Author: John Steinbeck
Length: 292 pages
The Winter of Our Discontent
$0.00
AVAILABLE!
AVAILABLE!
Description
“In awarding John Steinbeck the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Nobel committee stated that with The Winter of Our Discontent, he had ‘resumed his position as an independent expounder of the truth, with an unbiased instinct for what is genuinely American.’
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, and today ranks alongside his most acclaimed works of penetrating insight into the American condition. This Penguin Classics edition features an introduction and notes by leading Steinbeck scholar Susan Shillinglaw.”
Janet Dore –
This book cemented John Steinbeck into place as one of my favorite authors. His character development is rarely matched, the issues he writes about are timeless, and I would argue his writing is perfect. Apparently, the judges for the Nobel Prize agreed!
Though written in the middle of last century, The Winter of Our Discontent is totally relevant to today’s reader. Ethan Allen Hawley struggles with the repercussions of being good in a capitalistic society that rewards the use of people as stepping stones. On a much more simplistic level, I have brought up many of the observations and frustrations with what one must to do to get ahead in this world…and have felt what Ethan felt at times.