there seemed to be no cure for loneliness save only being alone." I wish more people could learn this lesson. Steinbeck says he started his journey in the hopes of finding out "what Americans are like," but he never claims to either figure that out or even to bring objectivity to the process. He tells the story of going to Prague several years before this 1960 adventure, ...and at the same time Joseph Alsop, the justly famous critic of places and events, was there. He talked to informed people, officials, ambassadors; he read reports, even the fine print and figures, while I in my slipshod manner roved about with actors, gypsies, vagabonds. Joe and I flew home to America in the same plane, and on the way he told me about Prague, and his Prague had no relation to the city I had seen and heard. It just wasn't the same place, and yet each of us was honest, neither one a liar, both pretty good observers by any standard, and we brought home two cities, two truths. For this reason, I cannot commend this account as an America that you will find. So much there is to see, but our morning eyes describe a different world than do our afternoon eyes, and surely our wearied evening eyes can report only a weary evening world. As his travels bring him to his own home area, near the Redwoods of southern Oregon and northern California, he captures a feeling that I have experienced but could never have described such:The redwoods, once seen, leave a mark or create a vision that stays with you always. No one has ever successfully painted or photographed a redwood tree. The feeling they produce is not transferrable. From them comes silence and awe. It's not only their unbelievable stature, nor the color which seems to shift and vary under your eyes, no, they are not like any tree we know, they are ambassadors from another time. They have the mystery of ferns that disappeared a million years ago into the coal of the carboniferous era. They carry their own light and shade. Finally, Steinbeck describes his travels through the south. In 1960, the south was in the middle of the boiling, broiling heat of integrating the schools, undoing the years of brutal and thoughtless Jim Crow laws that had effectively silenced generations of African Americans. Steinbeck provides witness to the human ugliness and the human beauty of this time in this place. At one point, Steinbeck gives a Black man a ride and is initially puzzled by the man's palpable fear of the white man in the driver's seat. He asks the man questions about how he feels about what's happening in the south and is deeply confused by the man's reluctance to talk. Then he reflects again on an event he experienced a few years prior, when he was living ...in a small brick house in Manhattan, and, being for the moment solvent, employed a Negro. Across the street and on the corner there was a bar and restaurant. One winter dusk when the sidewalks were iced I stood in my window and looking out and saw a tipsy woman come out of the bar, slip on the ice, and fall flat. She tried to struggle up but slipped and fell again and lay there screaming maudlinly. At that moment the Negro who worked for me came around the corner, saw the woman, and instantly crossed the street, keeping as far from her as possible. When he came in I said "I saw you duck. Why didn't you give that woman a hand?" "Well, sir, she's drunk and I'm Negro. If I touched her she could easy scream rape, and then it's a crowd, and who believes me?" "It took quick thinking to duck like that." "Oh, no sir!" he said. "I've been practicing to be a Negro a long time." And now in Rocinante (his truck) I was foolishly trying to destroy a lifetime of practice. I love this poignant description of Steinbeck's gut-getting of white privilege. I love this memoir and it makes me want to get a camper van, fix it up with all I need, get a good dog, and head out across the country. I'll never do it, so I'll settle for planning a re-read of this delightful work by John Steinbeck.
    • 5/5
      Although Steinbeck's travels in his camper truck around America happens in fits and starts, follows a vague plan, and covers only portions of this expansive, diversified country - he does not disappoint. His usual superb writing engages and delights. A thoughtful assessment of regional differences and national cohesiveness, this book is entertaining and philosophical.Steinbeck gathers impressions of people, places and cultural differences. His companion Charley is a peaceable poodle attracting attention, breaking the ice with strangers, and serving as a sounding board for Steinbeck's ponderings along the way. Events of humor intertwine with those reflecting hard truths.Whether this work is one of non-fiction or fabrication - or a mix - may be controversial but really not important for this work. Steinbeck's experiences are real enough to teach us all a bit about ourselves. Highly recommended. Enjoyable read.
