Travels with Charley: In Search of America

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Travels with Charley: In Search of America

4.02 of 5 stars 4.02 · rating details · 25,280 ratings · 1,969 reviews

In September 1960, John Steinbeck and his poodle, Charley, embarked on a journey across America. A picaresque tale, this chronicle of their trip meanders through scenic backroads and speeds along anonymous superhighways, moving from small towns to growing cities to glorious wilderness oases. Travels with Charley in Search of America is animated by Steinbeck’s attention to...more

Paperback, 214 pages

Published February 5th 2002 by Penguin (first published 1962)

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Jan 15, 2012 karen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: i-joined-a-bookclub, littry-fiction

dude, steinbeck is so much better than kerouac.

and i know that is a totally obvious statement, but if i want to read a story about a man traveling across america and describing his findings, it is going to be a man with a varied vocabulary, a keen eye for detail, and some powers of interpreting his experiences. john, i am listening...

this is my first nonfiction from steinbeck, and i am impressed with how conversational it reads. he has a real skill in making his experiences near-visible to the r...more

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Aug 17, 2012 Kim rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: audiobook, travel

In 1960, when John Steinbeck was 58 years old, ill with the heart disease which was to kill him eight years later and rather discontented with life, he decided to embark on a road trip around the United States in a fitted-out pick-up truck, accompanied by his standard French poodle, Charley. Steinbeck’s plan was to re-connect with the America which had informed his fiction and to assess how much it had changed over the years.

This book is the result of that trip: part memoir, part travelogue, pa...more
In 1960, when John Steinbeck was 58 years old, ill with the heart disease which was to kill him eight years later and rather discontented with life, he decided to embark on a road trip around the United States in a fitted-out pick-up truck, accompanied by his standard French poodle, Charley. Steinbeck’s plan was to re-connect with the America which had informed his fiction and to assess how much it had changed over the years.

This book is the result of that trip: part memoir, part travelogue, part philosophical treatise … and part fiction. Just how much of the narrative is fiction rather than fact has been the subject of investigation and discussion in recent years, much of it instigated by the work of journalist Bill Steigerwald, who recreated Steinbeck’s trip and exposed what he argues to be the fallacies in the narrative. This article in the New York Times summarises Steigerwald’s findings and typing Steigerwald’s name into any reliable search engine will locate a range of Steigerwald’s writings on the issue, as well as some responses to his position on the book.

While I've read Steigerwald’s conclusions about Steinbeck’s journey with interest, it matters little to me that the work has been edited in such a way as to make it look like Steinbeck and Charley were travelling alone almost all the time, whereas Steinbeck’s original manuscript (held at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City) shows that Steinbeck’s wife Elaine was with him for much of the time and that he probably spent more than half the nights he was away sleeping in hotels rather than in the truck. Likewise, it matters little to me that Steinbeck’s reported conversations with people he meets on the way are fiction rather than reportage.

In relation to this, the fact that Steinbeck preserved and then donated his manuscript indicates that he was not concerned that readers might discover that there was more (or possibly less) to the journey than appears in the book. Further, the narrative itself is full of disclaimers. Steinbeck does not claim that the book is a day-by-day, diary-style account of his journey. Rather, what he conveys is a range of impressions on a number of topics, some insights into issues he considered important and some at times painful self-reflection, all conveyed in Steinbeck’s powerful yet accessible prose. On some matters Steinbeck was ahead of his time. For example, what he wrote about the destruction of the environment and the overuse of packaging products (“The mountain of things we throw away are much greater than the things we use.”), expressed what I doubt was a matter of widespread public concern as early as 1960.

Other parts of the narrative are much more personal. Steinbeck’s encounter with old Latino drinking buddies in a bar in Monterey is particularly poignant. As Steinbeck’s friend tries to persuade the New York resident to come “home”, Steinbeck names all of their friends who have died and concludes that Thomas Wolfe was right: “You can't go home again because home has ceased to exist except in the mothballs of memory."

Possibly the most powerful incident in the book is Steinbeck’s witnessing of the “cheerleaders” in New Orleans – a group of women who stood across the street from William Frantz Elementary school and yelled obscenities at Ruby Bridges - the first black child to attend the all-white school - and at the few white parents who did not comply with the white boycott of the school. Ruby, who had started at the school only a week or two before Steinbeck was in New Orleans, was escorted to school by federal marshalls. Her ordeal is recorded in this painting by Norman Rockwell.

Shortly after witnessing the behaviour of the cheerleaders, Steinbeck decided to cut his journey short and head straight back to New York City. The narrative gives the strong impression that the incident left him heart-sick and distressed.

