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The Winter of Our Discontent (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)- Penguin Classics |
Considered and thought provoking
2005-11-23
I liked this Steinbeck offering. I liked the fact that it's about small town morality, and ultimately society's morals too. The narrative raises questions about our attitudes towards the mundane and the everyday humdrum things like friendship, honesty, ambition, deception, fidelity, sex, family, avarice, petty corruption and to those of us who fall between the cracks.
Okay, so that may sound very traditional and staid, perhaps it isn't sexy enough, but that's exactly why I admire Steinbeck's work. He writes about the real and our day-to-day lives and in this novel he highlights questions of morality through the story of failed businessman Ethan Hawley and New Baytown in late '50s early '60s America. I found it a compelling read, it wasn't an obvious story to tell and so I never really knew where the story was going to turn. It grabbed me with some clever structure and brilliant characterisation. I was particularly struck by the finely observed relationship between that of the protagonist and of his wife Mary, "My Mary". Steinbeck's power for social realism shone out, describing the life of New Baytown and its occupants in minute detail and through it showing the quiet nobility of ordinary working people. It reminded me strongly of similar evocations in his masterpiece, The Grapes of Wrath. This is a quirky and deceptively well-written book, with snappy dialogue, memorable characters and an intellectual seriousness lying behind the seemingly innocuous events. Recommended. 
a masterpiece in every sense of the word
2005-09-30
The Winter of Our Discontent is a masterpiece in every sense of the word. Had it not been for Steinbeck's already intimidating library of classics, this novel would have definitely gone down as one of the most important of the 20th century.
The wit of part one is nothing short of amazing. I actually found myself laughing uncontrollably a few times, which is an extremely rare occurrence when it comes to good literature. Ethan is both one of the easiest to love and easiest to hate characters at different parts of the story that I've ever come across. The transition from honest working man to greedy businessman is done perfectly. His final confrontation with Mr. Baker was one of the most exciting climaxes in recent memory. The entire ensemble of characters alone would make this an instant classic. Steinbeck then goes as far as to create dozens of themes and potential discussions, all the while effectively making sure the plot was not forgotten. I can see how some would see it as boring at times. Part two goes much faster than part one, which is probably due to the plethora of off-topic discourses in the first part and the equal amount of dialogue in part two. I wouldn't suggest starting with this if you're trying to get into Steinbeck, but it shouldn't be the last title on your reading list. If it seems to drag on at times just stick with it. I will most definitely be reading this time and again.
The Greatness of Perversity
2005-09-21
John Steinbeck is one of those writers who get in your face, who engage you in passionate conversation, if not downright argument, almost as soon as you turn the first page. I read this book in a paperback version, printed in 1962, whose dogeared cover featured an angry young man in tie and shirtsleeves, seated; a sleazy cigarette-smoking blonde, standing behind him with her arm over his shoulder; and another woman, younger and more wholesome, profiled in the rear. I loved this book and found it laughable at the same time, and the fact that I couldn't wait to finish it and write this review is, I think, a testimonial to its singular kind of greatness.
What kind is that? The greatness of perversity. Although Steinbeck meant this book to be a stern-browed statement on How We Live in America, Today -- as if tomorrow would never come -- forty-odd years later "Winter" is a remarkable antique, a pitch-perfect evocation of its much-ballyhooed era. Here are all the usual fifties tropes: neighbors all knew and spoke to each other, every kid had a mom and a dad, families stayed put for generations, corner bank, corner grocery -- and here is Steinbeck happily blowing them all to smithereens, reveling in the locals' hypocrisy, corruption, and xenophobia, having a splendid time steering his virtuous hero -- one Ethan Allen Hawley, something of an UberW.A.S.P. -- around various tempting and lethal shoals, pullling off a grandstanding switcheroo ending in which the hero's fate remains unclear till the last sentence. So why was it laughable? Because Steinbeck's ripsnorting righteous exposure, of course, is as worn-out as the plasticated happy-days delusion it condemns. "Winter"'s world is deader than Dickens, buried under so many layers of historical effluvia -- electronics and mass media, computers, feminism, relativism in all its forms, the end of the Cold War -- that even those old enough to remember those times groan aloud over this Ozymandias of a novel. Was there really a time when a man could talk nonstop in graduate-level literary references to a wife who appeared to have the I.Q. of a chipmunk? After I identified the 13th Shakespearean nugget in the one-sided banter of overeducated Ethan and his acorn-brained wife, I found myself wondering whether the right medication might have made Steinbeck more ready to edit himself (for the record, I doubt it). Would the nation snatch up as an instant celebrity a fourteen-year-old boy who'd won honorable mention -- honorable mention! And one of five at that -- in a patriotic