The Winter of Our Discontent

by John Steinbeck

The story revolves around Long Islander Ethan Allen Hawley, who works as a clerk in a grocery store he used to own. His wife and children resent their lowly social and economic position, and do not put any value in the high levels of honesty and integrity that Ethan struggles to maintain in a corrupt society. Under this constant pressure, Hawley will eventually manage to get back the store by renouncing his morals, but the new-found wealth will not bring happiness.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Literature, American, Novels, Book Club, Literary Fiction

296 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

John Ernst Steinbeck was an American writer. He won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social perception". He has been called "a giant of American letters."
During his writing career, he authored 33 books, with one book coauthored alongside Edward F. Ricketts, including 16 novels, six non-fiction books, and two collections of short stories. He is widely known for the comic novels Tortilla Flat (1935) and Cannery Row (1945), the multi-generation epic East of Eden (1952), and the novellas The Red Pony (1933) and Of Mice and Men (1937). The Pulitzer Prize–winning The Grapes of Wrath (1939) is considered Steinbeck's masterpiece and part of the American literary canon. By the 75th anniversary of its publishing date, it had sold 14 million copies.
Most of Steinbeck's work is set in central California, particularly in the Salinas Valley and the California Coast Ranges region. His works frequently explored the themes of fate and injustice, especially as applied to downtrodden or everyman protagonists.

Reviews

[Vit Babenco · Rating 4 out of 5]

“And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews!” Matthew 27:29
A man will rise… A man will fall…
The Winter of Our Discontent is about guilty conscience.
The Winter of Our Discontent is about the nature of fortune and misfortune.

Now I was on the edge of the minefield. My heart hardened against my selfless benefactor. I felt it harden and grow wary and dangerous. And with its direction came the feeling of combat, and the laws of controlled savagery, and the first law is: Let even your defense have the appearance of attack.

Dishonesty is a foundation of prosperity… And honesty leads to discontent.

[s.penkevich [hiatus-will return-miss you all] · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Money is not nice. Money got no friends but more money.’

Every year in late winter, when profoundly discontent with the snow that keeps falling, I find myself thinking of this book, the final novel of the great American novelist John Steinbeck. The Winter of our Discontent, the title from Shakespeare’s Richard III, is a moral allegory with Steinbeck questioning if personal ethics are valued on the grand scale of society, and if the American dream with its offer of prosperity and property becomes a gateway drug for abandoning your ethics in the name of ever more revenue and riches. This is the story of Ethan Allen Hawley, an everyman with a family name known to the locals, as well as a Revolutionary War namesake, Ethan Allen, to connect readers minds to ideas of American legacy. His father’s fortune gone, Ethan is mostly content providing for his family working for the local grocer, something that locals remind him he should feel ashamed of. Winter of our Disconent faces everyman Ethan with a series of temptations to rise to wealth and power and Steinbeck shows how moral good is increasingly shucked off for success.

‘Where money is concerned, the ordinary rules of conduct take a holiday.’

As someone that spent much of my 20s told working retail was something to be ashamed of, the opening of this book connects pretty well. There is also the racism element going on here as his boss, Marullo, is Italian and Steinbeck toys with the disconcerting notion of how immigrants are seen as lesser than and to be an “american” working for one is somehow shameful. Steinbeck brings criticism after criticism of the idea of polite melting pot society. Faced with multiple avenues towards financial stability, such as a bank robbing plot and investment scheme, we see Ethan having a moral meltdown inside and Steinbeck does well to emphasize his Puritan heritage to comment upon the maelstrom of morality he is grappling with. To take action would be to reclaim the honor of his family name, to provide for his kids who are nearing college age, and to have the life he was promised basically for being a white male american with a family name.

Ethan muses on the questions of power and morality saying ‘in business and in politics, a man must carve and maul his way through men to get to be King of the Mountain. Once there, he can be great and kind—but he must get there first.’ However, to get there first has a person sacrificed too much? His quest for power begins on Easter Sunday, a clever death and rebirth symbolism added in, and as the novel progresses we watch Ethan fall from his moral pedestal as he swindles, steals and scams his way up. Most notably is the betrayal of his best friend, Danny, the town drunk. He gives Danny money to clean up his life in exchange for his property deeds. He knows full well Danny won’t get clean and in the aftermath Ethan is faced with what he has done, what he has become, and what he has sacrificed morally to get there. No King of the Mountain but a man responsible for death.

‘I guess I'm trying to say, Grab anything that goes by. It may not come around again.’

Ending on the 4th of July is a curious choice, one meant to represent a sort of rebirth.With a near-suicide avoided through his daughter, Ethan hopefully has a new commitment to morality, though we see his son representing the idea that this American amorality is passing onto another generation. While not my favorite Steinbeck, this is one I think about more than others as the years have gone by. It is a dark little allegory and shows Steinbeck’s dissatisfaction with American society, one with much less charm than his younger novels. There is a distinct disillusionment at play, though Steinbeck leaves the ending a bit open in order for possible hope. However, it is certain that in the end we learn that ‘intention, good or bad, is not enough,’ and an affirmation that personal ethics should, and do, matter.

3.75/5

[Lyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Steinbeck’s The Winter of Our Discontent was first published in 1961 and was his last novel.

It was also the latest book published prior to his winning the 1962 Nobel Prize for literature. Interestingly, when asked if he felt that he deserved the award, this “giant of American letters” said: “Frankly, no.” Further, recent archives revealed that Steinbeck was a “compromise choice” for the award amidst a group described as “a bad lot”. Although the committee believed Steinbeck's best work was behind him by 1962, committee member Anders Österling believed the release of his novel The Winter of Our Discontent in 1961 showed that "after some signs of slowing down in recent years, [Steinbeck has] regained his position as a social truth-teller [and is an] authentic realist fully equal to his predecessors Sinclair Lewis and Ernest Hemingway." – Wikipedia.

I read several of his works in HS, many moons ago, and last year returned to his canon with his short, brilliant work The Moon Is Down. Steinbeck is to me, the quintessential twentieth century American writer. Hemingway and Faulkner were bridges to an older time, almost lost in mythic dreams of the past. Steinbeck is forward looking, one who chronicles our struggles, reveals our sins and comments upon the path we are on now.

It is in this last endeavor where The Winter of Our Discontent fits. Steinbeck tells the tale of Ethan Allen Hawley, a tragic and lost son of old New England wealth, his connections to the Pilgrim / Pirate heroes of his old family all but lost after the money is gone, but the old house and the family name remain. The reader finds Ethan working as a grocery clerk, in a town his family once all but owned, and working for an Italian immigrant.

In this setting, Steinbeck goes on to describe a modern American morality play. From the town manager, to the judges, to the banker, and all the way to the fortune telling divorcee the town is corrupt and self-serving, but retaining the outward mask and appearance of civility and propriety. Ethan’s dilemma, in the post World War II era, is one that still resonates today, but in amplified and exponential terms.

Now, I’ll go out on a limb and compare Steinbeck’s New Baytown to two unlikely later artists. I have noticed, especially in Philip K. Dick’s Confessions of a Crap Artist that his descriptions of later 50s northern California was Steinbeckesque. I’m not sure that Steinbeck ever heard of Philip K. Dick, much less ever read his work, but a fan of Steinbeck’s writing may be pleasantly surprised to visit PKD’s short list of non science fiction works.

Also, and this likeness is more obscure – Peter Benchley’s Jaws is the literary descendant of Steinbeck’s east coast morality play. True, Steinbeck does not illustrate the killing rampage of a prehistoric predator on a summer hamlet – or does he? Steinbeck’s monster is, like Benchley’s (and more obscurely Melville’s) really the elitist façade of correctness amidst a society being consumed from within.

