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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

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

In September 1960, John Steinbeck embarked on a journey across America. He felt that he might have lost touch with the country, with its speech, the smell of its grass and trees, its color and quality of light, the pulse of its people. To reassure himself, he set out on a voyage of rediscovery of the American identity, accompanied by a distinguished French poodle named Charley; and riding in a three-quarter-ton pickup truck named Rocinante.

His course took him through almost forty states: northward from Long Island to Maine; through the Midwest to Chicago; onward by way of Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana (with which he fell in love), and Idaho to Seattle, south to San Francisco and his birthplace, Salinas; eastward through the Mojave, New Mexico, Arizona, to the vast hospitality of Texas, to New Orleans and a shocking drama of desegregation; finally, on the last leg, through Alabama, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey to New York.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateJun 29, 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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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    In 1960, Steinbeck undertook a journey around America, in a custom made vechicle which we would describe as a camper van or RV these days and his dog Charley was along for the ride! He heads north to Maine initially and then west all the way to Washington state, south to California and then back across the states, through the South to New York. What a fantastic, fabulous trip that should be......but that doesn't always come across. By his own admission, he largely avoids the large cities, but he also seems to avoid the national parks and other places of interest. Instead the commentary focusses on the people he meets and also the larger issues of the recent history, which dominate his fictional works. So, for instance, in Washington he talks about mass migration and how the city of Seattle has changed dramatically since his last visit and that made me think of the themes in The Grapes of Wrath.By Virginia, he is fed up of travelling and says the 'journey' has ended for him. From that point onwards, you get the sense that he is in a hurry to get home and is just driving, driving, driving. Anyone who has done a long trip in an RV can probably relate to that!His relationship with Charley comes across very strongly and is lovely to read about, There are health worries for Charley along the way and a sense throughout that owner and dog are able to communicate with one another, 'ftt' being a well used phrase! The passage describing the approach to the giant redwoods, anticipating Charley's reaction and the disappointment at the actual reaction were very amusing. But the funniest part is the ending, when having driven all around the states, Steinbeck has to pull over in Manhatten rush hour traffic because he is lost!Great read, slightly disappointing as a travelogue, but great as a memoir.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    In 1960, John Steinbeck decided to purchase a new truck, have a camper attached to it and travel around America with his 10-year old poodle, Charley. Along the way, he describes primarily landscapes and the people he meets, rather than cities and sightseeing. It was really good. I loved his dog, Charley (?ftt?), and you could tell how much Steinbeck loves him. I was a bit surprised at how funny Steinbeck was, at times. I thought he had some pretty good one-liners and I laughed out loud a few times. It?s amazing some of his observations would still hold true today (the book was originally written in 1962). There was also a cute hand-drawn map in the edition I read, with little pictures to represent some of the things that happened along the way. I really enjoyed it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Steinbeck reminds readers early on that journeys are "things onto themselves." Don't expect an action-packed adventure filled with surprise twists and cliff-hanging vignettes in this widely-acclaimed classic. Steinbeck's account of his cross-country odyssey reads more like a meandering journal. But in this author's masterful hands, the tome is well-worth the read. His brilliant narrative almost allows readers to taste the sweetness of New England lobster and experience all the other mundane encounters on this excursion. Probably because I'm an animal lover, one of my favorite sub-plots involved the author's four-legged traveling companion. From a historical perspective, Steinbeck's observations about racism in the 1960s are reason enough to read this classic.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    this was our county wide read for 2014, so even though I have read it before, I decided to read it again, and enjoyed it again
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I loved this. Such a colorful glimpse at a moment in history. The writing and observations would be stunning all by themselves, but the narration of Gary Sinise elevates this memoir another notch. Definitely one I will read again. I can identify with a man who can get lost in his own backyard and who names his vehicle Rocinante, after Don Quixote's horse. I liked that he traveled incognito and took the backroads when he could. That he sought out ordinary people in the midst of their daily routine. His America is not my America, but it still has the same ugliness, the same beauty. It reeks of possibility."In my flurry of nostalgic spite, I have done the Monterey Peninsula a disservice. It is a beautiful place, clean, well run, and progressive. The beaches are clean where once they festered with fish guts and flies. The canneries which once put up a sickening stench are gone, their places filled with restaurants, antique shops, and the like. They fish for tourists now, not pilchards, and that species they are not likely to wipe out. And Carmel, begun by starveling writers and unwanted painters, is now a community of the well-to-do and the retired. If Carmel's founders should return, they could not afford to live there, but it wouldn't go that far. They would be instantly picked up as suspicious characters and deported over the city line. The place of my origin had changed, and having gone away I had not changed with it. In my memory it stood as it once did and its outward appearance confused and angered me....Tom Wolfe was right. You can't go home again because home has ceased to exist except in the mothballs of memory."
