How many pages is travels with charley

Cannery Row. John Steinbeck. Into the Wild. Jon Krakauer. Invisible Man. Ralph Ellison. The Warmth of Other Suns. Isabel Wilkerson. Tortilla Flat. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Sonia Purnell. Tenth of December.

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To redeem, copy and paste the code during the checkout process. See Account Overview. I just wish I could give Charley a biscuit and a belly rub for being such a good traveling companion. View all 24 comments. Jan 27, Will Byrnes rated it liked it Shelves: nonfiction. John 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.

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 John Steinbeck put a house on a pickup, left the wife behind in their Long Island home and traveled the nation for several months. But some of those sketches should hang in the Louvres. Two in particular grabbed me.

The other was his depiction of a redwood forest in northern California, where the massive trees alter dawn and blot out the night sky.

It works the same as in literature. The road, the quest, the journey all exist in an interior landscape and lead to an inner destination. I did not feel that this was much at work here, and was disappointed. Steinbeck kept his eyes on the external road.

Sometimes his snapshots of early s America were uninteresting. Sometimes they were compelling. The compelling parts made the trip one worth taking.

GR friend Jim sent along a link to a site by a guy named Bill Steigerwald , who writes about Steinbeck. Looks like he did a fair bit of research and concluded that Steinbeck's journey may have been more of an internal one than we believed.

View all 17 comments. May 02, Julie rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorite-books , year-of-the-dog , favorite-non-fiction. I came across this dusty hardcover at an estate sale last month. This particular edition from offered a crisp, weathered cover and an inviting sketch of a man, a dog and a truck. I hopped on board.

This is Steinbeck, but not the Steinbeck of fiction, the one who stands behind his creations and his delicious use of silence and space. This is Steinbeck the man. Turns out that Steinbeck the man, here recorded for all time, in his late fifties was a bit depressed, recently diagnosed as being on hi I came across this dusty hardcover at an estate sale last month.

Turns out that Steinbeck the man, here recorded for all time, in his late fifties was a bit depressed, recently diagnosed as being on his way toward heart trouble, and a little weary of the world. He was also worried he was becoming "soft.

This is a travelogue, but an unexpected one. Yes, the reader is taken throughout the regions of America the Beautiful. But, it is more impressive as a philosophical journey. And, even though it is sometimes dated in its fifty-year-old observations, most of what he experiences here could stand the test of time.

I can think of plenty of friends who would love this book, and plenty who would set it down, bored. All I can tell you is that I cried through most of it. Not sobs, but fat, messy tears. I related to his thoughts to the point of wondering if I'm him, reincarnated. I had no idea I had so much in common with John Steinbeck. And, after all, who doesn't love a good road trip?

View all 15 comments. Feb 25, Kim rated it really liked it Shelves: audiobook , travel. In , 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.

This book is the result of that trip: part memoir, part travelogue, pa In , 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. This book is the result of that trip: part memoir, part travelogue, part philosophical treatise … and part fiction.

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.

On some matters Steinbeck was ahead of his time. Other parts of the narrative are much more personal. 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. 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. And there's Charley. Charley is wonderful. View all 26 comments. The United States is more divided than ever and I wonder how we will survive this national crisis. We are red or blue.

Trump or Biden. We tear down Confederate statues or wave the rebel flag. Have we nothing in common? Do we share no hopes and dreams? Have talking points completely replaced dialogue? Do we even speak the same language?

Enter Rocinante. Ther The United States is more divided than ever and I wonder how we will survive this national crisis. There is nothing more American than a road trip, nothing that revives us like that endless white line on the black asphalt, for we are all explorers, adventurers, pioneers in our star-spangled hearts. Under the spacious skies of this great country, the American spirit awakens within us. On the road, we shed all that is extraneous to this spirit.

Who among us does not long to see this land? There are many indeed who do not long for the hardship, the expense, the monotony of a road trip, but there are none whose eyes do not sparkle at the idea of a road trip.

But a road trip is the last thing any of us will be doing for some time. There will be no strangers stopping strangers just to shake their hand. No roadside diner breakfasts with hash browns instead of home fries. No glimpses into the lives of people from different walks of life. No friendly conversations with the folks who voted for the other guy. Are we still one nation under God? Or are we fractured into many babbling tribes?