    • 3/5
      This is a very manly book about a very many man's reaction to his unmanly health diagnosis by traveling cross country with his very manly dog (who suffers from health problems that he wouldn't have had if he'd been less manly, i.e neutered.) When Steinbeck isn't worshipping at the alter of testosterone his observations about America are pertinent and enlightening. He made me want to visit Montana (could it really be that different from Colorado?) and Wisconsin.
    • 4/5
      In the fall of 1960, John Steinbeck set out with a well-stocked camper truck and his standard bred poodle named Charley, to travel across America. His route took him from New York up to Maine from where he turned east, eventually crossing the prairies to visit the California of his boyhood before heading back east and catching Texas on the way.Travels with Charley is a fascinating look at the America of half a century ago and of Steinbeck’s perceptions and assimilations of it. Steinbeck himself admits these may not mirror any other person’s when he says: I cannot commend this as an account as an America that you will find [in 1960]. So much there is to see, but our morning eyes describe a different world than do our afternoon eyes(.)At the beginning of the trip (and the book), the author gives the reader lots of personal details both about his adventure, the places he sees, and the people he meets. But as the book progresses, the story is recounted in greater generalities, and he drives hundreds of miles without talking to anyone.This is understandable since as he says: This journey has been like a full dinner of many courses, set before a starving man. At first, he tries to eat all of everything, but as the meal progresses he finds he must forgo some things to keep his appetite and his taste buds functioning.Steinbeck made the observation that When we get these [inter-state] thruways across the whole country, as we will and must, it will be possible to drive from New York to California without seeing a single thing. We should all be glad he captured some of life as it was before that happened.Read this if: you’d like a taste of a simpler country; you’d like to discover a time-capsule of society in mid-twentieth century America; or you’re a Steinbeck fan and would like to get to know the author a bit better. 3½ stars
    • 5/5
      A wonderful travelogue of John Steinbeck's cross-country drive in 1961 with his dog Charley. Steinbeck's descriptions of the country he sees, the people he meets, and the observations he makes are so vivid and so thought-provoking, making me laugh out loud at parts and close to tears at other parts. His conversations with Charley are the same conversations I have with my dog, and they share many of the same traits. It's also fascinating to read about 1961 40 years later, and see how accurate (or inaccurate) some of his predictions were.Highly recommended for all thinking people!
    • 5/5
      Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck provides a charming opportunity to travel across the U.S. with one of its best writers. He fitted out a pick-up truck with a camper for easier driving (and the inside of the camper can sit 6 or so around its retractable table, something he takes advantage of a number of times). He names it Rosinante, and sets out from New York in the fall with his telepathic poodle Charley to cross this huge country on an eccentric route. It allows him to stop at places he's heard of but never been to, and to catch the spectacular leaf-changing in Vermont and New Hampshire.His New York license plate repeatedly causes folks to let him know they've been to New York and hated it. But they also repeatedly tell him they wish they could go with him. Not caring where he's going, just wanting to go, like him, on a journey.He's insightful, and obviously loves to talk to people (seems like not the most common quality in an author). He could conceal his identity in 1961 probably better than he could today. He's very funny at times, including his description of how American men assume they genetically are crackshots and go out in hunting season blasting away, to the danger of everyone nearby. Some of what he finds is predictable, like leaving New England, where people were neither "unfriendly or discourteous, but they spoke tersely and usually waited for the newcomer to open communication", and crossing the Ohio line to a friendlier, more open midwest. In his hands it's all personal, though, and as if we were sitting at the camper table with him. "The waitress in a roadside stand said good morning before I had a chance to, discussed breakfast as though she liked the idea, spoke with enthusiasm about the weather, sometimes even offered some information about herself without