Travels with Charley

by John Steinbeck | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 0749321172 Global Overview for this book
Registered by wingGoryDetailswing of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 6/29/2004
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Journal Entry 1 by wingGoryDetailswing from Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Tuesday, June 29, 2004
Pre-numbered label used for registration.

Somehow I never read this one during my school years - possibly because the first school-assigned Steinbeck was "The Red Pony," which nearly put me off the author for life! I finally picked this up because it was listed as the "Nashua Reads" book - and as it turned out, I love it. It's poetic, thoughtful, and often very funny: "A man who seeing his mother starving to death on a path kicks her in the stomach to clear the way, will cheerfully devote several hours of his time giving wrong directions to a total stranger who claims to be lost."

Though there were some ups and downs, and a few tense moments, most of the time the "travels" were joyful, whether Steinbeck was musing on the scenery or speculating on the previous inhabitant of his room. This had all rather lulled me into a happy, comfortable state, which was rudely shattered when Steinbeck got to New Orleans to witness the "Cheerleaders" screaming vile imprecations at the black children being escorted into a white school. I knew that this had occurred, of course, but I'd had the idea that the main demonstration only happened the first day of desegregation; apparently, it went on and on, becoming a daily gauntlet for the children and spectacle for the bigots. The whole scene shook Steinbeck as he saw it, and reading his words shook me decades later... After that he found that he only wanted to get home, and so did I.

Journal Entry 2 by wingGoryDetailswing at Holman Stadium, 67 Amherst St. in Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Thursday, July 1, 2004
Released on Thursday, July 01, 2004 at Holman Stadium, 67 Amherst St. in Nashua, New Hampshire USA.

I plan to leave this in the stadium some time after 6:30.

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