[Henry Avila · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Steinbeck's last novel and it shows when an author pontificates his views to the readers he becomes not a writer anymore but a preacher. Disappointed in life Steinbeck tries to convey his dark feelings to the rest of the world even if they aren't too interested...there are many others, nevertheless a great novel which few scribblers could match. Ethan Allen Hawley (named after famous Revolutionary War hero) has a comfortable but ordinary existence a loving , loyal , pretty wife Mary two troublesome teenagers Allen and Ellen yet quite normal. His problem the family background, coming from an old aristocratic clan and Ethan just a grocery clerk, the store owned by an Italian immigrant the strict, secretive Marullo. All the Long Island town of New Baytown reiterates his background and he should take a prominent position in the city, worst his wife is tired of being poor and puts substantial pressure on Ethan. Only by devious means can the honest man achieve this success, he has too often seen it happen in the corrupt settlement. Danny Taylor his boyhood best friend now the town drunk , has valuable land where an airport would fit there very nicely. Can he trick the poor pathetic man by stealing it? He is deeply wounded by the decline of Danny so much promise ending up in misery and despair, unable to help the troubled inebriate. His boss maybe isn't legally in America...easily rectified by a phone call. Nothing really bad everyone else does these trivial things...right? The sticky problem is Ethan has a conscious, he knows good from evil, the World War 2 veteran doesn't lack courage in combat however civilians must behave differently no license to kill here . Margie Young -Hunt is very fetching his wife Mary's best friend, searching for a mate had already two before, a tasty morsel if he can cross the forbidden line she seems willing . Mr. Baker the unethical, greedy president of the bank and only one in town wants Danny Taylor's land an airport would be good business, everyone could benefit handsomely especially Mr. Baker. Ethan needs to make choices...still how will the man live with himself if wrong, all people are in the same boat floating or sinking those who are good navigators and manage well will reach the magical shore the others ... descend to the murky bottom.

[Richard Derus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating: 6* of five

The Publisher Says: Ethan Allen Hawley, the protagonist of Steinbeck’s last novel, works as a clerk in a grocery store that his family once owned. With Ethan no longer a member of Long Island’s aristocratic class, his wife is restless, and his teenage children are hungry for the tantalizing material comforts he cannot provide. Then one day, in a moment of moral crisis, Ethan decides to take a holiday from his own scrupulous standards.

Set in Steinbeck’s contemporary 1960 America, the novel explores the tenuous line between private and public honesty that today ranks it alongside his most acclaimed works of penetrating insight into the American condition. This edition features an introduction and notes by Steinbeck scholar Susan Shillinglaw.

My Review: This is a wonderful short novel by a master of his craft at the peak of his form. It is also his last novel.

Some people at the time it was published felt it was a wrong turning for Steinbeck (The Grapes of Wrath, Tortilla Flat) to abandon both the west coast that had made him famous and brought his considerable social conscience to the world's attention for an east coast grifter's POV. The Winter of Our Discontent is a story that has nothing but shades of gray. Everyone in it is shady somehow. That is, I think, what verschmeckled the reviewers and made the public angry. Up until then, there were clear-cut Good Guys and Bad Guys in every Steinbeck tale. Here...no, no one qualifies as all good or all bad.

The POV is of Ethan, a man who is the degenerate scion of a venerable family. He is married with teenaged kids, and he will do anything to support his family. Including, to their horror, work for an Italian grocer as his clerk. The nerve of the man, a son of the founder of his town, working for someone who *should* be his gardener, according to his friends and his kids.

Well, he thinks, how can I help it, we all gotta eat. So he hatches a plot that will restore the family "honor" by swindling a friend. He goes through with it. He gets what he wants. And, frankly, so does the "swindled" friend, an alcoholic prowling for his next few thousand drinks.

This isn't really Steinbecky stuff, it's too hard to pin down from a moral standpoint. On the other hand, it's superbly told, and it's amazingly well crafted, and it's undoubtedly the best thing Steinbeck wrote after 1950. Reviews were harsh, sales were poor, and Steinbeck lost heart for fiction after that. He published two travel books before his death in 1968, a mere 30 years after "The Grapes of Wrath" burst on the scene. Imagine the wonders he could have produced had he lived to an Updikey 80-plus.

What a wonderful read, and so overlooked...please don't overlook it any longer!

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

The brilliance of John Steinbeck intimidates me. I spend a great deal of my time while reading his books nodding my head in agreement and gasping in awe at how he tackles the profound and the everyday with the same amount of elan.

First off, I enjoyed this story. I cared about Ethan Allen Hawley, and not just his person but his soul. I wanted him to emerge unscathed even though I knew he could not, because no one can compromise his own morality and remain unsoiled. I cried for what I knew was his major loss and yet I ended still hoping he could find some way to live with what he had done without resorting to lying to himself, which would only deepen the corruption.

This is the world he lives in, and I dare say it is the world we live in as well:
The Town Manager sold equipment to the township, and the judges fixed traffic tickets as they had for so long that they did not remember it as illegal practice--at least the books said it was. Being normal men, they surely did not consider it immoral. All men are moral. Only their neighbors are not.

How much immorality is too much? Do the ends justify the means? Is your sin less egregious if you are sinning against a sinner? And, to quote Mark 8:36, "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"

There is a reason John Steinbeck is considered one of the great American authors. It has something to do with his ability to tell a fascinating tale and still pack so many unobtrusive, salient issues into its telling.

Just one more quote, because who wouldn't appreciate this kind of imagery: "The young boys, bleeding with sap, sit on the stools of Tanger's Drugstore ingesting future pimples through straws. They watch the girls with level goat-eyes and make disparaging remarks to one another while their insides whimper with longing." Digest that.

[Piyangie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Winter of Our Discontent is the grand finale of John Steinbeck's fictitious creations. Deriving the title from William Shakespeare's Richard III opening lines "Now is the winter of our discontent, Made glorious summer by this sun of York", the story is somewhat a psychological analysis into a man's moral dilemma of doing what is right and doing whatever it takes for him to become successful.

As Gloucester in Richard III, Ethan Allen Hawley in Steinbeck's novel hopes for better times, as he has reached the height of his discontent. Coming from once a wealthy and influential family, the reduced circumstances to which he has fallen, plodding through his life as a mere grocery clerk is quite displeasing to him. The Hawleys once carried their head high, and now, though he is still respected for his ancestry and lineage, he doesn't know how long the water will hold. He is sure it won't pass to the next generation, unless he, Ethan Hawley, does something about it. He no longer can avoid the growing restlessness in his family, living in reduced conditions. But what can he possibly do? If he treads on a high moral path, nothing. But avenues may open to him if he wouldn't mind deviating lawfully from such high grounds. What ground should he tread on? Success or righteous? Here is then the dilemma for Ethan. And Steinbeck takes us through his quandary with his powerful prose.

This final novel by Steinbeck is quite different from his early works, both in style and theme. The Steinbeck who wrote this wasn't the same Steinbeck who was influenced by his native Salinas Valley. Here he has moved from his comfort zone and adjusted himself to a geographical and cultural change. He had also to adjust to the changing times, the need to address the prevailing issues in American society. There is a mature growth in his writing here. It is rich, deep and, demanding. Steinbeck plays well with his pen. He paints a vivid picture of his story which strongly connects the readers to the characters and settings. His deep but subtle penetration into the mind of the protagonist shows the inner struggle of a man who chooses success above morality. I've never felt Steinbeck to be a demanding writer. But he has presented the story in such a subtle manner that you need the focus of all your faculties to fully appreciate it.

I read that the reception of this novel was mixed and that there were some severe criticisms made against it which silenced Steinbeck's creative fiction. But from the perspective of a devoted fan, this is one of Steinbeck's best.

More of my reviews can be found at http://piyangiejay.com/

[Colin Baldwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Steinbeck has a recognisable style, often brutal in its reality as it relates to society and families. This novel is no exception and focuses heavily on the moral decline of the American culture in the mid-1900s, as Steinbeck addressed in letters to friends after publication. In this novel Steinbeck also examines the battles between integrity and greed.

I was challenged by the shifts in narratives - for example, from first to third person – but I worked through this with buddy reader Marge Moen.

Steinbeck’s use of intimate dialogue and the interactions between the protagonist and his family were excellent and often touching:

‘She was laughing her lovely trill, something that raises goose lumps of pleasure on my soul.’