In our grocery stores we are all surgeons and bandits. We long for teeth: white teeth, yellow teeth, false teeth, crooked teeth. We want to smile, smile, smile. We need to tip our different colored hats to our neighbors. This land was not made for you or me. This land was made for you and me. So here I sit with my pink slip and my U. Blues wondering if we will save this grand and noble political experiment that we call the United States of America.

And I find myself wishing to see the country. To see it and hear it and smell it from a moving vehicle. To go from sea to shining sea and back.

I have barely even seen the east coast, so I wonder what life is like in Wisconsin and Nebraska and Kansas. Is it really very hot in Texas and New Mexico? I want to know. I love hot weather. I want to stop for a bit in Colorado. We all want the same thing. We sleep in the same motels, eat in the same diners, pee at the same rest stops.

We have a cigarette or a donut or a coffee and talk road talk to our fellow travelers. This is what we all have in common.

It is a shared dream and when we talk about it we speak the same language. View all 13 comments. Sep 22, Jason Koivu rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorites. Goddamn it! I've driven coast to coast across the U. While other prominent authors, such as Kerouac and Thompson, were publishing their own, more heralded versions, I prefer Steinbeck's.

It lacks the hedonism of the others and I love him for that. And furthermore, these journals often get offtrac Goddamn it! And furthermore, these journals often get offtrack, forgetting the road for some favored topic that the writer expounds upon until it becomes a journey of its own and the original path fades from memory.

Steinbeck veers off now and then, but it's always for a good cause and it never lasts too long. Here's a few of my personal favorite highlights from his trip: : Charley. Before I began I had no idea who this Charley was, but he's a lovable guy and he made the whole thing all the more enjoyable to read. While Grapes of Wrath will go down as a lasting work of genius, it carries with it the weight of moral baggage and an oppressive sadness.

Maybe Travels with Charley is not the same sort of classic literature masterpiece that will survive the ages, but I found it to be a pure joy to read from start to finish. View all 14 comments. Dec 14, Sara rated it really liked it Shelves: memoir , travel , non-fiction , borrowed-from-library.

A nice way to travel s America again is to hop into a camper truck with John Steinbeck and his dog, Charley. Plagued by a chronic disease and probably feeling like it was now or never, Mr. Steinbeck hit the road from his home in Sag Harbor and traveled across the states and back again, making astute observations as he went and sharing a bit of the flavor of America in this moment of great upheaval and change.

I should have had no fear, since this was not your everyday traveler, this was John Steinbeck. His powers of observation are acute and he knows how to render them into a free-flowing conversation with his reader. I felt he was pretty even-handed in his observations as well, even though his trek through the s south made me cringe with shame.

One of my favorite parts of the book was his visit to his own home turf around Salinas, California. You can hardly visit the place of your youth with a clear and unprejudiced eye, for the past is always there coloring it a much rosier color than it actually is.

That is alright, that is part of life. We are meant to feel it. I am glad I finally got around to making this trip with one of my favorite authors.

It made me feel that I would have liked the man as much as I like his work. Apr 27, J. Sutton rated it liked it. In Travels with Charley: In Search of America, John Steinbeck provides an entertaining and wry account of his observations as he road trips with his poodle in what essentially becomes his house on wheels, Rocinante. I'm a big fan of Steinbeck's work I really like what I see as his sympathetic treatment of quirky and damaged characters in novels like Cannery Row and Tortilla Flats.

I also remember enjoying Travels with Charley at least the few chapters of it which I read while I was in high sc In Travels with Charley: In Search of America, John Steinbeck provides an entertaining and wry account of his observations as he road trips with his poodle in what essentially becomes his house on wheels, Rocinante.

I also remember enjoying Travels with Charley at least the few chapters of it which I read while I was in high school. I did like Steinbeck's assessment of Americans as a people on the move, but I didn't see him building toward anything in this travelogue. I know that's the nature of travel writing, but I wanted more from Steinbeck. When he climbs out of Rocinante and explores a new town, does he see characters from his novels?

