Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Steinbeck

These three names are big in 20^th Century American literature and everyone has their favourite. My dad liked Hemingway but Steinbeck was his favourite. I don’t particularly like Hemingway’s writing, I like some of Fitzgerald’s and I simply adore Steinbeck. I think John Steinbeck is a very under valued writer. He won a Pulitzer and a Nobel prize and yet I say he is under valued? I think the general public hardly knows his name in comparison to Hemingway and Fitzgerald that’s why. Why do I value Steinbeck so highly? Because I think he was so diverse in his writing style that it amazes me. This man wrote The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden. He wrote Of Mice and Men, Tortilla Flat, Cannery Row, Sweet Thursday, The Red Pony. Then he wrote The Wayward Bus and Travels with Charlie. Those are just his most famous works; he wrote something like 30 novels nearly all of which I have read.

His work is both admired and disparaged by critics. But the fact is Steinbeck could tell a good story and he could see the flaws in humanity and laugh and cry at the same time. That is real life in the midst of tragedy there is humour. He made heroes out of the most unlikely of men. Who can ever forget Danny after reading Tortilla Flat? Who appoints people to be critics and what are their qualifications? What criteria do these critics use for basing their opinions? For the average reader readability and enjoyment are the top criteria. Since Steinbeck still sells, I’d guess that he is still a great writer.

So why this topic? I was thinking about how people judge each other at work. Just as each author has his fans based on his subject matter and writing style so we should look at our colleagues and realize that everyone’s workload is quite different from the others because the bosses have different methods of working. A person should never be hasty in criticizing anyone but one should be even more sensitive to one’s colleagues because we just don’t know what is floating their boat. One would be better off appreciating others for their differences and if they are just too different to the point of setting your teeth on edge, you should avoid them. But be gentle with them.

Just my thoughts this morning.