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Wonderful book - great writing; and a 'travel-book' that really captures the experience of driving across America. Steinbeck doesn't attempt to log every stop, but rather, he selects colorful and meaningful instances of sincere contact with individuals. I loved his insertions of 'philosophical' insights along with the great colorful characterizations. This book prompts me to go back and read Steinbeck's other classics.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    When I recently read this book, I was concerned that ?Travels with Charley? might be outdated, because it was in 1960 when John Steinbeck made a road trip across America with his French Poodle, Charley. I did not need to worry. Human nature and dog nature never really change over the years.John Steinbeck decided, despite his health (he died just a few years after ?Travels with Charley? was published), that he would go ahead and drive across the country? alone but with Charley? in a truck with a custom-built camper that he dubs ?Rocinanate? after the horse in Don Quixote. He says:?My wife married a man; I saw no reason why she should inherit a baby. I knew that ten or twelve thousand miles driving a truck, alone and unattended, over every kind of road, would be hard work, but to me it represented the antidote for the poison of the professional sick man. And in my own life I am not willing to trade quality for quanitity. If this projected journey should prove too much then it was time to go anyway. I see too many men delay their exits with a sickly slow reluctance to leave the stage. it?s bad theater as well as bad living. I am very fortunate in having a wife who likes being a woman, which means that she likes men, not elderly babies.?You go, John Steinbeck! I think that was a very good mind-set for him to have. So, he sets off from his home in New York City with Charley, drives to Maine, and then from there drives through to California with many stops along the way. From California, he swings over to Texas and Louisiana on the way back home to New York. Of course, he meets many people along the way, and he and Charley are good observers of character.Yes, Charley figures largely in this book. As Steinbeck says,?He is a good friend and traveling companion, and would rather travel about than anything he can imagine. If he occurs at length in this account, it is because he contributed much to the trip. A dog, particularly an exotic like Charley, is a bond between strangers. Many conversations en route began with ?What degree of a dog is that???Some encounters are amusing, some tragic. One part I thought funny was when Steinbeck encounters a father and son, motel owners or managers, out in the sticks, somewhere in the West, and Steinbeck finds that the boy desires to be a hairdresser someday. The father is unhappy about this? but Steinbeck goes on about how great it would be for the boy to become a hairdresser, saying that women place their secret lives in their hairdresser?s hands? and seems to convince the father that it?s all okay, after all.Tragic was when Steinbeck goes through Louisiana and observes the ugliness of racism there? observing white women screaming, daily, at little African-American girls being escorted in a school building that is being de-segregated.Description of place tend to be still true today as they were back in 1960. When he speaks of Texans, he says:?We have heard them threaten to secede so often that I formed an enthusiatic organization? The American Friends for Texas Secession. This stops the subject cold. They want to be able to secede but they don?t want anyone to want them to?.Charley helps Steinbeck through the occasional lonely times on the road, and as quoted earlier, helps Steinbeck with meeting strangers. I loved Charley?s personality and agree he would be a great travel-mate. John Steinbeck isn?t a well-known writer for nothing, and his way with words are evident here as they are in his better known novels such as ?Grapes of Wrath? and ?East of Eden?. ?Travels with Charley? was a very good read, and I think many of you would enjoy it also.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I'm a big fan of John Steinbeck, but I did not like this book as much as his others.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    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?
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Steinbeck is one of my favorite writers and this, more than any other novel or work of his gets you right to who he is/was. I read this through the end of January; whilst trapped in a blizzard and reading two of Michael Lewis' travel stories (The New New Thing and Boomerang). Steinbeck's view of America then (1960) is still relevant and very true to America today. The trends he sees, notices, and talks about are the same, just further along the path he outlined them as going back then (55-56 years ago). His relations to other people and his dog (Charley) show the true personality of John Steinbeck and the person he was. His heartbreaking 'return' to his 'home' of California (the lower San Francisco area) and realizing like Wolfe says "You can't go back home" as well as then his travels through the South, especially New Orleans as they go through the turbulent times of desegregation and the civil rights provides a strong backbone to the end of his work. His 'return' journey (exit from the South to drive home) is completely glossed over, so no account of his time in Pennsylvania (as a Pennsylvanian that's disappointing). A very quick read that you find yourself done with before you know it and can contribute to how or why you're done. Of Mice and Men is one of my all-time favorite works and this just shows me how and why it is, love the portions when Steinbeck discusses writing/his thoughts on things like taking notes/losing notes, etc. A must read for any Steinbeck fan.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I?m sure I read Grapes of Wrath in high school, but haven?t read anything by Steinbeck since. I remember liking Grapes of Wrath, but it didn?t leave a deep impression on me. I?m guessing I stormed through the book just to get through it, and didn?t take the time to let it work its way into me.