my delving. Strangers talked freely to one another without caution." He had forgotten how "rich and beautiful" the countryside was, and thought, "the earth was generous and outgoing here in the heartland, and perhaps the people took a cue from it."Charley is a good travel companion, and feels quite stylish after visiting a beauty parlor in Chicago. Eventually they make it to Seattle, where Steinbeck is taken aback by all the modernization since he last was there 20 years ago. He is comforted when he gets back to the older, largely unchanged part of the city near the water. As they make their way down the coast, a tire blows out in a part of Oregon nowhere near civilization, leaving them "no recourse but to burst into tears and wait for death." I'll leave it to you to find out how they nonetheless manage to travel to his old haunts in Monterey, and to Texas.POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT? Eventually they make it to New Orleans, where a disheartening strain of racism is on full display, as a school is desegregated and nightmarish "Cheerleaders" lead the crowd in screaming bestial "invectives" at children. White parents bringing their children to such a school suffer even worse. It makes for a disturbing, revelatory coda, as this man who loves this country and its people tries to sort out its most damaging and unsupportable flaw.I said coda, but there is more as he makes his way back home. He did us a real favor writing this book - there's an age-old question about what writers you'd like to have join you at a dinner party. He's done it one better by letting us all travel with him around a remarkable, imperfect, country.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book! Steinbeck is an amazing writer, one who makes poetry out of simple things in life. I loved every second of this book.
    • 4/5
      Travels with Charley is one of Steinbeck's better books, though several of the incidents he "reports"(?) bear a suspicious resemblance to episodes from some of his novels. Personally, the parts I enjoyed the most were those about his eponymous traveling companion Charley, an elderly French poodle, and I wish there had been more of them. I'm not sure that Steinbeck managed to learn or convey much that was very meaningful about America, but his description of his sojourn through New Orleans near the end to witness the protests against desegregation as six-year-old Ruby Bridges became the first black child to attend a white grade school (immortalized in Norman Rockwell's painting "The Problem We All Live With") is quite interesting, even moving. On the whole, despite some problems (including its dubious veracity in places), definitely worth a read.
    • 4/5
      A must for Steinbeck fans. The audio version I listened to was really well done. It was reflective and often amusing and when it was done I felt like I had sat down and had a good long talk with John himself.
    • 5/5
      charming, feel-good quick read; reliable every time.
    • 4/5
      One of the abiding pleasures of renting a beach house, over and above the obvious one of slouching on the hammock with your feet up and a book in your hands for a week straight, is the opportunity to poke around the house and see what manner of people live there by examining the books they have left behind on the shelves. I've only been disappointed once, when we were the first occupants of a newly-built beach house in Virginia Beach. There were books, of course. But you needed about five seconds of browsing to know that whoever put the damns things there was not a reader. They were probably an interior designer, because the books looked inviting. They just didn't have the least bit of character or personality. I spent that vacation curled up with my Kindle or playing Hearts.But, a recent visit to another beach house in Hawaii has made the world right again. Travels with Charlie! Oh, my goodness. It's been at least 40 years since I read that book, and I still remember it fondly. And, 40 years on, it was just as good--maybe better, because I had forgotten how funny it was. What a joy to read about the America of my youth. A time when a camper pick-up truck was a big deal, and the small towns of Steinbeck's youth were growing up and becoming cities. I guess one of the pleasures of growing older is that you get to revisit your youth every once in awhile. This was a most pleasant two-day read and has me looking on every book shelf I meet for a copy of East of Eden, one of the books that made me a life-long reader.
    • 5/5
      When I said that I found Steinbeck depressing, a wonderful librarian responded, "Read Travels with Charley." My mind is changed. Listening to the audio book consistently put a smile on my face. What a treasure.