‘The Winter of our Discontent’ did not reach the 5-star high I got from ‘East of Eden’, but a powerful read nonetheless.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was forwarded a blog post recently (written by someone much sharper than me) that asked where our contemporary John Steinbecks have gone. The masterful fiction dedicated to the minimum wage worker, the family displaced by the Great Recession living out of a motel room, or anyone living from paycheck to paycheck seems largely extinct from the bestseller lists.

Hard luck stories about average American families fill newspapers, while in fiction, it seems like world building, not world reporting, are what get traffic. Steinbeck didn't have to worry about launching his author platform or getting retweeted in 1961 when his nineteenth novel was published. His storytelling, his vibrant and passionate depictions of the American worker, and his wisdom, are needed now more than ever.

The Winter of Our Discontent takes place between Good Friday and the Fourth of July, 1960 (Steinbeck apparently wrote the first draft during that same stretch of time). Rather than the Salinas Valley, the story takes place in the fictional hamlet of New Baytown, in northern Maine. The novel is narrated by Ethan Allen Hawley, a grocery clerk whose ancestors made their fortune as privateers (a discreet way of saying "pirates") on the seas.

The empire built by the Hawleys was squandered by Ethan's father through bad investments, while Ethan returned from war to briefly own and operate a grocery store that couldn't stay open. Now a mere employee in a store run by a Sicilian immigrant named Marullo. Ethan's boss regards him with equal parts pride and pity, grateful at the straight line that Ethan walks (never cheating or stealing) while also trying to advise the "kid" on how to make a dollar and a cent in this country. The key to the latter seems to come back to cheating or stealing.

Well-liked in spite of the acidic wit he dispenses around his wife Mary and adolescent children Ellen and Allen, Ethan's fortunes begin to change when his wife's friend, a gold digging floozy with a flair for fortune telling named Margie Young-Hunt, forecasts that Ethan is destined to become one of the most important men in town. The news is met with elation by Ethan's family, tired of being poor. Ethan opts to play the game for a while, to prove how easy it is to become a financial success and how little it changes things once you become one.

Ethan ends up being right on one count, wrong on the other.

A series of seemingly unrelated events fall into place around Ethan, each expertly crafted by Steinbeck. There's Ethan's childhood friend Danny Taylor, a Naval Academy washout whose disappointment to his family transformed him into the town drunk, albeit, a drunk who owns the most valuable real estate around. There's bank teller Joey Brophy, a cad who explains to Ethan how he'd rob a bank if he wanted to get away with it. There's Mr. Baker, a banker dogging Ethan to invest money left to Mary by her brother. Ethan learns of big changes coming to New Baytown and by virtue of his family name, seems poised to benefit.

Ethan doesn't feel sorry for himself or blame anyone for his mistakes as much as he's resigned to watch life from the sidelines now, sick of the hypocrisy his wife and his quiz show obsessed son seem eager to engage in. Ethan isn't the most likable narrator, but I could identify with him. I liked the way that Steinbeck balanced the Way It Used To Be (Ethan holds conversations with both his late grandfather Cap'n, the last mariner in the Hawley line, and his late Aunt Deborah, who taught her nephew how to use his mind and his conscience) with the way things seem to be headed.

In addition to the central character, I had some misgivings about the ending, but I take this as a virtue of the author for investing me in characters I care about. Margie Young-Hunt is a terrific character, a sexually liberated sorceress of a sort who doesn't feel sorry for herself either, and like Ethan, can't seem to resist making waves in the pond. Steinbeck's dialogue is so good and in this novel, we again glimpse what seem like real adults working over what seem like insurmountable economic or social problems at the kitchen table. Steinbeck's gift is making something so mundane so riveting on the page.

[Jay Schutt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm really at a loss as what to say about this incredible novel except that it is American storytelling at its best.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I continue to catch up with reviews for posting on Goodreads.

Our illustrious Steinbeck period with our Library Book Discussion group.

Steinbeck takes us to the East Coast for this setting, a small seaport which could be anywhere along the coast of New York and/or Boston.

His main character is Ethan, an unaggressive spirit working as a clerk for Alfio Marullo. What is sad about Ethan, is that he is Harvard educated, and a descendent of New England shipping captains. In years past, his family was one of the most important in town. His father lost the fortune, and Ethan has lost the family store, and now he is reduced to being a clerk, in the employ of an immigrant, Mr. Marullo. Ethan is married with two children.

This is the story of his moral descent into corruption and crime.

As Steinbeck notes in the novel…

“A man who tells secrets or stories must think of who is hearing or reading, for a story has as many versions as it has readers. Everyone takes what he wants or can from it and thus changes it to his measure. Some pick out parts and reject the rest, some strain the story through their mesh of prejudice, some paint it with their own delight. A story must have some points of contact with the reader to make him feel at home in it. Only then can he accept wonders.”

So, what do we choose to accept as readers?

Ethan shapes his lies to get through what he believes will work best for him.

And…

In so doing, he shapes his own son Allen’s behaviors, especially when Allen wins an essay cash award and we soon learn that he actually had plagiarized his essay.

Who is role modeling here?

What it comes down to is this…

Steinbeck’s commentary on the hypocrisy of our social morality, where cutting corners, ruthless competition, under-cutting friends, and betraying loyalties are just the way the game is played and the main rule is not to get caught at it.

Hawley’s character serves as a mirror that exposes this in all its ugly detail in his honesty and lack of driving ambition, and then he carries the logic of betrayal and ruthlessness to its logical conclusion and… (No spoilers from me!)

As always, Steinbeck’s dialogue is full of life. With obvious moral lessons here.

Which makes this…

Such a great discussion book.

[Велислав Върбанов · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐

„Зимата на нашето недоволство“ е много добър роман, който съдържа силни послания... Не успя да ми въздейства колкото други велики книги на Джон Стайнбек, обаче със сигурност си заслужава вниманието. Писателят очевидно се е вдъхновил за създаването на историята от „Ричард Трети“, тъй като заглавието е препратка към Шекспировата творба. Сюжетът увлекателно проследява моралния упадък на Итън, който е обикновен и честен продавач в малко американско градче от средата на 20-ти век, но впоследствие решава да натрупа богатство и власт...




„В градчета като нашето митовете с лопата да ги ринеш.“

„Питам се колко ли хора съм гледал през живота си, без изобщо да ги виждам.“

„Нямаше да се притесняваш от това, какво мислят хората за теб, ако знаеше колко рядко го правят.“

[Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

At this age, I am no longer acquisitive. I wander my house and wonder at all the things I have bought in the first half of my life, as it filling up my house would somehow validate my worth. Today, all these things that I don’t use in my daily life just seem like dust gatherers. Even the books that I read, I either give away or sell for some negligible coinage.

Not this book. I will keep this book because someday I will want to read it again.

The novel is about an unsuccessful man grappling with moral questions in his attempt to become successful, to please and provide for his family. Saying much more about the plot may be saying too much. For a while I was confused about what he was planning to do, didn’t comprehend what was happening, or why. And then when I thought I understood, I was wrong or thought so, but it was more complex than I had understood. In this sense, it was like a well written mystery with its mandatory twists and turns.

This is not a book for a young person. I would save it for middle age at least.

It is not an easy read. Although I was amused by the main character’s wit, it was slow moving in the first half. It was sometimes difficult to follow. Even the main character’s wife didn’t understand him much of the time. And, if you are ready to tackle it, you might want to have your mobile device in hand to look up words or phrases or what must be quotes, because you may not otherwise get all of the references. Or, just decide that you want to breeze past them on a first reading and then go back. Be prepared for introspection.

For the pure love of words, I defy anyone too write more beautiful prose than what I found between the first three to four pages of Chapter Fourteen. The first three sentences are, “July first. It parts the the year like the part in a head of hair. I had foreseen it as a boundary marker for me — yesterday one kind of me, tomorrow a different kind.” There were too many sentences to transcribe here, but if you find yourself curious, pick up a copy and read the third paragraph on the third page of that Chapter where Steinbeck writes about the contrasts of June and July. That is as close to a perfect paragraph as one might ever write.

So I am going to put this book on the special shelf I have for the keepers. And some time in the future, even if I have to pack it away for a cross country move, I will reread this book, more slowly, the way it deserves to be read the second time.

[piperitapitta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sono forse io?