Overall, whatever may be this book’s shortcomings as a piece of travel reportage, it's a moving and engaging piece of writing. Steinbeck had become rather a cranky old man by the time he embarked on the journey, and was an even crankier old man by time he finished it. He was certainly no longer the novelist at the peak of his powers. But there’s still passion, warmth and humour in his words and plenty for the reader who loves Steinbeck’s writing to engage with. And there's Charley. Charley is wonderful.
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Mar 07, 2013 Maciek rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 52-books-around-usa, travelogue, non-fiction, read-in-2013, reviewed

Eight years before a lifelong smoking habit finally killed his heart, John Steinbeck embarked on one last road trip across the United States. Steinbeck desired to see the country he described all his life with his own eyes - "to look again, rediscover this monster land", become reacquainted with its people. His sole companion would be Charley, a French standard poodle. Together they would board the Rocinante - Steinbeck's truck named after the horse of Don Quixote - and go and try to understand...more

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Feb 11, 2012 Judy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Buddy Read with Mikki

Shelves: bio-memoir, non-fiction, 2012-reads, favorites

I read this as a buddy read with my friend, Mikki, and from the first fffft from Charley to Steinbeck's final wrong turn in his home town, no less, Steinbeck kept me cruising through his memoir of traveling 1960's America.

What can I say? I'll admit to an hesitancy to pick up Travels With Charley: In Search of America, it being non-fiction and my Steinbeck reading record being at 3 books read, 3 books loved, after all, a disappointment could be over the horizon. To my joy, Travels With Charley:...more

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May 31, 2008 Grip Dellabonte rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people who enjoy Steinbeck, travelogues, standard size poodles!

Recommended to Grip by: No one recommended this book to me

I hadn't expected to enjoy this book as much as I did. It was my first travelogue, and I only read it because, a) I was bored and b)I figured I couldn't go wrong with Steinbeck - a writer I already enjoyed reading (still do).

But I have a wicked streak of wanderlust in me, too, and Steinbeck really caught me at a good time. It was Summertime, and I was already in a daydream-y mood. That mood lasted all through the book.

I managed to get through the whole trip with the cranky writer, and he was act...more

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Sep 22, 2011 K.D. Oliveros rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to K.D. by: 501 Must Read Books (Memoirs)

Shelves: travel, memoirs, nobel, 501

Six years before he died, John Steinbeck (1902-1968) had a lonesome trip aboard a camper named Rocinante (after Don Quixote’s horse) around the USA. He said that he would like to see this country on a personal level before he died as he made a good living writing about it. Considering his heart condition, such trip alone could have been disastrous to his health but he insisted. The main question that he would like to be answered was “What are Americans like today?” and after travelling with his...more Six years before he died, John Steinbeck (1902-1968) had a lonesome trip aboard a camper named Rocinante (after Don Quixote’s horse) around the USA. He said that he would like to see this country on a personal level before he died as he made a good living writing about it. Considering his heart condition, such trip alone could have been disastrous to his health but he insisted. The main question that he would like to be answered was “What are Americans like today?” and after travelling with his poodle Charley for around 10,000 miles for 3 months, he did not like the answer that he got.

He saw the wastefulness of the people. He got worried about excessive packaging that consumers liked. He noticed the ambiguity of culture brought about my mass media technologies. Advancement in technologies, though giving people instant gratification, could alienate members of the families from each other. He met people who could not be trusted even by giving the right direction. He met poor migrant potato pickers from Canada (that reminded me of the Joads family in his opus, The Grapes of Wrath). He finally saw Niagara Falls that made him happy because finally we could say we saw it already. He met unreasonable and illogical border authorities. He saw how people in different states differ on how they talk to one another and treat other people. For example, in New England people spoke very little and waited for him to come over while in Midwestern cities, people were more outgoing and did not hesitate approaching him. He got amazed on how fast the population grew in those states that he had visited before. When he visited Sauk Centre because he would like to see the birthplace of his favorite writer, Sinclair Lewis he got disheartened. A waitress in the restaurant did not know who Lewis was. In fact, ignorance, according to him, was prevalent in most people he encountered particularly in politics, economics and culture. In Texas, he despised the so-called “Cheerleaders” who were protesting the integration of black children in a school in New Orleans. In New Orleans, he learned that racism of the South was not confined with those towards blacks but also towards Jews. The trip ended with Steinbeck missing a U-turn and telling the policeman: “Officer, I’ve driven this thing all over the country – mountains, plains, deserts. And now I’m back in my own town, where I live – and I’m lost.”