Does he see material for books? Or only this specific travelogue? I wasn't sure how he grew during this trip, just that he and Charley seemed to intuitively know when the journey was over. I guess I was looking for something that wasn't there. View all 6 comments. Oct 27, K. Shelves: memoirs , , nobel , travel. 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.

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 New Orleans, he learned that racism of the South was not confined with those towards blacks but also towards Jews.

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. 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.

Early into my reading of Travels with Charley, I stopped to fix the point in time John traversed our country with a dog by his side. Published in It's not that the time of writing truly matters, or changes the nature of what is told. A town and a city will change in appearance or size as Steinbeck would encounter as he enters into his birthplace of Salinas, CA. Demographics definitely change as people move or wander — also something duly noted here during his travels: Like the total stra Early into my reading of Travels with Charley, I stopped to fix the point in time John traversed our country with a dog by his side.

America is a nation of wanderlust. People who want to move or simply traverse the country, whether it be permanent, or two week vacation. Maybe they do it to encounter each State that is a little or a lot different from the one next to it, or because it has something else to offer that can't be quantified. Or it's just become the nature of the whole. By traveling we see what we have not seen. That is hardly an American trait.

Those invisible boundaries that divide our states have not changed in the sixty years since this book was conceived. Twice, he and his dog cross the Continental Divide, once going and once coming back, each crossing very different in look one being in the north, the other in the south , but they have not changed since then either.

Only the roads that crosses them have changed. I'd initially fixated on the time of Steinbeck's travel because of his unexpected humor.

I laughed within the first chapter, as he describes the hurricane that would send him off from New York. His comical look at the nature of people, things and how he sees them is a great attribute to this book. Obviously, his humor had been there all along. It had not magically developed sometime after the writing of The Grapes of Wrath. Same man, two different books, but now I know him better.

These humorous traits, found in the first half of his travels, are replaced by melancholy and displeasure as he bends out of California turning east and south. The racial unrest of shouldn't have been unexpected by me, but it was. Steinbeck's own thoughts are clearly conveyed through graceful wording and so are those of a few other people he encounters on his homeward leg on both sides of the argument. It is as valuable today as it was then.

Steinbeck and his dog Charley. The adventure begins in September with Hurricane Donna before he even leaves home and ends with a historic snowstorm, but everything in the middle is pretty darn good too!

Steinbeck's declining health and whether the novel is truly fact or just fiction is unimportant to me as I found it an insightful and entertaini REALLY enjoyed this eventful journey thru 40 States with Mr. View all 4 comments. May 31, Grip Dellabonte rated it it was amazing 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 I hadn't expected to enjoy this book as much as I did. I managed to get through the whole trip with the cranky writer, and he was actually quite good company!

At the end of the trip, I found I missed not being able to climb back into his pickup aptly named Rocinante after Don Quixote's horse with him and the noble Charley, and head out on adventures new.

But the mood passed, and so did the Summer. I honestly have to say I got a bit of a lump in my throat when I saw exhibited there, with her door opened invitingly, was Rocinante beckoning to me once again to climb in and go see the country with her.

Quite a nice moment. If I had to pick one thing that I learned from the book it would be that it is a good idea not to have preconceived notions about the places you choose to visit. Chances are they will surprise you, and it is best to be flexible in those cases. This could reduce the possibility of becoming disenchanted with your travel destinations. View 2 comments. May 02, Jessaka rated it really liked it Shelves: adventure-true , travel , nobel-prize-for-literature.

And now there is some controversy about its being fiction or non-fiction. Steinbeck bought a pickup truck and had a camper shell made for it. Then he got his dog Charley and put him in the seat next to him and headed out of New York City to parts unknown with the intention of driving across America. My mind drew a blank as to the type of dog I could see him owning.

An all-American unidentifiable mutt. What kind did he own? I picked up the book again and began reading about his trip. He spent one night at a campground and let his mutt out of the truck so he could find some campers with whom he, Steinbeck, could get acquainted.

Bad idea. Never allow your dog to roam alone at a campground. When we were camping in California, a man left his dog tied up outside during the day, and two coyotes surrounded him. He was lucky that a neighbor saw this happening. But for Steinbeck, it worked. He made friends, invited them to dinner, served them canned beans, and just enjoyed their company. It was getting dark, and after I left the building, my husband saw me wandering around lost, so he sent our dog, Megan, out to get me.

