This was Steinbeck's last complete novel published, around 1960. The protagonist, Ethan Allen Hawley, is a grocery clerk in small New England town. The once renouned family is low in the social class because his father has invested and lost most of family fortune while Ethan was away at War. Ethan has a moral compass second to none, but he decides to turn it off to make some money for his beloved family. He knows money is not made by honest men and doesn't make people happy, but he still goes with it because it is what his wife and children want and he loves them above all else.
The book has good quotes about morality, money, and relationships especailly that of between a man and his wife. Ethan and Ethan's wife's friend, Margie Young-Hunt, seems to be the most intelligetn characters in the book and they seem to be somewhat isolated because of their intelligence. Margie sees the intelligence in Ethan and reaches out to him but he is faithful to his wife Mary who he loves above all else, even if has disconnect with her.
I recommend his book to fans of Hemingway and Richard Russo. Ethan could be a Hemingway hero and has dry sarcastic sense of humor much like many of Russo's Protagonists.
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Yuichiro
added a quote:
"Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know." — Ernest Hemingway
"Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know." — Ernest Hemingway
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bookshelves: to-read
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bookshelves: currently-reading
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