This is my 3rd book by Steinbeck and for me this is the most down-to-earth. Although I have only been to California, Philadelphia, Texas and Ohio, visualizing those places he visited and conversations that he had with the people he met was not a problem. I used to enjoy watching American movies in the 50’s and 60’s and I was able to picture those scenes in my mind. Also, I think Steinbeck wanted to have a last hand long look with the people he wrote about in his novels that made him who he was – one of the greatest American authors (and certainly one of my favorite novelists of all times). So what if he had a heart problem? So what if he was alone with just a dog to talk to? So what if there was a raging snow storm outside? So what if he might be killed by dangerous mad men in the forests and highways? The thought of Steinbeck risking his life to be able to see the country for the last time and talk to the people who patronized his novels was a marked of a good artist or, simply, a good humble man.

And oh yes, if you love reading about dogs, read this because Charley could even talk. Steinbeck imagined words being said by his dog in one of the scenes and their dialogues were so clever and amusing. Steinbeck could write anything. He could make any scenario believable. Enough for me to gasp for air as his words were always outrageously breathtaking.
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Jun 06, 2009 Laurel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, classics, travel-adventure, memoir

This is John Steinbeck's wonderfully written memoir of his journey across America with his dog, Charley. As one who loves Steinbeck, travel, and travel memoirs -- it's no surprise that I really enjoyed this book.

What did surprise me was Steinbeck's humor. His recollections are full of witty tales about his dog and his encounters with various people they meet along the way. There’s one scene that is quite funny where his dog comes across a bear for the very first time. Normally a quite cowardly...more
This is John Steinbeck's wonderfully written memoir of his journey across America with his dog, Charley. As one who loves Steinbeck, travel, and travel memoirs -- it's no surprise that I really enjoyed this book.

What did surprise me was Steinbeck's humor. His recollections are full of witty tales about his dog and his encounters with various people they meet along the way. There’s one scene that is quite funny where his dog comes across a bear for the very first time. Normally a quite cowardly little french poodle, Charley suddenly thinks he's a ferocious killer who could murder any giant bear daring to cross his path. Steinbeck writes, "Charley became a maniac. He leaped all over me, he cursed and growled, snarled and screamed. I didn't know he had the ability to snarl. Where did he learn it? ...His lips flared, showing wicked teeth that have some trouble with a dog biscuit." It actually reminded me a lot of Bill Bryson. In fact, there were many times through out this book that I almost felt as though I were reading a Bryson memoir vs. a Steinbeck one. I mean that as a compliment to Steinbeck, though I think maybe Bryson would be more flattered by it. :)

Not much happens in this book. Steinbeck is more interested in reflection and in description (both of landscapes and people) than he is in telling of events. One of my favorite descriptions was that of the redwoods in CA:

“The redwoods, once seen, leave a mark or create a vision that stays with you always. No one has ever successfully painted or photographed a redwood tree. The feeling they produce is not transferable. From them comes silence and awe. It's not only their unbelievable stature nor the color which seems to shift and vary under your eyes. No, they are not like any trees we know. They are ambassadors from another time. They have the mystery of ferns that disappeared a million years ago into the coal of the carboniferous era. They carry their own light and shade. The vainest, most slap-happy and irreverent of men, in the presence of redwoods, goes under a spell of wonder and respect. Respect. That's the word. One feels the need to bow to unquestioned sovereigns.”
(Any grammatical errors are my own; I listened to the audio version).

Worth reading, especially if you are lover of travel. I'd also recommend it to dog lovers; I'm more of a cat person myself, but I easily fell in love with Charley.

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Mar 24, 2008 Chicklit rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people who don't like "classics"

Recommended to Chicklit by: book group

Shelves: book_group_selection, 2008

I have a feeling that if I had read Travels with Charley back in high school instead of The Grapes of Wrath or even Of Mice and Men, I would have actually liked Steinbeck rather than merely appreciated him.

Part of my Steinbeck indifference was obviously influenced by my teenage attitude. At 15 there were other things I'd much rather have been doing than reading novels about the great depression. Also, I had that "what does this have to do with me" attitude I saw so frequently while trying to tea...more

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Dec 02, 2007 CELIA rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone who liked Fast Food Nation

Really loved this book. It's basically Steinbeck's cross-country musings about his travels with his big poodle, Charley. What I loved about it was that it lacks Steinbeck's usual heavy-handed doom and gloom. It's not lighthearted, just thoughtful. It's interesting to see how the US was becoming what it is now, McDonaldland. There's a really great section where he describes the growth of cookie-cutter hotel rooms. In the South, he speeds by someone who mistakes his big black poodle for a black p...more

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Mar 17, 2013 Rob rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: kindle, biography, american

First up 'The Grapes of Wrath' had a profound affect on me as an impressionable 13 year old. I therefore have a type of reverence for Steinbeck that I find a little hard to shake. I love the way he looks at the world. There is a lot of respect for humanity in his writing. This respect for us humans in all of our weakness, goodness and strangeness came through in this book.
Maybe this is not great book and maybe authors only have a few great books in them or their powers decline as they age but i...more