    I say this because in reading Travels with Charlie, I found many sections that I needed to read through quickly because they weren?t speaking to me or holding my attention, but other sections that were pretty dense. With this in mind, I?m guessing his other writing is full of the dense stuff.

    This is a fairly short read that chronicles a trip across the country Steinbeck took in a camper in the early 60?s. Some good stuff, and a few dense parts, but generally just an OK read.

    I picked it up because I?m in the midst of writing about a cross-country trip myself - one I took on my bicycle - and I thought I might pick up some good ideas on style and voice from a master like Steinbeck. I did that for sure, and while I was a bit disappointed in the book as a whole, reading it kindled in me a desire to read more Steinbeck. I think I?ll pick up East of Eden and read that soon.

    Anybody suggest a different Steinbeck novel as a ?first?? (I?m ignoring my early reading of Grapes of Wrath, since I must have slept through it...)
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I first read this when I was in high school - about 4 or 5 years after it was first published. I recently revisited it via the audio book, performed by Gary Sinese

    In 1960 John Steinbeck undertook to travel across America. He had lived in and traveled to various parts of the country, but longed ?to hear the speech of the real America, to smell the grass and the trees, to see the colors and the light.? He bought and outfitted a truck, Rocinante, and with his French poodle, Charley, set out. His goal was not to visit typical tourist destinations but to get the feel of the country and its people. Along the way he met and conversed with many folks, including farmers, truckers, and waitresses. He traveled by interstate for part of the trip, but preferred the smaller roads, where he might come across a road-side stand selling local produce, fresh eggs, honey, or jams. He stopped in small towns and large cities; he visited with old friends, made new ones, and even encountered a bear in Yellowstone National Park. But mostly he enjoyed peace and quiet and a lot of time for thinking. His book is not just a travelogue but a series of essays on the American populace and on a way of life that was rapidly disappearing.

    Gary Sinese has a facility with voices that really makes this work come alive. This is the second audio of a Steinbeck book that I?ve listened to with Sinese as narrator. I suspect he has a particular fondness for the author. He certainly performs the audios well.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I did not read it when it was required in college but quite a few years later. Not that inspiring. I think it was more relevant in 1970, for some reason.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The mystic allure of an aimless trip accompanied by just a dog makes me want to quit everything and do it. Someday, I expect it will.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This was a great read, unlike the one other Steinbeck book I read which was the Pearl in 6th grade, it wasn't horribly depressing. It was moving and interesting. It was interesting to get to the see the US at a different point in time, before trailer parks were only for the trashy, when we were in a stalemate with the Russians, when "separate but equal" was just breaking down and when some of our greatest cities were just turning into cities.

    One of the most moving parts of the book was the New Orleans. Steinbeck went to see the women, called "cheerleaders" (white mommies) who stood outside of the school, cursing the little black girl who had be integrated into the white school. The scene itself sounds gut wrenching and Steinbeck discusses his feelings in a way to make you understand what it was like to be there.