[Questo è un romanzo da maneggiare con cura, perché contiene materiale esplosivo.
A vent'anni non lo capisci.
A trenta ti insinua sotto la pelle un malessere strisciante.
Alla mia età ti schianta.]

Se non avessi letto poco meno di un mese fa Viaggio con Charley, non avrei potuto immaginare quanto John Steinbeck amasse Sinclair Lewis.
Se non avessi saputo quanto John Steinbeck amasse Sinclair Lewis, forse non avrei colto sin dall'inizio le analogie con Babbitt, e non avrei riconosciuto in Ethan Hawley, il modesto commesso di New Baytown, l'evoluzione di George Babbitt, il mediocre agente immobiliare di Lewis.
Se non avessi letto precedentemente Al Dio sconosciuto, I pascoli del cielo e La Valle dell'Eden, non avrei saputo riconoscere, ancora una volta, lasciati come sassolini nel bosco, tutti quei riferimenti biblici che caratterizzano e permeano l'intera opera di Steinbeck, quell'eterno conflitto tra il bene e quel male che si affrontano senza risparmiare colpi, che si sfidano incessantemente, che convivono in ciascuno di noi.
Non avrei riconosciuto, in una storia che ha inizio in un Venerdì Santo del 1960, Ethan/Caino che abbandonando il suo fratello Danny/Abele si discolpa dicendo 'Sono forse io il custode di mio fratello?' e lo sacrifica all'altare della sua ambizione.
Così come non avrei riconosciuto la seducente, provocante Margie Young-Hunt/Eva avvolgere lentamente Ethan, sino a portarlo dalla sua parte per poi trasformarsi in una Margie/Maddalena.
Se io stessa non mi fossi trovata, non mi trovassi a volte, in un'età in cui basta un nulla per affondare nell'inverno del proprio scontento, in cui decidere di abbandonare tutti i propri principi in virtù di una vita più semplice, di un successo conquistato con l'inganno e la mistificazione, se non sapessi che troppo spesso la realtà delle cose, la società che ci circonda ci promette La perla capace di mutare il corso della nostra esistenza, ci istiga a tradire noi stessi in cambio di un posto in prima fila, se non sapessi che alla fine dei conti l'uomo di Steinbeck chiederà sempre, prima che la luna sia tramontata rassicurazione sul fatto che il suo debito sarà pagato, e che gli sarebbe impossibile sfuggire da sé e dal proprio giudizio di sé, se non sapessi tutto questo, se non avessi saputo tutto questo, avrei fatto fino alla fine il tifo per Ethan Hawley, modesto commesso nel negozio che fu della sua agiata famiglia, e per il suo rivoluzionario sogno americano, quello che proprio in quegli anni, da Revolutionary Road, Connecticut, a New Baytown, New England, lasciava credere a tutti di meritare di più di quello che possedevano, di essere destinati a qualcosa di grande, di poter allungare la mano fino a toccare le stelle.
Avrei fatto il tifo per lui, povero Ethan, se non avessi saputo che non c'è modo, secondo Steinbeck, di mutare il proprio destino, di prendere quello che non ci spetta, di scalare posizioni con l'imbroglio, di usare scorciatoie per poterle toccare davvero quelle stelle*.
Ma lo sapevo, lo sapevo che alla fine l'avrei riconosciuto, John Steinbeck, che l'avrei ritrovato anche nello Steinbeck che non mi aspettavo.
Quello che è stato capace di trasportare e trasformare le rivalse sociali dei contadini, degli umili e dei diseredati, in quelle della media borghesia, psicologicamente vittima dello stesso scontento, che non nasce però dall'assenza del pane, ma dal confronto, dal desiderare ciò che possiedono gli altri; quello ironico e tagliente, unico nel creare un personaggio del quale riusciamo a cogliere attimo per attimo, proprio davanti ai nostri occhi, un mutamento straordinario, «Mi par di credere che un uomo cambia di continuo. Ma ci sono momenti in cui il cambiamento si fa avvertibile», il passaggio dal divertente bottegaio che arringa barattoli di conserve e sottaceti lontano dagli sguardi di tutti, dal marito leale e affettuoso e padre integro e onesto, all'uomo che vacilla e si lascia tentare, che vede crescere in sé una febbre improvvisa, un delirio chiamato avidità, potere, possesso, e attraverso il quale puntare il dito, chiedersi cos'è la morale, «morale è solo una parola?» senza però cedere a facili moralismi.
Lo Steinbeck che non mi aspettavo (ma non è neanche del tutto vero perché già ne La Valle dell'Eden… ma questa è un'altra storia!), è quello capace di creare una tensione fortissima, un ritmo che accelera i battiti cardiaci, che fa trattenere il fiato e divorare gli ultimi capitoli rabbrividendo ad ogni parola, nella speranza che… ma quanto rumore fa un uomo che pensa?
«Un uomo è una cosa solitaria», solo davanti alla propria coscienza, una coscienza che è implacabile.

(*E a proposito di stelle, non ho potuto fare a meno di pensare a Leo Burnett, un uomo di quegli anni, sconosciuto ai più, ma che sulla porta di quella che sarebbe diventata una delle più grandi agenzie di pubblicità del mondo, aveva un logo raffigurante una mano che tendeva alle stelle, autore di uno dei testamenti più belli che abbia mai letto. http://www.antoniofiligno.com/attuali...)

«Il fallimento è uno stato mentale. È come una di quelle trappole che scava nella sabbia il formicaleone. Si continua a scivolar giù. Ci vuole un bel salto per uscirne. E lei deve fare quel salto, Eth. Una volta fuori, si accorgerà che anche il successo è uno stato mentale.»
«Non è per caso anche una trappola?»
«Forse sì…ma d'un tipo migliore.»
«E se uno fa il salto e ci rimette qualcun altro?»
«Solo Dio vede cadere il passero, ma nemmeno Dio può farci nulla.»


Del perché amo John Steinbeck e David Foster Wallace.

L'inverno del nostro scontento - 1961
«Non te la prenderesti di quel che pensa la gente di te, se sapessi quanto poco ci pensano»

Infinite Jest - 1996
«La vostra preoccupazione per ciò che gli altri pensano di voi scompare una volta che capite quanto di rado pensano a voi.»

[Jesse · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Ernst Steinbeck, hero of the working class, defender of injustice, voice of the people, pen wielding warrior of truth and right, American treasure, and one of my all-time favorite authors. Maybe you can tell, I have somewhat of a man crush on our friend John. Everything the man writes is pure gold. American literature at its best.

In this, Johns's final novel, we follow our protagonist, Ethan Hawley, a long-time resident of New Baytown and local grocery clerk. Miss fortune has struck down the once great Hawley family and now the ever-honest, or maybe not forever, Ethan is forced to work as a clerk in a store his family once owned, in the town they once all but ran. Pressured by a morally decaying society, our friend Ethan makes one bad decision after another, leading him down a path of despair that more often than not one can't come back from.

Once again John drops a payload of life lesson bombs on us with The Winter of Our Discontent. Society sucks and is morally bankrupt, people are easily corrupted, money isn't everything, (and this was in 1961, how much worse are we now) the list can go on and on with this one. Steinbeck truly is one of the greatest American authors, and he proves it time and time again with every one of his works.

[Pakinam Mahmoud · Rating 1 out of 5]

يالهوي علي الملل🙄
شتاء السخط..الرواية اللي جابتلي سخط علي الكاتب والبطل و كل حاجة في الكتاب الصراحة!

فكرة الرواية عادية جداً و هي بتتكلم إزاي شخص ملتزم ممكن يتغير للأسواء نتيجة ضغوطات الحياة المادية وتصرفات المحيطين بيه الغير أخلاقية...

٤٨٠ صفحة من تقريباً ولا حاجة ...سرد ممل بشكل غير طبيعي..
مفيش أي أحداث غير شوية أحداث بسيطة في الربع الأخير من الرواية ..شخصيات الرواية كلها بلا استثناء غير مرسومة بعناية..ترجمة عقيمة في أوقات كتير ...حوارات ملهاش طعم وبجد في عدد لا نهائي من الفصول كان ممكن الأستغناء عنه بس وجوده كان مهم عشان يجيبلنا شلل مش أكتر و لا أقل!