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Jan 05, 2012 Adam Floridia rated it 3 of 5 stars

I just adore Steinbeck’s prose in this work. Honestly, that is what makes up for the general lack of content. And I don’t mean that previous sentence to be disparaging, it’s just not what I expected…the journey wasn’t what Steinbeck expected either. I thought there would be almost a state by state index, categorizing the “American” people and their differing habits, beliefs, customs, passions, and foibles. However, it’s not surprising that Steinbeck realizes that defining “American” is nigh impo...more I just adore Steinbeck’s prose in this work. Honestly, that is what makes up for the general lack of content. And I don’t mean that previous sentence to be disparaging, it’s just not what I expected…the journey wasn’t what Steinbeck expected either. I thought there would be almost a state by state index, categorizing the “American” people and their differing habits, beliefs, customs, passions, and foibles. However, it’s not surprising that Steinbeck realizes that defining “American” is nigh impossible, for defining any group of individuals is, by definition, problematic. Ultimately, he is only able to make such sweeping generalizations as “For all our enormous geographic range, for all our sectionalism, for all our interwoven breeds drawn from every part of the ethnic world, we are a nation, a new breed” (159). He also admits that any distinctions that actually could be made by any observer are, essentially, confined to and shaped by that single person’s perspective: “This monster of a land, this mightiest of nations, this spawn of future, turns out to be the macrocosm of microcosm me” (159).

What there was in terms of content, though, was a very subtle critique of the American way of life. Many of his misgivings reminded me of Vonnegut’s; however, Steinbeck’s actually came across more as a lamenting shrug than a harsh criticism. He notes how, “Everywhere a frantic growth, a carcinomatous growth…I wonder why progress looks so much like destruction…Everything was convenient centrally located and lonesome” (138-139 my italics). Thus, progress leads to loneliness, the ultimate American disease according to Vonnegut. Technology is ruining individuality: “Communication must destroy localness, by a slow, inevitable process” (82). Mechanization is ruining…well everything: “Even while I protest the assembly-line production of our food, our songs, our language, and eventually our souls, I know that it was a rare home that baked good bread in the old days” (83). Note, however, how Steinbeck explicitly recognizes here his own tendency to fall into the “golden age” fallacy.

Potpourri: As a dog lover, I really loved his relationship with and descriptions of Charley.
"[Charlie] was born in Bercy on the outskirts of Paris and trained in France, and while he knows a little poodle-English, he responds quickly only to commands in French. Otherwise he has to translate, and that slows him down" (7). Conversely, the descriptions of the scenes he witnessed in the segregation-torn south were sickening.

A favorite description: “The owner [of the gas station] was a giant with a scarred face and an evil white eye. If he were a horse, I wouldn’t buy him” (141).

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Mar 21, 2013 Chrissie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: audio, bio, travel, usa

Gosh, there are so many good reviews here to read, why should I add my two cents?

While I was reading it, I found it interesting, insightful, humorous and sad. Now that is a wide range of emotions captured in a small book.

A question that always arises is: how much of this is true and how much is imagined? There is a simple answer to this. Steinbeck points out that no two people will see the same event with the same eyes. What you see depends upon who you are. This is what Steinbeck saw and expe...more Gosh, there are so many good reviews here to read, why should I add my two cents?

While I was reading it, I found it interesting, insightful, humorous and sad. Now that is a wide range of emotions captured in a small book.

A question that always arises is: how much of this is true and how much is imagined? There is a simple answer to this. Steinbeck points out that no two people will see the same event with the same eyes. What you see depends upon who you are. This is what Steinbeck saw and experienced, and he may even have juggled the facts to fit what he wanted to have said by this book. It is said that his wife he was then married to, Elaine, was there with him for much of the trip. It was not just a trip shared by a man of 58 with his "blue" French Poodle, Charley. They were a threesome. In 1960 he traveled 10,000 miles in his converted truck, which he fondly named Rocinante after Don Quixote’s horse, across America from Sag Harbor, N.Y., to the West Coast and back to find out who were these Americans that he peopled his novels with. Who were they today, and by that I mean 1960? What makes an American an American? Is there something that binds the New Englanders with those of the Midwest and Texans and those of the Deep South? And how are people from these different areas different? He is curious about all of this and about what he values in life, be it a dog, a sparkling brook with the rings of a trout's last jump or a good drink. He sees the the garbage cluttering the ever-expanding cities and small streams. He looks at the climate of racial unrest that was building. Primarily he looks at and tries to talk to the people he meets, although he was lucky if he got even a few "yeps" out of New Englanders in the early hours. Mobile homes, and the beauty of Montana, the dry desert, a kind vet, and a bad one - they are all here. But do remember that what you see is through Steinbeck's eyes. Steinbeck died eight years later from a heart attack.