Megan found me, and I told her to go to him, and she did. We had taught her this years ago. But this just goes to show that you should never allow your wife to wander free in a campground either. On another night, he parked on the side of a gravel road and tried to get to sleep when he heard crunching sounds on the gravel. He got up, grabbed a large flashlight and his gun and opened the door. Again, bad idea. I would have looked out the window or waited until the sound went away.

He may have an advantage with his gun and flashlight if it had been a man, but what if it had been a bear? Of course, there may have been no bears where he had spent the night. And now he had a cow horn on his pickup, so he drove near some moose and honked the cow horn. The moose came running to him, and he sped away. I know this was fun because my stepdad had a cow horn on his pickup. One day he took a drive to Creston, CA with us kids. Creston was a cow town with under people living there. My husband and I had lived there in the late 80s.

Well, my dad knew every rancher in the area. They came running, but unlike the dangerous moose, cows are nothing to fear. If my dad got stuck, the cattle would have just stopped at the pickup and stared at us.

A moose would charge, I believe. Anyway, we all thought that it was fun and began laughing. My dad just knew how to have fun, just as Steinbeck had. Steinbeck saw Montana and believed it to be the most beautiful State in America. I agree, but so is Wyoming. He then made it to the Redwoods without saying much about the other pitstops he had visited. He was awe inspired by the tall redwood trees and became philosophical, almost religious at seeing them.

It was now that I began to learn about him, and he was interesting, even a good person, I believe. Then he headed to his hometown of Salinas.

It was not the same as when he was a child. Well, the same happened to my home of Paso Robles, a town just south of Salinas. And Creston, instead of cattle grazing in pastures, grape vineyards cover the land. Our house had been plowed under. I walked out to where our house once stood, dug a hole and came up with the lucky horseshoe that was once on the door entering our house.

Lucky, it was not. This part about the horseshoe was not true. The last part of his trip took him through the South, and he dreaded this part of his trip because the South is racist. I know this to be true.

Then he gave a black man a ride, and the man was so afraid of his questioning him that he wanted out of his truck. He gave a white man a lift, and he finally asked him to get out of his truck, just as I had asked some of my friends to get out of my life, racist comments. Last of all, he hit me hard: He caused Charley to lose his mutthood by taking him to a groomer to get a poodle cut. Nov 18, Jenny Reading Envy rated it really liked it Shelves: read , creative-non-fiction , audiobook , travel.

Since that time, graduating 20 years ago, I have not read Steinbeck again. I bought this book to read on a train trip I had planned in California, since I knew that Steinbeck's father was a train man and that he grew up in California.

Since that trip was cancelled the book has lingered on my shelf at home, long enough for me to forget I had it. Ah well, the audio was great. The book will be nice to refer back to. Steinbeck reminds me of Orwell in his non-fiction writing.

Talking to individuals and writing about their experiences, focusing on people in rural areas living their everyday lives. He is traveling the country with his dog Charley in , from Maine to Wisconsin to Oregon to California to Texas to the south. The world is getting ready to change and there is this feeling of the "last times" of whatever we can call the years before the president and MLK Jr are assassinated, before the Civil Rights Movement. The chapters in the south are particularly insightful and painful to read.

A few broad comments on travel that I liked: "I felt at last that my journey had started; I think I hadn't really believed in it before. Why then was I unprepared for the beauty of this region? Between his literature classics everyone studies in school and his non-fiction works like this one, he wrote several novels that I have never read. The main one I think of is East of Eden , which I also have bought and left on a shelf.

I used to think I disliked him, but what I disliked as a child are traits that make me appreciate him now. His descriptiveness, his straightforward nature, his tone. I was jarred by it at age I didn't realize that was a sign of growth. View all 5 comments. It seemed appropriate to end my tour on Travels with Charley , the author's memoir of a circuitous road trip of the United States he began in September with his French poodle, Charley.