أحلي حاجة في الرواية دي إنها كانت قراءة مشتركة مع داليا و سارة اللي لولا وجودهم معايا والله مكنتش حعرف أكملها والصراحة إستحملوني جامد:))

[Adam Floridia · Rating 1 out of 5]

East of Eden was 600 some-odd pages and I didn't want it to end. This didn't reach 300 and it could not end soon enough. There was just nothing good about this; I can’t believe this is a Steinbeck work. Moreover, not the work of a budding author still perfecting his craft, but an author who was in the winter of his profession, having already penned Of Mice and Men, Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden and countless other works.

The story is about Ethan Hawley, a man of noble ancestry reduced to a grocery clerk, and his struggle to answer the questions, “What are morals? Are they simply words?” (186). “Strength and success—they are above morality, above criticism” (187). In the course of his thinking, he ponders over and confounds bank robbery and plagiarism, bribery and business, adultery and cheating on a game show. None of it is interesting. None of it is deep. None of it provokes the reader to any of the same moralizing.

Like the theme, the characters never come across as anything more than words on a page. Ethan is neither likeable nor unlikeable. He’s neither a good guy nor a bad guy. He’s got some qualities that are supposed to be endearing yet does some questionable things. That should make him all the more human, no? For some reason, no. He just isn’t written well. And the supporting cast are all stock characters: the corrupt banker, the town floozy, the lazy cop, the ungrateful teenage kids, the town drunk, the simple wife. The characters are so static that even the narrative descriptions of them appear verbatim fifty pages apart. Their characterization through dialogue is no better. For example:

-They say things like “Guess I’m a peeping Tom at heart…Maybe because I’m a Nosy Parker” (165). Two trite, cornball clichés on one page.

-Then there’s this unforgettable homage to friendship. “Danny and I were friends as all boys must have friends” (91).

-Then there’s this one, which totally baffles me. “She lounged away, a baby-fatted volupt. Girls kill me. They turn out to be girls” (149).

The figurative language certainly doesn’t do anything to beautify the prose. For example:

-“Her hands were like living things as they shuffled and cut” (83). Not sure about your hands, but my hands are living things.

-"It was a day as different from other days as dogs are from cats and both of them from chrysanthemums or tidal waves or scarlet fever" (219). Can we throw any more random shit at the end of that sentence? Maybe “as different as dogs are from a string of random shit”?

Since I find it more unbearable to not finish an unbearable book than I do to unbearably keep reading the unbearable book, I had to find some way to enjoy the experience. Here’s the game I came up with, maybe you can play it the next time you’re reading an unbearable book. Find lines to take completely out of context and imagine the way the story would be different if they were the first lines of the book. For example:

-If this were a crime/horror story: "As a child I hunted and killed small creatures with energy and joy" (115).

-If this were erotica: "My sleeping daughter had the magic mound in her hand, caressing it with her fingers, petting it as though it were alive. She pressed it against her unformed breast, placed it on her cheek below her ear, nuzzled it like a suckling puppy, and she hummed a low song like a moan of pleasure and longing" (127).


I’ll still try to end in typical fashion…
A Decent Line:"No man really knows about other human beings. The best he can do is to suppose they are like himself" (44).

[Olga · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of course, sometimes people can surprise us (and themselves), but I don't believe in such sudden metamorphoses and such a fundamental change of values. As a rule, people start seeing things and acting differently when being hit by crisis. The character of Ethan does not convince me and neither does the story. However, certain parts of the text do give some food for thought.
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'No man really knows about other human beings. The best he can do is to suppose that they are like himself. Now, sitting in the Place, out of the wind, seeing under the guardian lights the tide creep in, black from the dark sky, I wondered whether all men have a Place, or need a Place, or want one and have none. Sometimes I’ve seen a look in eyes, a frenzied animal look as of need for a quiet, secret place where soul-shivers can abate, where a man is one and can take stock of it. Of course I know of the theories of back to the womb and the deathwish, and these may be true of some men, but I don’t think they are true of me, except as easy ways of saying something that isn’t easy.'
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'They say a good soldier fights a battle, never a war.'
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'There’s an awful lot of inactive kindness which is nothing but laziness, not wanting any trouble, confusion, or effort.'
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'A crime is something someone else commits.'
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'And in a ferocious jungle of the grass I found the distraction that meant peace.'

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I fell in love with Ethan Allen Hawley upon first meeting him. What a character! He is the town's nice guy, comedian and moral center. But he works as a grocer for a store that used to belong to him. He feels that his family was cheated out of it's riches (by someone burning their ship.) As events proceed and he is tempted over and over again to make more money the idea begins to sound better and better to him and slowly his moral compass turns. I still rooted for him though I was increasingly shocked by his behavior and worried for him. He begins to act like everyone else, going along with the others "who all do it," i.e cheat and sometimes hurt others in doing so. This is Steinbeck's main criticism of our culture, the idea that one has to cheat in order to get anywhere, whether it's plagiarism, (Ethan's son for an essay contest), or giving money to the town drunk (a friend ) knowing you (Ethan) will inherit his priceless land as soon as he drinks himself to death.

The ending was brilliantly ironic. Ethan cannot live with himself and what he has done so he attempts to commit suicide by drowning. He curtails this suicide in progress when he finds the talisman in his pocket. He doesn't want to drown himself and take the talisman with him. He wants someone else to have good luck from it; as if the actions which lead to his attempted "suicide" were examples of good luck!

[William S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is a certain emotion in Steinbeck I have not found in other authors. Faulkner comes close, Hemingway a bit further off, perhaps Woolf is on a parallel path. Steinbeck shows us something into ourselves, he states in the book that we all have our own light, we are not a bonfire. We only understand others to the point that we assume they are akin to ourselves. Steinbeck, like Woolf in the Waves, shows us that we are all connected, and that we can find a path in this world through this novel.

This novel has been criticized by others for being lacking in the character development and depth of his other novels like East of Eden and Grapes of Wrath. I agree. It's not a long novel. It only develops one character(narrator) to the full extent and shows us the world around him. But that's the point. He states that we can only know ourselves, and we might not even know that. People look to this book to find a copy of what he has already done, but he changes in this book. He puts us finally inside the head of one of the characters instead of Steinbeck telling us the story. He is giving us, in a sense, a parting gift. The reason people do not like this book is because they want another East of Eden, but this is just as good, if not better.

I do not often read novels that allow me to think about my own self this much. I don't think this would be my first recommendation for a Steinbeck novel, I think one needs to understand his changes from Grapes, Eden, etc. to appreciate this more, but even still, this is my new favorite of his.

[Dalia Nourelden · Rating 4 out of 5]

" لا ادري على وجه اليقين كيف تكون دخيلة الناس الآخرين، فهم جميعا يختلفون وهم جميعاً يتشابهون في نفس الوقت."

الحياة الروتينية ، الرتم الهادى ،الخوف و عدم الطموح، الخوف من المجازفة ، إلقاء النكات دوما والمزح في كل شئ ، الخوف من كونه مملاً مما يجعله يقوم ويقول أشياء حتى لا يشعر من حوله بالملل . يحادث نفسه ويحادث الأشياء اكثر مما يحادث الآخرون ،لكنه بالتأكيد ليس أبله كما قد تعتقد حين تلتقيه .
‏ ‏ " ستشعر بتحسن ياسيدي عندما تعتاد حقيقة أني لست أبلهاً فكهاً "
‏
‏حياته رتيبة ، روتينية ، ليس بها شئ ليتم حكيه ، لايوجد أحداث مهمة ، لايوجد تغيير ، حياة مملة لكن بداخله شعور بالرضا تجاهها، لا يرغب في تغييرها لكنه يشعر بالضغط حين يطالبه الآخرون بالتغيير والمجازفة ..وهو شخص يخاف على الأشخاص الذين يحبهم ، زوجته وأبناءه وهم يرغبون في المال وهو يرغب في إسعادهم .