I like Steinbeck's manner of expressing himself, but I also appreciate his insights, his views and what he is thinking about.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Peter Marinker. Very well done!

Now I am going to do something naughty. I have already begun listening to Songdogs, written by Colum McCann and narrated by Paul Nugent. One shouldn't compare writing skills, but in both books a picture is drawn of a man standing there in his Wellingtons, and in both there is that stream cluttered with garbage. McCann's depiction just sings. It is gorgeous. It is stupendous. How can I not make a comparison when the same "picture" is there in both books, and yet they are not at all the same, and I know which one I prefer? I am still giving “Charley” four stars because while I was reading it I really liked it!(less)

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Nov 07, 2010 CD rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: dog, american-literature, nobel-authors, pop-culture, pulitzer-prize

John Steinbeck is far from my favorite author or writer, but he is one of my favorite story tellers.

Knowing that I wrote more than one 'report' or serious paper in school about Steinbeck works, to repeat in a typical review what others have contributed before and since is not what I want to do in this brief commentary.

Steinbeck is becoming dated in many ways that I had not real thought of until of late. The timeless content that partially earned him great accolades has for now begun to be nost...more John Steinbeck is far from my favorite author or writer, but he is one of my favorite story tellers.

Knowing that I wrote more than one 'report' or serious paper in school about Steinbeck works, to repeat in a typical review what others have contributed before and since is not what I want to do in this brief commentary.

Steinbeck is becoming dated in many ways that I had not real thought of until of late. The timeless content that partially earned him great accolades has for now begun to be nostalgic.

These glimpses or moments in time in J.S. works combined with the writing that many found to be so worthy is much of what elevated him to the pinnacle of American fiction writing. Yet never being a fan of his prose style I was none-the-less captured by the stories. East of Eden, Cannery Row, and Tortilla Flat to name three great stories if not his greatest works all tell American Stories in a unique and captivating way. The more than impressive film catalog that were drawn directly from his stories and his direct contribution as a screenwriter (Academy Award nomination even!) adds to the impressive Steinbeck contribution in American literature. Yet . . .

The stories are great but of an era. Is their a better tale of the twentieth century formative hardship of the new American than Grapes of Wrath? If so what? But I am not a 'fan' of the work. The story though is timeless and truly American if western centric. The Pearl is one of his great human stories, but buried under a lot mechanisms of the period and place setting his chooses or knows to use. The California background of his life colors all his work mechanically and in that lies a frozen moment in American and Literary history that leads to my current feelings that his work are now becoming very nostalgic.

So what is more nostalgic than a story about an aging man and his dog trekking for what may be the last time? What is more American than doing it cross country in the mid 20th century United States at the perhaps the height of the 'Car Culture'? Nothing. This is a tale of rediscovery,revelation, and revulsion. Steinbeck really has lost none of his powers in what would be one of his final major works before his death thousands of miles from home. Though the trip with the poodle of the universal dog name occurred about a decade prior to his death, it is a fitting last bookend to his body of work. His last years are another story and his travels with Charley reveal an America that Steinbeck almost doesn't know. He finds revelation and some redemption in the final wilderness areas of the lower 48 in his search for solace from the homogenization of America in things not worthy of a great nation. Another captivating and important story from Steinbeck. Maybe one of the greatest travelogues ever written can be found in Travels with Charley is what warrants the 5 stars.

Finally a note or two concerning what got me thinking about this work. Yes, off and on I've been indulging in 'dog literature'. That has, along with a few friends who've been looking for suggestions of quality dog stories, been a reason that this work has popped up again. There is also in the nostalgic and historic prescient elements of Steinbeck and other giants of American Letters a curiosity of who will inherit that mantle in the now early 21st Century.

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Dec 28, 2009 Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In my next life, i do believe I will take Steinbeck as my mistress(?)

Late in his writing, Steinbeck road-trips across America in his trusty truck/camper ("Rocinante"--brilliant) with his trusty shmup Charly the french poodle from France in order to "rediscover" America. Very different from traditional Steinbeck, this novella still diverges into lovely tangents about his observations of people and place, behavior and mannerisms, local color and speech, animals--think of these in relation to Theod...more

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May 08, 2009 E.W. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Once in a while you come across a statement, a quote, a quip, from a writer with whom you have only ever read their "fiction" and suddenly you understand why you like their body of work. Such is the case with Steinbeck's "Travels with Charley." Steinbeck writes with perception and precision that plumbs the depths of the American psyche and reveals much, not about America, but about himself, about how he moves through the world or how the world moves around him. Time and again I found myself nodd...more

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May 19, 2008 Doneen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recently our Sunday paper travel section had a list of recommended travel books so that's why I tried this one. Plus I like Steinbeck and think he's pretty funny when he's not writing "Grapes of Wrath" or "Mice and Men." This was written about 1960, when he was older and grumpier. But it's a great take on his ideas about America at that time. There's a quote near the end of the book which really resonated with me.