essay contest? Was there actually, and did I live in, a time when the federal government would -- on an anonymous tip -- dispatch agents to hunt down one -- one! -- illegal alien? (I must admit I bonded at once with the grocer Marullo. He was after all the only ethnic in the book, and like Steinbeck's diverse Californians magnificently rendered). And was there ever a town mattress as friendly and presentable and prescient as Margie Young-Hunt? Why, this gal sleeps with every man in town, from the not-so-picturesque local drunk to the police chief, and no doubt the dogcatcher; and upstanding Ethan and his doe-eyed wife leave their CHILDREN with her for the weekend. Steinbeck's rendition of the Hawley children -- actually teenagers -- remind me of Timothy Leary's remark, made in the early 70s: "the genocidal hatred of a generation for its young." Allen and Ellen Hawley are nasty brats, but their parents barely seem to notice their existence, and when they do, it is mostly to plot an escape from the troublesome offspring. There is, throughout the novel, an almost palpable antipathy on the part of Ethan Hawley toward his son. Allen is unpromising, to say the least, but one wonders what he and his sister might or might not have been, if someone had bothered to love them, or at the minimum make their acquaintance. The tight-lipped coldness of these people ... UberW.A.S.P. is an understatement. These people eat ham and cheese with butter AND mayo, they wash down onion sandwiches with bottles of milk. Ethan Hawley drinks a martini and straight away praises the brew as a "sacrament." Here we have men and women who don't argue; they just fold their lips like Jo in "Little Women" and retreat into another room, or a drunk night. By the ethos of this novel, or that of the culture it purports to represent, it is better to be drunk in public than to display sober emotion. In some ways, Steinbeck's New Baytown's as exotic as Bhutan. The book works anyway, and I repeat I loved it, in large part because Steinbeck took such loving and inspired effort in its construction. Hawley's genealogy, the DNA cross he must carry, is its own potentially fascinating, if not entirely original, story. His motives and actions are consistent, as well as psychologically sound. The narrative/P.O.V. switches are seamless, and in fact I barely noticed the shifts from third-person to first and ] back again. While in good old reliable Steinbeck the reader always knows where he/she "is" -- no somersaults in time, no leapfrogging back and forth in the mode of Joyce or Conrad -- those who seek will discover envelope-pushing aplenty. Withheld information, delayed description, shell games with various characters, all testify to Steinbeck's monumental storytelling power. Dated and ridiculous as "Winter" may be, the novel is not about its setting in space and time. Ethan Hawley may be an annoying and motormouthed snob, but the reader wants to like him, wants him to end with some money in his pocket and some pride in his arid heart. Steinbeck, the writer, gets into your face; his characters creep deeper, and stay there.
an overlooked classic
2005-09-04
I like Steinbeck a lot and I admire his ability to adeptly write about so many different themes in his various novels. Out of all of his books, I think this is one of the least known, which is really too bad. Steinbeck's prose and descriptive ability never falters; he makes the book come alive but never overwhelms the reader with detail. The variety of characters (another one of Steinbeck's traits) usually would seem like too much for this relatively short novel, but each one is memorable, adding another layer, another necessary part that makes this novel work so well. This book's themes, especially the theme of whether it's worth it to sacrifice ideals in order to get ahead, are applicable to this day and age and ensure the timelessness of this novel.
definitely overlooked
2005-08-10
i had a modern american literature class this last semester and our prof gave us a choice of four steinbeck novels: grapes of wrath, east of eden, travels with charlie, and the winter of our discontent. i chose 'the winter of our discontent' and i was so glad i did. this is one of the finest examples of american literature i've ever read.
the novel itself starts out a bit slowly and i was afraid i wouldn't enjoy the novel. it's only in chapter four that steinbeck really hits his stride and shows why he's one of the crown jewels of american literature. i don't want to spoil it for anyone, but trust me, the prose is absolutely rapturous. i found myself constantly underlining sentences and paragraphs. pound for pound, steinbeck rivals oscar wilde in clever witticisms and aphorisms. on the surface, yes, 'the winter of our discontent' is a novel about a middle-agend man coming to terms with the new american lifestyle and its accompanying materialism, but it's much more than that. it's a novel about family, love, morality, temptation, corruption, death and ultimately about life, and how our lives are infinitely connected, one to another. like most great literature, we're able to see ourselves in the book's characters. unfortunately we live in an era where 'hip' writers (like david eggers) receive undue attention. consequently, american literature seems to have taken a few steps backwards in quality. not too many of our modern day writers really know how to *write.* fortunately, we still have steinbeck to show us what's right about our literary past and show us what quality literature looks like--there's a reason the man won a nobel prize.  Read for more: http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%3FASIN=0...
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