‏ " فلنفترض أن وظيفتي المتواضعة التي لا تنتهي لم تكن فضيلة وإنما كانت كسلاً اخلاقياً ؟! فأي نجاح ، يتطلب جرأة . وربما كنت مجرد جبان ، اخشى النتائج، وفي كلمة واحدة : كسولاً. "

‏هذا هو بطل روايتنا إيثان الذي فقدت عائلته ثروتهم وصار مجرد موظف في متجر بعد ان كان يمتلكه. لكنه يمتلك مبادئ واخلاقيات ربما لم يعد يتمسك بها أحد مثله.
‏هذه هي حياته وهذا ما تدور حوله الرواية ..



‏رتم هادئ من الحكي ليس به شئ جذاب .. قد ينتابك الملل ، قد تطالب بحدوث شئ .. حسنا فلتنضم لكل من يعرف إيثان ..
‏
"لماذا تبقى مفلساً؟ وأنت رجل له مثل عائلتك وماضيك وتعليمك ؟ ليس المفروض أن يلازمك هذا الإفلاس، إلا إذا كان دمك قد فقد حميته .ما الذي صرعك ، يا إيثان ؟ ما الذي يبقيك هكذا صريعاً؟ "



‏وجدت نفسي بين السطور... بين الأحداث التي بدون أحداث..في رتم الحياة الروتينيه ، في عدم الرغبة في فعل شئ ، عدم الطموح لشئ ، والرضا بهذا الرتم من الحياة .
‏
"تساءلت عما إذا كنت أستطيع بعد ان خططت طريقي ، أن أغير الاتجاه أو حتى أرجع البوصلة تسعين درجة ، وفكرت في أنني كنت أستطيع ذلك ولكني لم أرغب فيه ."

ذكرتني هذه الجملة برواية بارتلبي النساخ حين كان يجيب على كل شى بكلمة " أفضل ألا "

‏حسنا ربما هذه الحياة لا تستحق رواية كبيرة مثل هذه ... و ربما تكون محقاً .. لكن الا يحق لإيثان وأمثاله أن يجدوا من يتحدثوا عنهم .!!! وهل فقط الروايات للشخصيات أصحاب المغامرات والأحداث اليومية المثيرة ؟؟
‏ وربما يفاجئك إيثان بتخطيط هادئ فليس كل الناس صاخبين حين يرغبون في فعل شئ ما .

" كأن الأحداث والخبرات كانت تلكزني وتدفعني بالمناكب في إتجاه مضاد لاتجاهي العادي ،او للاتجاه الذي توصلت الى التفكير في انه عادي _ اتجاه الموظف في محل بقالة، وفشله، اتجاه الرجل المقيد بمسؤوليات ملء بطون أفراد أسرته وكساء أجسادهم ، الرجل الذي حبس داخل قفص من العادات والتصرفات التي كنت أفكر في أنها اخلاقية وفاضلة . وربما انتابني نوع من الرضا عن النفس ،لكوني أصبحت ما أطلق عليه ( رجلاً طيباً)"

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لكن هل سيظل إيثان كما هو ؟ ام ان المجتمع والآخرون وتطلبات الحياة والأسرة وتأثير احاديث الآخرين ستغيره وتعلمه ان يكون شخصاً آخر؟
هل سيتغير حقا ؟! وماذا سيفعل ؟!
إلى أى مدى يصل تاثير كلام الآخرين وضغوطهم علينا ؟ وإلى اى مدى يمكن ان نتغير ؟؟ وهل إذا تغيرنا سنرضي عن هذا التغير ام لن نستطيع تحمله ؟!

" إن الفشل حالة ذهنية .إنه مثل واحد من تلك الفخاخ الرملية التي يحفرها صائد النمل. أنت تواصل الانزلاق الى الخلف . قم بقفزة واحدة ملعونة لتخرج منه . يتحتم عليك أن تقوم بتلك القفزة يا إيثان. واذا حدث مرة أن خرجت من الفخ ، فستجد أن النجاح أيضا حالة ذهنية "

وتتطرق الرواية ايضا للمحليات الفاسدة وتكوين الثروات من خلال هذا الفساد. والنظرة المجتمعية لكل من لايملك راس مال قوى يدعمه .

الترجمة كانت اوقات مقبولة خصوصا في الحوارات وأوقات تانية سيئة جدا ، وفي مشكلة في شكل تركيب الجمل كانت بتبوظ اجزاء من الرواية وتوصيل الافكار .كنت اتمنى تكون ترجمة افضل من كده خصوصا من دار كبيرة زى دار آفاق .

الرواية قليلة الأحداث وبطيئة ، حسيت بملل شوية في بعض الأجزاء واوقات تانية كنت مندمجة معاها .
في المجمل كانت تجربة كويسة أول لقاء ليا مع شتاينبيك ومش هيكون الاخير ان شاء الله .

ترددت في تقييمي ما بين ٣ و ٤ نجوم ومع الجزء التانى كنت مياله اديها ٣.٥ و اقييمها ب ٣ عشان الجودريدز مش بيعترف بالنص بس لما وصلت للنهاية غيرت رأى وقررت يكونوا ٤ .
نهاية مش عارفة اقول متوقعة او غير متوقعة بس كانت مفاجأة بالنسبالى بشكل حسيت معاه بالرضا لأن كان في تغييرات وتصرفات حصلت معجبتنيش فلما وصلنا للنهاية بالشكل ده حسيت ان هى دى النهاية الصح من شخصية زى شخصية إيثان .

قراءة مشتركة مع الصديقتين باكينام وسارة سمير ❤

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[Luís · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extraordinary Steinbeck. A comedy or a drama? Will this almost perfect, uncomplicated hero, who bends but doesn't break, surprise everyone, outwit his fellow citizens who flirt with illegality, or will he remain upright and spotless, risking the admiration of his family? We smile, we are moved, then we laugh nervously, and sometimes we feel a knot in our stomach when tragedy seems inevitable—a must-read for any Steinbeck enthusiast.

[Sepehr · Rating 2 out of 5]

مرگ مولف :

همینگوی سخن درخشانی دارد :« وقتی چیزی می‌دانید بنویسید. نه قبل و نه خیلی بعد از آن».
بنظرم اگر بخواهم نظر منصفانه‌ای داده باشم، اشتاین بک خیلی بعد‌تر از آن زمانی که لازم بود، این کتاب را نوشت. زمانی که کیلومترها از فقر فاصله گرفته بود.
با این همه، اگر طرفدار اشتاین بک هستید، همانطور که یکی از نویسندگان محبوب خودم است، با این جمله ناامید نشوید. عده‌ی زیادی فکر می‌کنند که این کتاب یکی از آثار درخشان اشتاین بک است. شاید هم به عنوان اثری مستقل کار خوبی باشد که البته من در این رابطه هم تردید دارم، ولی بعنوان اثری که خالق شرق بهشت، موش‌ها و آدم‌ها و خوشه‌های خشم آن را نوشته، توی ذوقم خورد.
این اثر آخرین رمان اوست و البته رگه‌های قلم جذاب او هر چند صفحه یک‌بار دیده می‌شوند. از جمله دیالوگ‌های دوست داشتنی او ( به نظر من اشتاین بک، بالاتر از همینگوی و هرکس دیگر، واقعی‌ترین دیالوگ‌های تاریخ ادبیات را نوشته است )، یا توصیفات خوبش.
با این همه، رمان زیادی کش پیدا می‌کند. اشتاین بک که استاد بلامنازع خلق محیط بود، در اینجا بسیار ناتوان است، به گونه‌ای که تمام این مدت حس می‌کردم فقط یک نفر است که ایستاده و با افراد گوناگون صحبت می‌کند و از جایش جنب نمی‌خورد. حدود هشتاد درصد اولیه کتاب بسیار کند و بی‌ثمر پیش رفت و بیست درصد نهایی هم ارزش تحمل آن هشتاد درصد را نداشت.
یک نکته دیگر که می‌توان به آن اشاره کرد، نام کتاب است. نام اصلی کتاب، زمستان نارضایی ما است که بخشی از دیالوگ ریچارد سوم اثر شکسپیر است. بنظرم آنچه بیشتر به محتوای کتاب مرتبط بود، کلمه نارضایی است نه زمستان.
در نهایت اگر صادقانه بگویم، بعنوان کسی که ادبیات را به شکل جدی با اشتاین‌بک شروع کرد و همواره از ادبیات تا سینما و حتی روزنامه‌نگاری، جزو محبوب‌های من بوده است، از این کتاب لذت چندانی نبردم.
هرچند همانطور که گفتم، امتیاز بالای این اثر با توجه به اینکه تعداد خوانندگانش هم کم نبوده، گویای این است که همه با من موافق نیستند.

