rivacharles's review
adventurous
emotional
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
serving_goffman's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
a product of its time for sure, but a surprisingly nuanced one nonetheless. steinbeck’s prose never fails to delight me, and i still can’t put my finger on why.
zdu's review against another edition
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Minor: Alcohol, Racial slurs, Racism, and Antisemitism
remarchive's review against another edition
i think i will revisit it for another time, but i love the excerpt (aka the opening line): 'when i was very young and the urge to be someplace else was on me, i was assured by mature people that maturity would cure this itch.'
kmcgowan12's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
uwishuknewmyname's review against another edition
4.0
“There are as many worlds as there are kinds of days.”
“But I do wonder if a down-Easter, sitting on a nylon-and-aluminum chair out on a changelessly green lawn slapping mosquitos in the evening of a Florida October — I do wonder if the stab of memory doesn’t strike him high in the stomach, just below the ribs where it hurts. And in the humid ever-summer I dare his picturing mind not to go back to the shout of color, to the clean rasp of frosty air, to the smell of pine wood burning and the caressing warmth of kitchens. For how can one know color in perpetual green, and what good is warmth without cold to give it sweetness?”
Young John Steinbeck looks like Paul Walker. I have gotten one person to agree with me so far.
“But I do wonder if a down-Easter, sitting on a nylon-and-aluminum chair out on a changelessly green lawn slapping mosquitos in the evening of a Florida October — I do wonder if the stab of memory doesn’t strike him high in the stomach, just below the ribs where it hurts. And in the humid ever-summer I dare his picturing mind not to go back to the shout of color, to the clean rasp of frosty air, to the smell of pine wood burning and the caressing warmth of kitchens. For how can one know color in perpetual green, and what good is warmth without cold to give it sweetness?”
Young John Steinbeck looks like Paul Walker. I have gotten one person to agree with me so far.
robdabear's review against another edition
5.0
I'll start by saying that this book won the Nobel Prize in Literature for a reason. Everyone should read this book.
Originally, I found John Steinbeck's novels boring and the same. While all those are literary classics, "Travels with Charley" is something entirely different. No other book has made me think as much as this has. An account of Steinbeck's literal search through America to find America itself and learn something from it, I felt like what I read contained the answer to any problem or mental qualm I had at the time of reading. I truly felt that the book had answers to address everything, from thought process to individuality, from personality and loneliness, to issues of racism and change. It was all very moving and thought provoking, and I'm glad that, even though I wasn't required to read it for school, I took the chance and read it anyway. A must-read.
Originally, I found John Steinbeck's novels boring and the same. While all those are literary classics, "Travels with Charley" is something entirely different. No other book has made me think as much as this has. An account of Steinbeck's literal search through America to find America itself and learn something from it, I felt like what I read contained the answer to any problem or mental qualm I had at the time of reading. I truly felt that the book had answers to address everything, from thought process to individuality, from personality and loneliness, to issues of racism and change. It was all very moving and thought provoking, and I'm glad that, even though I wasn't required to read it for school, I took the chance and read it anyway. A must-read.