The Long Valley

I chose for my first book of the year to be John Steinbeck’s “The Long Valley”. It’s perfect as it is an anthology of short stories, just what the old attention span needs to kick start itself! Yesterday I read “The Murder” which was near the end of the book. I immediately got into the rhythm of Steinbeck’s writing. Today I read the first two stories in the book and again felt so comfortable with Steinbeck’s style. I love his way of empathizing with “marginal characters” which I think he is a genius at identifying and portraying in all his works.

Steinbeck’s books are highly readable and border somewhat on “comfort food” and yet are what I could term a level or two above those “comfort books” which I usually pull out for soothing. A murder or romance novel somehow is just not at the same calibre as reading about a vulnerable character whose heart is broken by seeing her chrysanthemums thrown out on the road.

Steinbeck was Dad’s favorite author and while not my favorite he is definitely in my top ten. I find his books diverse in nature although his characters, as noted above, are ordinary, vulnerable people. Dad did not introduce me to Steinbeck since we had to read “The Pearl” in grade 10 which I found incredibly boring. When Dad suggested that I read “Tortilla Flat” I said that I couldn’t because The Pearl turned me off him. Dad then took up the book and began reading and of course I started laughing and said okay, okay.

Despite having read more than half of his books I still confess that I cannot get through “The Grapes of Wrath”. I think I managed to get one third of the way through but found it so utterly depressing I simply didn’t want to torture myself any longer. John keeps telling me I should finish because there is so much to discuss in relation to the world we live in today. Maybe I will, if I ever get to that frame of mind.

“In every bit of honest writing in the world there is a base theme. Try to understand men, if you understand each other you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and nearly always leads to love. There are shorter means, many of them. There is writing promoting social change, writing punishing injustice, writing in celebration of heroism, but always that base theme. Try to understand each other.”

— John Steinbeck in his 1938 journal entry