امتیاز نهایی : ۲.۵

[Nick Bailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5

“Can a man think out his life, or must he just tag along?” (pg. 36). This is the question at the centre of John Steinbeck’s final 1961 novel. (So this book is 64 years old at the time of this little review, it's so easy to forget how old books are sometimes).

The plot follows Ethan Allen Hawley, a man who has lost his generational wealth and now works as a clerk in the grocery store his family once owned. Over an Easter weekend he begins to confront the notion of whether he stays content with his place in the world or whether he thinks out a new path for himself. There is a nice bit of classic Steinbeck symbolism here with a metaphorical death and new life aligning with Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

The opening pages I found a bit dull and I couldn’t work out what kind of a read I was in for. Steinbeck spent a few chapters setting up the context and history of New Baytown and Ethan’s family. In the end though this helped immerse me in the events of the book once everything got going. Once it did get going I found this a very inward-looking novel. Steinbeck explored all the moral compromises a person needs to make in order to get ahead and he gently poses the question of whether some compromises are worse than others. Does trying to get rich mean giving up on a moral life? I think that Ethan sees himself as a good guy who has to make moral concessions in order to get ahead but always plans on living in a virtuous way once he gets there. Yet a few of his compromises will not be easy to live with, particularly the lending of money to the town alcoholic who has made it very clear how he intends to spend it…

What I find interesting here is also the tension of characters feeling like they deserve wealth and status because of their heritage. I'm not sure if that is how Ethan sees it, or if it is more a sense of shame that he can not provide his family with the resources that were given to him and his ancestors. I think Steinbeck is subtly hinting that having a wealth divide will always morally corrupt those that attempt to be, or already are, on the wealthy end of the divide.

This book also had some moments of eeriness involving dreams and sleepwalking that were 10/10 pieces of writing.

There was also some chopping and changing between first- and third-person narration. If anyone has a take on that I would love to hear it.

The one thing that I disliked was the main character's decision in the last few pages. I thought this was an overreaction and totally out of character with the Ethan that I had come to know. Ideally, the point that that scene is making could have been made in a different way.

[Nahed.E · Rating 5 out of 5]

كم من الناس نظرت إليهم دون أن أراهم

المال لا يُبدل المرض ، ولكن يبدل أعراضه فقط

أنت أعمي مثلي ، إلا أن نوع عماك يختلف عن عمايّ

لقد انقرضت القرصنة ، لكن يبدو أن دوافعها لم تمت

إذا أردت الاحتفاظ بصديق ، فلا تجربه

إذا ملكت جوهرة ، فلا تسرف في تلميعها ، حتي لا تتأكل من معجون التلميع


******************
لقد عشت مع هذه الرواية شهراً تقريباً ..

وهي في نسختها العربية 367 صفحة وقد قرأت فيها الكثير من الاقتباسات الرائعة التي فعلا تستحق التوقف عندها

استطاع جون شتاينبك أن يقدم رواية غريبة قليلاً عن المعتاد ، فأنت تعيش مع أبطالها وتتفاعل مع البطل كما لو أنه صديق لك ، وتجد نفسك تتمني أن يفعل كذا أو يتوقف عن فعل كذا
فالرواية في ترجمتها العربية لها عنوانان هما
حين فقدنا الرضا
وشتاء الأحزان
وأنا أفضل العنوان الأول كثيراً ، فهو الذي جذبني لها من البداية
فالبطل يحيا حياة معينة يوجد فيها بعض الشقاء إلا أنه شقاء محتمل
ويحب زوجته وأولاده وكان من الممكن أن يظل الأمر علي النحو نفسه طوال الحياة
إلا أن المُغريات أمامه كثيرة .. وسيقع فريسة لأحداها .. ثم نراه يدخل في مغامرة جديدة
وكأن القدر يهبه مجموعة من الخيارات المختلفة والتي كان من الممكن الرضا بأحداها دون الطمع في خيار آخر

المفاجأة تحدث حين يُفاجئ بأن كل من حوله لهم مخططات ومغامرات ووجوه خفية وأقنعة لم يعلم عنها شيئاً .. وهو نفسه كان لديه القناع الخاص به .. وكأنها مجموعة من الأقنعة التي تحيا سوياً في بلدة واحدة

طبعا نهاية الرواية غريبة للغاية وتنطوي علي جانب كبير من اليأس
ولكن بعد التحليل الدقيق للشخصيات من الممكن القبول بها كنهاية متوقعة
فالكاتب يظهر الشخصية الإنسانية بكل ما فيها من تناقض ومن جوانب مختلفة ، قوة تارة ، وضعف تارة ، وخوف وتردد وشك ورغبة في الأكثر ولو علي حساب المبادئ أو المشاعر
الرواية أيضاً تعطي عبرة وعظة معنية : فكما تدين تُدان
..
اقيمها بـ 5 نجمات بالتأكيد

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Everybody steals. Everybody does it.”

The title of this novel, The Winter of Our Discontent, comes from the first two lines of William Shakespeare's Richard III: "Now is the winter of our discontent / Made glorious summer by this sun [or son] of York"; the book focuses on one dark period in the life of one (American) man and his family in a small Long Island town in the late fifties. The Winter of Our Discontent is a moral allegory colored by righteous rage about capitalism and what seems like what is the tendency in the love of money to corrupt those who fall in love with it.

John Steinbeck, who was once a member of the American Communist party before it became synonymous somehow with some kind of fascistic Evil, was always writing about social and economic inequities--in the Grapes of Wrath, in Cannery Row, Of Mice and Men, and many others-- sometimes sentimentalizing but always championing his down and out characters as victims of an economic system that favors the rich. Steinbeck died in 1968; Winter (1961), his last novel, the acclaim for which catapulted him to the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962, casts its light on a Long Island family, particularly the father of the family, Ethan Allen Hawley.

Hawley is in his late thirties, married, with two teenaged kids, and who, in spite of his family’s former aristocratic background, and in spite of his having graduated from Harvard, is clerking for a Sicilian-American named Marullo in the grocery store his father lost. Ethan’s family is sick of their being poor. They don’t own a car, or a tv. Ethan faces some temptations as he turns his attention to various ways to remedy his situation, including criminal temptations involving money, and then some related sexual temptations (the cover of this edition posits the story as a steamy triangle, which is misleading, though there are elements of that here). But everyone wants to know in this little town: Why is the seemingly happy Ethan not “successful”?! (That’s at issue here, the American definition of success as having more money). How can he be happy and not rich? Shouldn't he be ashamed his is mere grocery clerk?

“There is no such thing as just enough money. Only two measures: No Money and Not Enough Money.”

“To most of the world success is never bad. I remember how, when Hitler moved unchecked and triumphant, many honorable men sought and found virtues in him. And Mussolini made the trains run on time, and Vichy collaborated for the good of France, and whatever else Stalin was, he was strong. Strength and success—they are above morality, above criticism. It seems, then, that it is not what you do, but how you do it and what you call it. Is there a check in men, deep in them, that stops or punishes? There doesn’t seem to be. The only punishment is for failure. In effect no crime is committed unless a criminal is caught.”

“Ellen, only last night, asked, 'Daddy, when will we be rich?' But I did not say to her what I know: 'We will be rich soon, and you who handle poverty badly will handle riches equally badly.' And that is true. In poverty she is envious. In riches she may be a snob. Money does not change the sickness, only the symptoms.”

Ethan’s banker friend Joey Morphy says, “your only entrance is money.” He encourages him to find ways to make more money, get out of the clerk position and do better for his family.