"In the beginning of this record I tried to explore the nature of journeys...people...more

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Jan 09, 2008 Rick rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

This is what Clive James would call an ancillary work by Steinbeck. It is an engaging, sloppy narrative of a round-trip Steinbeck took in a cabined pick-up truck in 1960. For me it began with two strikes: conversations with his dog, a named vehicle, but I survived both of those personal irritations and enjoyed long stretches of the journey and some parts of it immensely. Some of the dialogue, I must say, seems manufactured here and there. If not manufactured, then it is at least translated into...more

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Dec 28, 2007 Trishtator rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics, own-it

A quote I really like, as it captures what Steinbeck and I share in our hearts.

For I have always lived violently, drunk hugely, eaten too much or not at all, slept around the clock or missed two nights of sleeping, worked too hard or too long in glory, or slobbed for a time in utter laziness. I've lifted, pulled, chopped, climbed, made love with joy and taken my hangovers as a consequence, not a punishment. I did not want to surrender my fierceness for a small gain in yardage...I knew that ten o...more

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Sep 12, 2007 Leslie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: reluctant lovers of america

I loved this gentle, open-eyed drive through the US (and a bit of Canada), which Steinbeck made in his later years, after he was famous and settled down comfortably in a house on Long Island. His reason for the trip was that he felt that he'd lost touch with the country which he had become so renowned for knowing and describing. He goes incognito in a pickup truck modified for sleeping one man and one dog. I love the gray French poodle, Charley, especially his adventures in French Canada, where...more

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Jun 16, 2012 Natalie Minor rated it 5 of 5 stars

possibly one of the best books i've ever read. i don't know why it took me so long to get to it. his thoughts on life, his approach to humanity, and the way he understood how the world worked and how it was changing - brilliant. got goosebumps a few times and can't stop thinking about some of the lines - particularly when he writes that humans have overcome all enemies but ourselves.

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Aug 30, 2012 Erik Graff rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: cultural historians, Steinbeck fans

Recommended to Erik by: Lajla Stousland

Shelves: travel

I read this book because I'd liked most of Steinbeck's novels and because there wasn't anything else in the cottage available one night that looked more interesting. "Nanny," my paternal grandmother, was a member of the Book of the Month Club and this was their first edition.

The book was nothing great. Some of Steinbeck's political attitudes upset me as I had only known him previously as an author devoted to the condition of the working classes. Now, in his late fifties, he seemed to have become...more

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Nov 08, 2012 Daniel Mccarthy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Aug 09, 2011 Ryan Milbrath added it

Ahh Steinbeck how enjoy you and your writing style even when public education has sought to destroy any student's intrinsic motivation to just simply read your works. Up until now, I had read mostly Steinbeck's fictional work. Though, it's funny to see the same narrative style and insightful-at times aloof-commentary he uses in his fictional works in this travel diary.

As always, Steinbecks descriptions of landscape and scenery make me at times actually feel, smell, and taste his environment fro...more

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Mar 18, 2009 Deborah rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction-for-the-fiction-fan, desert-island-keepers

Synopsis:
To hear the speech of the real America, to smell the grass and the trees, to see the colors and the light— these were John Steinbeck's goals as he set out, at the age of fifty-eight, to rediscover the country he had been writing about for so many years.

This is my favorite Steinbeck book ever. I first read it back in high school, when it was recommended by my english teacher. I don't always enjoy his fiction, even though I love the way he writes - usually his subject matter is a bit too...more

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Mar 11, 2009 Becky rated it 4 of 5 stars

Travels With Charley is my second John Steinbeck book. And it was a delight to read. (In fact I stayed up with this one because I just couldn't put it down!) I recommend it for those that fall into one or more of the following categories: dog lovers--particularly dog owners; travel-lovers--particularly those that dream of taking a cross-country road trip across the U.S.; history-lovers--particularly those that are interested in America's culture and politics; literature-lovers--particularly thos...more Travels With Charley is my second John Steinbeck book. And it was a delight to read. (In fact I stayed up with this one because I just couldn't put it down!) I recommend it for those that fall into one or more of the following categories: dog lovers--particularly dog owners; travel-lovers--particularly those that dream of taking a cross-country road trip across the U.S.; history-lovers--particularly those that are interested in America's culture and politics; literature-lovers--particularly those that love nice-and-steady prose that satisfies. I love the reflectiveness of the book; it's very straightforward. For those unfamiliar with the premise, it is the story of a man (famous writer though he may be) and his dog as they travel across the United States in 1960. It's also very quotable. I tagged passage after passage after passage. Here's how it starts off:

When I very young and the urge to be someplace else was on me, I was assured by mature people that maturity would cure this itch. When years described me as mature, the remedy prescribed was middle age. In middle age I was assured that greater age would calm my fever and now that I am fifty-eight perhaps senility will do the job.