    • 3/5
      The year is 1960 and highly acclaimed American novelist John Steinbeck has decided to make a three month driving tour of the United States. His means of travel is a three-quarter ton pickup truck with a well provisioned and appointed camper mounted in the bed. His sole traveling companion is his poodle Charlie.Steinbeck begins his journey in Sag Harbor, New York shortly after Labor Day with a short loop through New England before plowing through the upper Midwest. Along the way, it is his hope to “rediscover” America after having written about it for so many years. He is touched by the almost innate wanderlust within himself and many of the people he encounters.Much of the book reads as a travelogue, and to be honest these were the most entertaining and enlightening. When Steinbeck begins to philosophize, as he does extensively throughout his travels through Texas and then the Deep South (this is 1960, remember), he loses my interest. The book is interesting and entertaining, though at times pedantic and irritating. Most irritating to me was the obviously fictional encounters that Steinbeck creates in an around New Orleans in which he confronts four obvious stereotypes of the region and time frame: The wise, old white gentleman who acknowledges the sins of his race; the elderly black gentleman who is utterly subservient and beaten down; the fire breathing middle aged white racist and the idealistic young black freedom rider. Overall, not a bad read.
    • 4/5
      The only previous knowledge I had of John Steinbeck's 1960s travelogue was from a reference in a Stephen King novel, where the author-insert character considers writing a similar account, but with the title 'Travels with Harley'. However, the original is still effortlessly readable, if a little dated in places. Driving a camper van across America - allegedly because he knew he was dying, and wanted to see 'his' country one last time - with his poodle Charley, Steinbeck stops off in New England, Montana, Texas and New Orleans, among other places, and chats with a variety of people along the way. His narrative is witty, sharply observational, and suitably descriptive, evoking a sense of both the author and his dog (and I was quite concerned about Charley's health at one point, but don't worry, he makes it!) and the amazing landscapes they take in. Similar to Bill Bryson's Notes from a Big Country, Steinbeck discovers that you can't go home again - when he returns to his hometown of Salinas, California, he feels like a ghost left behind while the city and faces of his youth have moved on. I love how relevant Steinbeck's assessment of America remains, his sentiments echoed in Bryson's book some thirty years later, and probably still true today. 'I cannot commend this account as an America that you will find', he writes, but although there have been positive changes, the seeds of modernity and equality that Steinbeck describes are still very much a part of American culture. 'Can I then say that the America I saw has put cleanliness first, at the expense of taste?' he bemoans, objecting to the replacement of small, individual towns and friendly roadside cafes with sprawling cities and homogenised plastic-packed, mass-produced food in vending machines. I think everyone, wherever they come from, can relate to that particular corruption of 'progress'!Steinbeck is an entertaining and eloquent travelling companion, and his snapshot of America, circa 1961, is both a historical document and a series of literary vignettes. Charley the dog is also full of character, suffering from 'old man' problems and getting hopelessly filthy. One of my favourite quotes is: 'For Charley, is not a human; he's a dog, and he likes it that way. He feels that he is a first-rate dog and has no wish to become a second-rate human'. Who can blame him?
    • 3/5
      I'm a big fan of John Steinbeck, but I did not like this book as much as his others.
    • 4/5
      This was the first adult book I ever read; I'checked it out of the junior high library and I've always had a fondness for it. I remember a playmate's friend telling me, "You are going to love that book", and I guess I did. I've dipped into it or reread it a few times over the years, but this time was prolly the first time in 25 years. I found that my rereading coincided with the 50th anniversary of the trip that Steinbeck documents and also that I was almost the same age as he was when he made his drive. He says in the book that he doesn't begin to know what the world will be like in 50 years, and I guess he didn't. I had forgotten how disppointed he was with the America he was trying to rediscover, largely because nobody would talk to him about the sociopolitical topics which interested him. I wonder what he would make of us today, with every Main Street blowhard crouching in wait for someone to ask the time so they can tell you what they think about the president, or the government in Whatzitstan, or the plight of the common man. It remains a classic of travel writing, and one of the earliest examples of travel writing as a vehicle for introspection.
    • 5/5
      I loved travelling round America in the 1960s with Steinbeck and Charley. It is so well written, I would like to commit every sentence to memory.
