While we were in California we went down to visit Cannery Row and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. This was interesting in its own right (although I think the aquarium’s target demographic is somewhere in the 8-12 year-old range), but more importantly it prompted me to revisit Steinbeck.
I have a vague recollection of reading The Winter of Our Discontent as a high-school freshman, and a slightly more vivid memory of The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men as a senior, but none of it compares to what I have found in his short stories: The Pastures of Heaven, To a God Unknown, The Moon is Down, The Pearl, and of course Cannery Row. There is some combination of the author’s narrative style, understanding of (and tolerance for) human nature, as well as political and religious beliefs that seems to really speak to me.
The last writer I felt a great affinity for was Joseph Conrad (also in my senior year of high-school), and it makes me wonder how I’ve changed since then. Perhaps I should reread those favorites as well…