It continues,

"When the virus of restlessness begins to take possession of a wayward man, and the road away from Here seems broad and straight and sweet, the victim must first find in himself a good and sufficient reason for going. This to the practical bum is not difficult. He has a built-in garden of reasons to choose from. Next he must plan his trip in time and space, choose a direction and destination. And last he must implement the journey. How to go, what to take, how long to stay. This part of the process is invariable and immortal. I set it down only so that newcomers to bumdom, like teenagers in new-hatched sin, will not think they invented it. Once a journey is designed, equipped, and put in process, a new factor enters and takes over. A trip, a safari, an exploration, is an entity, different from all other journeys. It has personality, temperament, individuality, uniqueness. A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us. Tour masters, schedules, reservations, brassbound and inevitable, dash themselves to wreckage on the personality of the trip. Only when this is recognized can the blown-in-the-glass bum relax and go along with it. Only then do the frustrations fall away. In this a journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it. I feel better now, having said this, although only those who have experienced it will understand it."

Travels with Charley is an intelligent novel; but it's an accessible one as well. Steinbeck might have been smart; he might have had a way with words--but he knows how to tell a story. There's nothing pretentious about it; it's meant to be read and enjoyed. I have several favorite bits. One of the more humorous ones is when Steinbeck is telling about Charley's reaction to the bears in Yellowstone National Park! Though he was in the truck--named Rocinante after Don Quixote's horse--Charley was determined to show those bears what for!

Less than a mile from the entrance I saw a bear beside the road, and it ambled out as though to flag me down. Instantly a change came over Charley. He shrieked wit rage. His lips flared, showing wicked teeth that have some trouble with a dog biscuit. He screeched insults at the bear, which hearing the bear reared up and seemed to me to overtop Rocinante. Frantically I rolled the windows shut and, swinging quickly to the left, grazed the animal, then scuttled on while Charley raved and ranted beside me, describing in detail what he would do to that bear if he could get at him. I was never so astonished in my life. to the best of my knowledge Charley had never seen a bear, and in his whole history had showed great tolerance for every living thing. Besides all this, Charley is a coward, so deep-seated a coward that he has developed a technique for concealing it. And yet he showed every evidence of wanting to get out and murder a bear that outweighed him a thousand to one. I don't understand it. A little farther along two bears showed up, and the effect was doubled. Charley became a maniac. He leaped all over me, he cursed and growled, snarled and screamed. I didn't know he had the ability to snarl. Where did he learn it? Bears were in good supply, and the road became a nightmare. For the first time in his life Charley resisted reason, even resisted a cuff on the ear. He became a primitive killer lusting for the blood of his enemy, and up to this moment he had had no enemies....

And how could I resist his passages about Texas? I couldn't! From his, "Once you are in Texas it seems to take forever to get out, and some people never make it" to his, "Most areas in the world may be placed in latitude and longitude, described chemically in their earth, sky and water, rooted and fuzzed over with identified flora and peopled with known fauna, and there's an end to it. Then there are others where fable, myth, preconception, love, longing, or prejudice step in and so distort a cool, clear appraisal that a kind of high-colored magical confusion takes permanent hold. Greece is such an area, and those parts of England where King Arthur walked. One quality of such places as I am trying to define is that a very large part of them is personal and subjective. And surely Texas is such a place....What I am trying to say is that there is no physical or geographical unity in Texas. Its unity lies in the mind. And this is not only in Texans. The word Texas becomes a symbol to everyone in the world. There's no question that this Texas-of-the-mind fable is often synthetic, sometimes untruthful, and frequently romantic, but that in no way diminishes its strength as a symbol."

But perhaps the most significant section covers Steinbeck's travels into New Orleans to witness the "Cheerleaders" protesting the integration of the schools. You can only read it in awe that it really and truly happened. That hate and prejudice really was so dominant, so loud, so jarring, so front-and-center.(less)

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Jan 27, 2009 Will Byrnes rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

Steinbeck put a house on a pickup, left the wife behind in their Long Island home and traveled the nation for several months. This is his tale of that experience. I found many quotables here, and I guess one should expect that when the traveler’s name is Steinbeck. In a book of about two hundred pages, one can hardly expect a detailed look at all of America. Steinbeck picks his spots. Sometimes they work, sometimes not. It was, of necessity, merely a sketch of some parts of the country. But some...more

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Nov 24, 2008 Powells.com rated it 5 of 5 stars