    The conversations this inspires with hitchhikers later help establish the many different feelings regarding these events. You can hear the desperation in the young black students words,that he wants things to change in his life time.

    While this book was meant to do more then illustrate that struggle, it does a beautiful job of it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I first read Travels with Charley in the mid-seventies, long before I heard any rumblings about how John Steinbeck fabricated many of the incidents and conversations included in this memoir about his solitary travels across the country. I found that first reading to be so fascinating that I remember praising the book and recommending it to friends for weeks after I had finished it. So I was both curious and a little afraid to see how I would feel about the book after reading it again some four decades later. Well, I am happy to report that I still love the book, even knowing what I know now about some of it being fiction rather than Steinbeck?s actual travel experiences.Steinbeck began his journey in September 1960 from his Sag Harbor, New York, home and stayed on the road for the next eleven weeks (with the exception of one brief interlude to meet his wife in Chicago, during which, from the sound of it, he stayed in a rather posh hotel). During those weeks he made his way through some 33 states (although a few seem to have been really rushed) where he spoke with as many people as possible about the social upheavals and politics of the day. Steinbeck left Sag Harbor and drove to Maine before turning west toward Seattle. From Seattle, the author turned southward to visit his old haunts in California, traveled across the American Southwest, and sped through much of Texas before driving through most of the Deep South, turning northward again in South Carolina for his return trip to New York.America was experiencing turbulent and dangerous times in late 1960, an ugly period vividly portrayed in that portion of Travels with Charley in which Steinbeck recounts what he observed in New Orleans when that city was trying to integrate its public schools. This is likely to be the most memorable and disturbing part of the entire book for most readers because of how clearly it reminds us that our not too distant past can never truthfully be dubbed ?the good old days.? It was not even close. The incident was so ugly, in fact, that it effectively ended Steinbeck?s journey even though he was still a long way from home.I admit to being a little disappointed that Steinbeck misrepresented the origin of some of what he claims happened in Travels with Charley mainly because it makes me wonder if he simply set out with a specific agenda in mind and made sure that he got the answers that supported his own views about the social condition of the country. Even in my first reading of the book, I found some of the conversations between the author and those he happened upon to be a little stilted and unrealistic. At the time, I wrote that off as simply Steinbeck?s failure to remember the exact words used (he did not use a recorder) in those conversations. But even now that much has been exposed about the author?s methods, I can say that I both enjoyed the memoir and recommend it to others. I do, however, rate it a full star lower now than I did the first time around.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    In the fall of 1960, Civil Rights was still an ugly snarl and a hopeful young presidential candidate was waiting in the wings. Steinbeck was well into his fifties at the time and decided to take a final tour of his beloved America. He packed up his converted pick-up truck and along with his French poodle named Charley, he set out. From Sag Harbor New York, he followed a northerly route, ending up in Monterrey California and then returned, covering the southern part of the country. This book contains his thoughts and observations about the people he met and the towns he visited, along with a sharp commentary about this vast beautiful landscape, we call home. This is his view of the Badlands:?They deserve this name. They are like the work of an evil child. Such a place the Fallen Angels might have built as a spite to Heaven, dry and sharp, desolate and dangerous, and for me filled with foreboding. A sense comes from it that it does not like or welcome humans.?The second half of the narrative is a bit more dry and wordy but it does conclude with a devastating event in the deep south, where a very young black girl is being escorted into a ?white? grade school, amid a torrent of verbal abuse from a matronly group of women, who call themselves ?The Cheerleaders?. Steinbeck is so shaken, he immediately returns home in a daze. This is a very good book, by one of America?s finest writers.