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Status:
"I don't understand. But I don't care, so it works out."
(set 2 days ago)
35,607 posts, read 17,927,273 times
Reputation: 50632
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Quote:
Originally Posted by uggabugga
i thought about recommending that one, but since he steals all the food he eats for 27 years in hiding, it didn't seem like a very good fit here.
still worth reading, though.
Yes. I have a friend who lives in the area, and read the book the moment it came out. They ALL knew there was someone/someones creeping through at night who took a small amount of food each time. It's a surprise it took them this long to catch up to him.
I think in the man's mind, he was absolutely "living off the grid", and in fact he was foregoing heating and plumbing, etc., but still not self-sufficient.
This isn't exactly what you're asking for, but he might love Steinbeck's Travels With Charley, about Steinbeck going cross-country with his dog. It's funny and serious, and altogether enjoyable. You could probably find a lovely copy via an antiquarian dealer.
This isn't exactly what you're asking for, but he might love Steinbeck's Travels With Charley, about Steinbeck going cross-country with his dog. It's funny and serious, and altogether enjoyable. You could probably find a lovely copy via an antiquarian dealer.
I read that a while back. It is enjoyable in a certain sense, but as a real telling of the experience of traveling, it falls short. Rocinante was not a horse, there was no Sancho Panza, and where a climax and denouement would be in a novel, there is a thinly veiled screed. Steinbeck was a fabulist. Where real life experience wasn't good enough, a glass or two and a typewriter made a story.
I was an adult before I caught on to the extreme slant in some of his relating of events. As a kid, I liked "Grapes of Wrath." These days, the propaganda aspect of it is stifling to the point of being offensive.
I am fortunate, in that I had parents that actually DID the trip around the United States in 1940, and I have a detailed record and log of that journey, right down to what was paid for gas at each gas station. What was there, what was real, was amazing. It also has all the aspects of a long road trip, something Steinbeck understood would not sell books.
I read that a while back. It is enjoyable in a certain sense, but as a real telling of the experience of traveling, it falls short. Rocinante was not a horse, there was no Sancho Panza, and where a climax and denouement would be in a novel, there is a thinly veiled screed. Steinbeck was a fabulist. Where real life experience wasn't good enough, a glass or two and a typewriter made a story.
I was an adult before I caught on to the extreme slant in some of his relating of events. As a kid, I liked "Grapes of Wrath." These days, the propaganda aspect of it is stifling to the point of being offensive.
I am fortunate, in that I had parents that actually DID the trip around the United States in 1940, and I have a detailed record and log of that journey, right down to what was paid for gas at each gas station. What was there, what was real, was amazing. It also has all the aspects of a long road trip, something Steinbeck understood would not sell books.
Wait a sec - your main objection was to his choice of what to name his vehicle?
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