There’s been some controversy in recent years about how exactly this book should be categorized. It’s presented as a travelogue, a first person account of a 1960 solo (except for the company of Charley, a standard poodle) trip around the United States. Apparently, that’s not really what happened–Steinbeck’s wife accompanied him for much of the journey, although she’s almost entirely absent from the narrative. The dates and descriptions as written don’t really line up with the evidence, and many commentators (including Steinbeck’s oldest son, Thom) have argued that a large portion of the narrative is outright fictitious.

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But maybe absolute veracity wasn’t the goal here–Steinbeck wanted to get a feel for what was happening in the United States, and to understand his country on a personal level. He was in poor health and knew he didn’t have much time left–in some ways the book is a valediction, and it’s arguably true in spirit, if not literally true.

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It’s worth reading, I think, in any case, and Steinbeck’s observations include his concerns about the homogenization of American popular culture, admiring, rather romanticized descriptions of migrant farm workers, skepticism about government overreach, somewhat unsatisfying encounters with old friends in California (at a bar, where many of the regulars he’d once known were no more), confusion and uneasiness about the future and what technological progress might bring, and despair over the intense racial tension, specifically the vile protests in New Orleans over school desegregation.  

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Travels with Charley is a vision of the United States at a particular point in time, by a superb writer with a keen eye for detail and a big heart. Steinbeck was worried about consumerism, apprehensive about pollution, in love with the natural beauty of Montana, and alienated by some of the cruelty he encountered. It puts me in mind of Blue Highways (a tale of a similar road trip, sans dog, in 1978), and makes me wish that, someday, I will have the opportunity to do something similar.

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HOW TO PURCHASE: Amazon

BOOK: Travels with Charley–In Search of America

AUTHOR: John Steinbeck

YEAR OF PUBLICATION: 1962

LEAD-IN IMAGE

Book cover, Travels with Charley, published by Penguin Random House