Steinbeck's account begins at his home on Long Island, New York. Getting on in years, he realizes he's been writing about a country he hasn't actually seen in a quarter century. To remedy this, Steinbeck obtains a customized three-quarter ton pickup truck with a camper on top. Its features include a double bed, stove, refrigerator and chemical toilet. Steinbeck dubs the truck "Rocinante" after Don Quixote's horse and after weeks of planning, pries himself away from his wife, checks for stowaways and heads northeast for Maine.

So as not to distress anyone with the truth behind his rambling, Steinbeck racks a shotgun, two rifles and a couple of fishing rods in Rocinante, " Travels with Charley is not a comprehensive study of those areas and anyone expecting chapters to have the sizzle of a travel magazine article might be disappointed, although as a Texan, I found Steinbeck's account of the mystique of the Lone Star State to be on the money and worthy of reprint in Texas Monthly.

The journey has some ups and downs for me as a reader. His visit to off-season Maine, where a motor court's management office is completely deserted when Steinbeck arrives and completely empty when he pulls out of the parking lot the next morning, has the eerie distance of a Stephen King short story.

On the other hand, Steinbeck's return to his hometown of Monterey seems cast with characters from Tortilla Flat or some other book. Steinbeck's trip culminates in New Orleans, where he witnesses vile protests outside a desegregated school. The racist asides thrown in Steinbeck's direction from one white man to another are sickening, but what's even more revealing is the body language of a black man the author insists on giving a ride, briefly, before the passenger decides he's safer walking the roadside than riding with a white man with New York plates asking questions about the civil rights movement.

One of the revelations of Travels with Charley is how little the news cycle of the United States has really changed in fifty years. Substitute disillusionment toward FDR for disillusionment toward Obama. Substitute Russians for Al Qaeda. Congestion, pollution, inflation are on the rise. The simplicity of our childhoods seems to be on the wane. None of this is novel to our time at all.

My love for this book, however bumpy the account, is the spell it placed over me. Who hasn't wanted to lease a truck, stock up on supplies, call the dog and light out for the road? I would never follow the route that Steinbeck chose, and I think that those who've retracted his journey in an attempt to fact check truth from fiction are missing the point.

Steinbeck makes a statement for resisting the comforts of what he refers to as "a professional sick person" and living out what life you have in a rocking chair. When we surrender our curiosity, we mind as well surrender our life.

What a wonderful writer. He had me smiling, laughing and loving Charley and then….. New Orleans…. Great book. View all 12 comments. This one is another genre our author is tackling here. It is no longer a matter of fiction in which there are many elements linked to his life, but rather his life itself and his daily life — a daily in a particular context, of course, but a daily all the same. I like travel reports, especially for their hectic and unexpected things.

The pace here is a bit slower than I expected at the start. But let's put it in context: this isn't about a bunch of raving youngsters going on an adventure to accomplish the moves.

This travel is the quiet journey of a man who is no longer very young and who does not go on an adventure but to meet his contemporary fellow citizens to get to know and understand them better. It was something my father had to do for work, and my parents had family and friends scattered everywhere. We mostly drove night and day until we got to one of their homes, but sometimes we stayed in a motel, and my brother and I were in heaven if there was a pool.

We often had the family dog with us, snuggled between my brother and me in the backseat. Growing up with that kind of car travel, day after day, highway after highway, it got into my blood. 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. He had fascinating conversations with everyday people he met on the road, and discovered kindness as well as cruelty.

Such a far-off and remembered odor comes subtly so that one does not consciously smell it, but rather an electric excitement is released--a kind of boisterous joy. Steinbeck was controversial in his time, and, for maybe different reasons, is still controversial today.

His politics and the way he depicts women in his fiction can rub some the wrong way. 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 Eight years before a lifelong smoking habit finally killed his heart, John Steinbeck embarked on one last road trip across the United States. Together they would board the Rocinante - Steinbeck's truck named after the horse of Don Quixote - and go and try to understand what America and Americans are like now.

My plan was clear, concise, and reasonable, I think. For many years I have traveled in many parts of the world. Steinbeck and Charley at their home in Sag Harbor in , the year the book was published. Thom Steinbeck, John's oldest son, believes that his father was aware that he was dying from his heart condition, and that he took the trip to say goodbye to his country.

I don't know how my stepmother let him go, because she knew his condition.