In America: Travels with John Steinbeck - Softcover

Mak, Geert

3.88

2,892 ratings by Goodreads

9781846557033: In America: Travels with John Steinbeck

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1846557038 ISBN 13: 9781846557033

Publisher: Harvill Secker, 2014

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

In 1960 John Steinbeck and his dog Charley set out in their green GMC pickup truck to rediscover the soul of America, visiting small towns and cities from New York to New Orleans. The truck was named Rocinante after Don Quixote’s horse, and Steinbeck was Cervantes’ foolhardy knight. America was looking to the future, full of optimism and desperate to leave behind the troubles of past; Steinbeck, great chronicler of the ordinary working man, was starting to feel out of touch. As he said to a friend: ‘I must see how the country looks and smells and sounds.’ The trip became Travels With Charley, one of his best-loved books.

Half a century on, Geert Mak sets off from Steinbeck’s home in his own Rocinante, with his wife and his sat-nav Sandy. Mile after mile, as he retraces Steinbeck’s footsteps through the potato fields of Maine to the endless prairies of the Midwest, sits down to eat with farmers, workers, fisherman and teachers, stumbles across glistening suburbs and boarded-up stores, he searches for the roots of America and what remains of the restless, prosperous world Steinbeck describes.

Part biography, part cultural history, In America asks how America has changed in the last 50 years; what’s happened to Main Street, USA, and the American dream; and what do we, Europe and America, still have in common in the twenty-first century?

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

"Where Steinbeck generally avoided the hubbub of big cities, Mak balances descriptions of the rural plains and towns that symbolize the country's early origins with fascinating sections on urban growth and decay... An ambitious and enjoyable take on America's story" (Times Literary Supplement)

"Rambling, thoughtful, often funny... Wonderful" (Guardian)

"[A] smart, deep-rooted state of the nation report from Main Street, USA" (The Times)

"Perfect for armchair travellers" (Choice Magazine)

"The lyrical story of two journeys interwoven with a broad history and witty observations about the changes of place and people over the past 50 years" (Julia Richardson Daily Mail)

Book Description:

Following in Steinbeck's footsteps, half a century on from Travels With Charley

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.