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Book Review of Travels with Charley (Penguin Modern Classics)

Travels with Charley (Penguin Modern Classics)
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I skimmed the introduction after I finished the book, and I was supposed to see lots of themes and parallels and so forth.

I didn't, but there was a lot of reason and listening in the book. With a sort of Mark Twain casual observation and humor, Steinbeck captured a really valuable picture of several parts of America in the fall of 1960, a watershed moment in history.

Steinbeck spends time listening to people who disagree with him, or just learning about issues on which he has no position. He and an anonymous philosopher he meet bemoan that the country is changing to becoming feelers and shouters and not thinkers. Oh, John. If you only knew.