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is my fourth Steinbeck read and he has become one of my favorite authors. I think he could have made the Yellow Pages into a riveting book if he'd had a mind to. No matter what the subject I find that his prose just seems to move me along like a lovely boat ride on calm water?it just flows.This book was about a circular trip around the USA, conceived because he wanted to get the feel of what made America a cohesive country and learn about her character. When he finished he decided he really didn?t learn what he thought he would and he was left with more questions than answers. However, I learned a lot reading this book, not the least of which was much about Steinbeck himself as he shares his impressions of the people, places, and events he witnesses. His musings on his experiences were enlightening and reminded me of the saying ?the unexamined life is not worth living.? (Wasn?t that Thoreau?) Steinbeck shows us the Good, Bad, Ugly and Beautiful of our country in 1960. This was the America of my youth which made it somewhat of a nostalgic read for me because I have been to many of the places he visited and found his observations striking chords of remembrance for me. One thing that made me smile, as long ago as 1960 Steinbeck was complaining that newspapers were more about giving us opinion than news! It?s only gotten worse!One of the most riveting and disturbing part of the trip was near the end when he went through the Deep South. This was at the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement and he gives a very good and balanced picture as an outsider observing what was happening and speaking to some of the people. I moved from California to Savannah, GA about a decade after Travels was written and observed over the next about 25 years the gradual changes that took place in the Civil Rights problems--not enough and not fast enough. However there have been gains made that give me hope for the future--but like Steinbeck it probably won't happen in my lifetime.The Centennial Edition (2002) contains a final chapter that was left out of the original publication that is really fun.Bottom line: Steinbeck?s account of his passage through America is interesting, thought provoking, and in the end, delightful. Highly Recommended
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is my most favorite book on the planet.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    An enjoyable read. John Steinbeck travels round America with his poodle Charley. The thoughts of Charley often feature as Steinbeck interacts with the dog, people and places he meets on route. One should remember that the America of the 1960s (when the book was written) was of course different from the America of today. An well written and eleoquent book
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I bought this book in the middle of my road trip; it touches you right at the heart and brings back good memories. In a way all of us are travels. Me I took my one individual journey for finding what is America and discovered my one answer.A good piece of art..
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I have a feeling that if I had read Travels with Charley back in high school instead of The Grapes of Wrath or even Of Mice and Men, I would have actually liked Steinbeck rather than merely appreciated him.Part of my Steinbeck indifference was obviously influenced by my teenage attitude. At 15 there were other things I'd much rather have been doing than reading novels about the great depression. Also, I had that "what does this have to do with me" attitude I saw so frequently while trying to teach my college freshmen literature from the Vietnam War. But the other half of the problem was that I was exposed to those two books by a teacher who taught these novels as The Greatest Literary Masterpieces Ever. Great Literary Masterpieces have themes and symbols and (like vegetables) are consumed for (intellectual) nutrition and not for enjoyment. The image of Steinbeck that I took away from that class one of a Very Important American Author, sitting behind a grand oak desk, pondering which Important Theme to tackle next.Reading Travels with Charley showed me that my imagination was grossly mistaken. In place of the grand desk was a pickup truck and trailer and a poodle named Charley. Steinbeck ponders road maps instead of Important Themes and I was pleased to note that while he has me licked in literary masterpieces, my directional sense is far superior to his. Also, Steinbeck is funny. Really funny. And he uses his wit and dry humor to provide a commentary on American life that is still accurate today.I have a new appreciation for Steinbeck now. He's still an Important American Author, but one that shares philosophy with his poodle in the same way that I sometimes serenade my cats with Meatloaf songs. Okay, maybe not the same thing, but the point is, the memoir humanizes Steinbeck and makes him assessable. It's a shame I didn't read this sooner.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    An enjoyable little ditty, the best bits are the ones when Steinbeck is drinking with others, bringing him closer to Bukowski, whose best bits are when he is drinking alone.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    First read: I started this book with tremendous expectations, I admit. But there is something terribly disappointing about reading a book by an author you admire in which he laments the difficulties of driving in heavy traffic and complains about pollution. I hoped for more intimacy between Steinbeck and the American people, I think. Second read: Reading Blue Highways for the last two weeks somehow led me to pick up a copy of Travels with Charley. It reads like a contemporary travelogue. Steinbeck laments the the pollution and human encroachment of wilderness that he finds wherever he travels. If I?d not been told this had been written by Steinbeck, I?d never have guessed it was his child.I liked the book and I didn?t like the book. He seems to run into the scruffiest of people, people who have run down to their last dollar, who are down on their luck and down on life.No happy people, John? No cheery optimists?