Wanderlust is a pervasive, seemingly incurable "virus of restlessness." Not contagious in any clinical sense, you either have it or you don't. John Steinbeck did, in spades. As the 1960s commenced, Steinbeck, according to his oldest son, sensed his impending twilight, and thus set out with his French poodle, Charley, to see his country a final time. Spanning nearly 10,000 miles — from New York, through New England, across the northern U.S. border, into the Pacific Northwest, down through Califor...more

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May 13, 2013 Ffiamma rated it 4 of 5 stars

"when i was very young and the urge to be someplace else was on me, i was assured by mature people that maturity would cure this itch. when years described me as mature, the remedy prescribed was middle age. in middle age, i was assured that greater age would calm my fever and now that i'm fifty- eight perhaps senility will do the job. nothing has worked. four hoarse blasts of a ship's whistle still raise the hair on my neck and set my feet to tapping. the sound of a jet, an engine warming up, e...more

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Apr 18, 2013 Cook Memorial Public Library rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics, book-club-book, nonfiction

I love to read lists about books that I should have read before I graduated from high school, or lists of books that every well-read person has on their shelves, or lists of classics that I must read before I die.

This week the Morning Book Discussion Club at Cook Park discussed a book that I probably should have read in high school and probably should have on my shelf at home. I’m glad that I did read it before I…well, I’m glad I finally read it.

Travels with Charley In Search of America by John...more

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Apr 10, 2013 Mara rated it 3 of 5 stars

I almost gave this one four stars. This is a good book to read before bedtime, when you do not want to get sucked into a page-turning story. I enjoyed getting to know John. Not too far into the book, I felt like he was an old friend. As he admits, he did not quite succeed in finding America. But he did take a few snapshots of life in the early 60's that were usually pretty fascinating. (Not all of them were). He analyzes some of the differences in social customs between New Englanders and Midwes...more

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Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
What do u think?	20	94	Mar 20, 2013 07:12pm
Indian Unicorns: What do you think John thinks about the trip?	6	9	Mar 15, 2013 03:37pm
Travels with Charley	3	35	Feb 23, 2013 12:47pm
R.C. Hunters: Discussion Director: How did the author feel about knowing his own country? Do you agree with him? In other words, do you feel like you really know your own country? Why or why not?	5	10	Oct 18, 2012 05:52pm
European Pig Slayers: Travels With Charley Geography Quote	1	3	Oct 13, 2012 11:24am
European Pig Slayers: Discussion.	3	4	Oct 12, 2012 09:31am
Indecisive Walruses: Travels With Charley	2	5	Oct 12, 2012 07:45am

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About John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck III was an American writer. He wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath, published in 1939 and the novella Of Mice and Men, published in 1937. In all, he wrote twenty-five books, including sixteen novels, six non-fiction books and several collections of short stories.

In 1962 Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Steinbeck grew up in the Salinas Valley...more John Steinbeck III was an American writer. He wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath, published in 1939 and the novella Of Mice and Men, published in 1937. In all, he wrote twenty-five books, including sixteen novels, six non-fiction books and several collections of short stories.

In 1962 Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Steinbeck grew up in the Salinas Valley region of California, a culturally diverse place of rich migratory and immigrant history. This upbringing imparted a regionalistic flavor to his writing, giving many of his works a distinct sense of place.

Steinbeck moved briefly to New York City, but soon returned home to California to begin his career as a writer. Most of his earlier work dealt with subjects familiar to him from his formative years. An exception was his first novel Cup of Gold which concerns the pirate Henry Morgan, whose adventures had captured Steinbeck's imagination as a child.

In his subsequent novels, Steinbeck found a more authentic voice by drawing upon direct memories of his life in California. Later he used real historical conditions and events in the first half of 20th century America, which he had experienced first-hand as a reporter.

Steinbeck often populated his stories with struggling characters; his works examined the lives of the working class and migrant workers during the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. His later body of work reflected his wide range of interests, including marine biology, politics, religion, history, and mythology.

One of his last published works was Travels with Charley, a travelogue of a road trip he took in 1960 to rediscover America. He died in 1968 in New York of a heart attack and his ashes are interred in Salinas.

Seventeen of his works, including The Grapes of Wrath (1940), Cannery Row (1945), The Pearl (1947), and East of Eden (1952), went on to become Hollywood films, and Steinbeck also achieved success as a Hollywood writer, receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Story in 1944 for Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat.(less)

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“I was born lost and take no pleasure in being found.” — 655 people liked it

“I have always lived violently, drunk hugely, eaten too much or not at all, slept around the clock or missed two nights of sleeping, worked too hard and too long in glory, or slobbed for a time in utter laziness. I've lifted, pulled, chopped, climbed, made love with joy and taken my hangovers as a consequence, not as a punishment.” — 611 people liked it

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