    • 5/5
      This is my most favorite book on the planet.
    • 4/5
      by: John SteinbeckA Bantam Book July 19629780142000700From my personal libraryRating: 3.5First off, Charley is a dog. You would think that John Steinbeck would have a manly dog, a lab, a retriever or maybe a shepard? Well you would be wrong. Charley is a poodle and he is blue.Steinbeck decided that he didn't know his country anymore. He felt he was writing about things he no longer knew so he decided to take a road trip around the country. He put a camper on a 3/4 ton truck and stocked food, water, plenty of liquor and dog food. He vowed to stay out of large cities, he would sleep in camp grounds, trailer parks and next to various streams. When he decided he was ripe enough he would spend a night in a motel for the shower. Steinbeck began his trip in Connecticut, made a great loop around through Maine, Michigan, Wisconsin, missed Minnesota due to a pathological fear of traffic, North Dakota, Montana which he claimed as his great love, a short dogleg to Yellowstone which he pronounced nature gone nuts, Washington where he did not recognize the Seattle of his experience, a sweet little city of hills and gardens beside a beautiful harbor, with its freeways and tract housing, thankfully Oregon with its 300 foot redwoods was still a religious experience, California where he was born and raised, Texas (disclaimer: I am a native Texan but notice that I do use quotes to bolster my snobbishness) where he discovered that "Texas is a nation in every sense of the word," and "Texas is the only state that came into the Union by Treaty and the only state that retains the ability to secede at will." 'Nuff said, and finally New Orleans suffering the birth pangs of a sea change in race relations.He met all sorts of people: a submariner, various storekeepers, farmers, crop pickers, waitresses, camp ground owners, police officers of several varieties, cooks, actors, veterinarians, barkeeps, ranchers, reporters, preachers, and Republicans. Steinbeck invited several of these people into the camper for a drink or two and good conversation. A couple of things made me stop and consider and make a note to look at later. Here they are:Prescient environmentalist: "...I do wonder whether there will come a time when we can no longer afford our wastefulness - chemical wastes in the river, metal wastes everywhere, and atomic wastes buried deep in the earth or sunk in the sea. When an Indian village became too deep in its own filth, the inhabitants moved. And we have no place to which to move." On nostalgia for the good 'ole days: "Even while I protest the assembly-line production of our food, our songs, our language, and eventually our souls, I know that it was a rare home that baked good bread in the old days. Mother's cooking was with rare exceptions poor, that good unpasteurized milk touchedonly by flies and bits of manure crawled with bacteria, sudden death from uknown causes, and that sweet local speech I mourn was the child of illiteracy and ignorance." So when someone waxes nostalgic you should consider the options. I recommend this book for John Steinbeck fans. There are portions where the story tends to lag some but not for long. Others may find it entertaining if you like travel books or Americana.
    • 4/5
      Knowing nothing about America, not liking dogs, and never having read any Steinbeck, I really wasn't sure whether I would like this. I did! He certainly was a master of description, though I found many of the reported "conversations" with people along his journey rather contrived. An interesting read.
    • 3/5
      John Steinbeck hits the road in a camper traveling with his dog Charley, and plenty of coffee with whiskeys. A nice little travelogue of America. Very easy reading.
    • 5/5
      For the very first segment may I present "Travels With Charley" by John Steinbeck. Over the decades Steinbeck's books have been lauded by critics and readers alike. Classics like "Grapes of Wrather," "Of Mice and Men," and "East of Eden" all poured from his pen. All of which are truly remarkable books, but "Travels With Charley" hit me on a completely different level.It's a nonfiction book written later in Steinbeck's life. He decides that after having written about the underdogs in America for years he has grown out of touch with his beloved country. He decides to take his dog Charley and travel across the United States. The book is about the people he meets and the thoughts he has along the way. The book combines so many things that I love; great writing, travel memoirs, a deep love for pets.