Steinbeck stated that he wrote the novel to address the moral degeneration of American culture during the 1950s and 1960s, and this is fair, and relevant as well to today, though some of it is too morally on the nose for me: Ethan’s wife and two teens all suddenly complain within the same twenty-four hours to him about his lowly job. His friend, a bank clerk, soon after tells him casually how easy it would be to rob a bank, especially if you had no previous criminal record. Someone reminds him that Marullo, his boss, just might be undocumented. On top of that a local divorcee/femme fatale comes around to try to seduce him, urging him to accept bribes. Then his son enters a nationwide essay contest about Why I Love America, getting awarded honorable mention--and he gets to appear on television!!--though this gets complicated. So it’s a moral allegory, where everything piles up in kind of didactic ways to bring Ethan to. . . some questionable actions.

Ethan Allen--that name, a reference to a historical figure well known through American history books as a figure from the Revolutionary period, as an activist in that war--seems nothing like Ethan Allen Hawley, who is seen by his family and most friends as passive, not an activist, until he finally does take (problematic) action in a few ways; for instance, Ethan’s best friend from high school is Danny Taylor, the town drunk, who has the deed to some land that some go-getter businessmen in the town want to develop into an airport to increase commerce and tourism (and profits). Ethan wants to help Danny get into therapy for his alcoholism, so he gives him some money, though both he and Danny know it is a long shot that he will actually get healed with this money, and Danny in exchange gives him the deed to his land. Money. Power.

The book, as moral allegory, moves through a series of aphorisms:

“Intentions, good or bad, are not enough. There's luck or fate or something else that takes over. . . ”

Some of them are a little bitter from the now discontented Ethan:

“Only God sees the sparrow fall, but even God doesn't do anything about it.”

And Danny counters the notion that having a bit more money would be kinda “nice” to have:

“Money is not nice. Money got no friends but more money.”

I am not a particular fan of novels as moral allegories, but I have to admit this is a good one, and in the almost predictably dramatic events--as in Greek tragedy--I was nevertheless moved, particuarly the very end that involves a family talisman his daughter has slipped into his pocket. I like Steinbeck’s deft use of shifting points of view; I like his clever Ethan, I can relate to him, as I suspect many can, as Steinbeck intended. I didn’t love this book in the same way as I did Grapes of Wrath or Of Mice and Men or Cannery Row, but I’d still be willing to put it in the top group of his work, I think. It reminded me a bit of Ray Bradbury, who also wrote with myth and occasional sentimentality and American morality in mind. When Steinbeck died he left an unfinished manuscript I once read, The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights, which I thought was part of what he had in mind in Winter with its social and moral criticism. What is goodness? What is true heroism?

Steinbeck's Nobel Prize speech:

https://www.goodreads.com/videos/5379...

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I started reading this, the last novel written by John Steinbeck, I initially thought that I wasn’t going to like it. The prose was as fine as I expected it to be, but it seemed such a small story, compared to powerful epics like The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden. However, the story grew on me as I read and the ending packed a punch.

Mostly in the form of a first person narrative, the novel is about Ethan Hawley, a likeable man in his late thirties, married to a woman he loves and the father of two teenagers. Ethan comes from an old and formerly wealthy family in the fictional seaside town in which he lives. However, his father lost the family fortune and Ethan now works as clerk in a grocery store; a grocery store his family used to own. As well educated and intelligent as he is, Ethan has done nothing to reverse the family's precarious financial position. Until now, that is, when a number of circumstances conspire to make Ethan re-think his scrupulous honesty and integrity.

At its heart, the novel is a critique of what Steinbeck considered to be the decline in morality in American society in the 1950s and 1960s, something he also addressed in Travels with Charley: In Search of America. Steinbeck wasn’t concerned with sexual morality, but with hypocrisy and corruption in government and in society generally. While the message is clear – and it’s a message just as relevant today as it was in the early 1960s - the novel isn’t a simple morality play. Ethan is portrayed as a good man. As he acts against his innate sense of honour and integrity, he remains likeable. In going to the dark side, even temporarily, he acts against his instincts and in many ways the novel poses more questions than it gives answers about greed, dishonesty, corruption and betrayal.

Anyone reading this novel who expects another Grapes of Wrath or East of Eden is bound to be disappointed. This is a small, intimate novel and it has its flaws. But it's a powerful work in its own quiet way.

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

“…what a hell of a man a man could become.”

This last of Steinbeck’s novels, where he muses on the decay of American morality in 1960, is beyond dark. It is downright depressing, when you think how much further we have fallen since then, and when you see from the story how that fall impacts the individuals participating in it.

But like so much of Steinbeck’s work, this feels so important, so instructive.

The only hope I found comes from the central character, Ethan Allen Hawley. Usually we love a character for what the character does in a story, but I fell for Ethan just for who he was. I think it’s because he cares, and as long as there are people who care, there is hope.

Ethan is a grocery clerk from a formerly prominent family in New Bay Town, New York. The story, which takes place from Good Friday through the Fourth of July, is about the plans he conjures up to get himself back into a position his wife and children can be proud of. The plans are clever and intricate, but also immoral and even illegal.

In a country that was built on the idea of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, we feel like failures when we can’t, which causes tremendous suffering. It’s great to have opportunities, but there are just as many barriers as there are chances, and I wish we supported the efforts as much as we support the successes, but we don’t.

While the novel left me sad, I love Steinbeck’s writing so much. He really does write like a father to his children, and I almost felt like I had my own father back while I was reading. I learn so much from his words. Here are a few passages I particularly loved:

“A man who tells secrets or stories must think of who is hearing or reading, for a story has many versions as it has readers. Everyone takes what he wants or can from it and thus changes it to his measure. Some pick out parts and reject the rest, some strain the story through their mesh of prejudice, some paint it with their own delight. A story must have some points of contact with the reader to make him feel at home in it. Only then can he accept wonders.”

“It’s as though, in the dark and desolate caves of the mind, a faceless jury had met and decided. This secret and sleepless area in me I have always thought of as black, deep, waveless water, a spawning place from which only a few forms ever rise to the surface. Or maybe it’s a great library where is recorded everything that has ever happened to living matter back to the first moment when it began to live.”

“I don’t know for sure how other people are inside--all different and all alike at the same time.”

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't pass this one up in your choosing which Steinbeck book to consume my hungry rabble. I had no expectations of this wonderful little story and now it is one of my favorites. Give yourself for a few hours for there is much to take from Ethan and all Steinbeck's creation. Crestfallen to come to it's end, as it is with most of his work. “Now is the winter of our discontent/Made glorious summer by this son of York…” 

[Himanshu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Evanescence of Morality

Maybe it's my age where I find myself amidst a thousand questions because I like to think that I am understanding a little of what goes around. And as it goes with books, the count of unanswered questions is on an exponential run. Anyway, the most prominent and adamant question I find myself wrestle with these days is 'Morality'. The realms of it, the undefined criss cross intersecting patterns of it, the lawlessness and sometimes the hypocritical pride of it, and lastly the chameleon ethos of it.

History has tested us on our understanding and ever changing definitions of this time designed morality and we have shown some bizarre reactions to it. This last novel by the master is one such peephole into the American society of mid 20th century where morals were having a t(r)ough time (not that we are on any high these days). Corruption and greed had laid its wrath on an aristocratic family from a small east coast town, as a result the last standing member has nothing but his name to remind him constantly of things his family had lost, of things he would probably have been a heir to if not for the lecherous times.

Ethan Allen Hawley finds himself being a clerk of a grocery store with disillusionment looming over every single minute of his life until on one insomniac night he strolls towards the port where his grandfather's ship used to anchor, and something sets itself in motion because he realized that things can't remain the way they are forever.

When a man is discontent about something that is too important to him, he changes one fine day into a different man, looks at things differently, says new words. The cosmic equation modifies itself and subconscious mind takes over the reins of future.

This is a unique book by Steinbeck. He has power packed the prose with many of the life's learnings as he usually does, but this time the reader is at the edge of his seat questioning and nodding at every move Ethan makes, stretching the flimsy cloth of morality at the turn of every chapter, finding redemption, anguish, empathy, and a cacophony of emotions at the end(which was Dostoevskysk in many ways). For many more reasons that I'm finding difficult to incorporate here, this book is an absolute shiner.