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Title: The Pearl/The Red Pony
Author: John Steinbeck
Genre: Classic literary fiction
Thingummies: 3.5
Synopsis: Two beautifully written, horribly depressing novellas, one about a poor Mexican family ruined by the discovery of a valuable pearl and one about a boy growing up on a ranch.
Thoughts: I've read a fair amount of Steinbeck. He has beautiful, clean prose (rather similar to Hemingway, actually--I suspect that may come from being contemporaries). He's also the author most likely to make you want to slit your wrists at the end in despair for the hopelessness of the world, so keep that in mind.
In "The Pearl", Steinbeck's in his "things go from bad to worse" mode. The story leads off with a baby being stung by a scorpion and kind of goes downhill from there. The racism that helps condemn the family is entirely believable yet appalling. It's not his best work--I found it rather heavy handed, and the ending is telegraphed from a mile away.
"The Red Pony" is actually not a unified work. Upon discovering that it's actually four short stories about the same characters instead of four chapters of one book, I liked it rather better. There's no plot arc amongst the stories--one calls back to an earlier one a bit, but overall they're not terribly connected. So I was dismayed that events from the previous stories are not really referred to in the final story. (Actually, I'm kind of baffled by the order they put these in. I feel like they really should have ended in "The Promise" instead of "The Leader of the People".)
Typical Steinbeck, it's still on the depressing side. The stories are about a kid growing up through exposure to death and disappointment. But imagery is so vivid, I still found it appealing. I loved the passage about Jody the mighty hunter gradually filling his lunch bucket with captured frogs and lizards, that "scrabbled unhappily against the tin", only to be forgotton and left for his horrified mother to discover.
This really shouldn't be the first Steinbeck someone reads, and it's certainly not his strongest. Go read Of Mice and Men. If you feel sick and jumping off a bridge sounds like a good idea (and a valid alternative to reading more Steinbeck), don't come back. If you find the quiet poetry of his simply constructed sentences and his writing makes your soul ache for the loneliness and beauty of the world, then read "The Red Pony"I'm not sure "The Pearl" is as much worth your time unless you're a completist, but they're both quite short, so it's not like it's much of an investment.
Author: John Steinbeck
Genre: Classic literary fiction
Thingummies: 3.5
Synopsis: Two beautifully written, horribly depressing novellas, one about a poor Mexican family ruined by the discovery of a valuable pearl and one about a boy growing up on a ranch.
Thoughts: I've read a fair amount of Steinbeck. He has beautiful, clean prose (rather similar to Hemingway, actually--I suspect that may come from being contemporaries). He's also the author most likely to make you want to slit your wrists at the end in despair for the hopelessness of the world, so keep that in mind.
In "The Pearl", Steinbeck's in his "things go from bad to worse" mode. The story leads off with a baby being stung by a scorpion and kind of goes downhill from there. The racism that helps condemn the family is entirely believable yet appalling. It's not his best work--I found it rather heavy handed, and the ending is telegraphed from a mile away.
"The Red Pony" is actually not a unified work. Upon discovering that it's actually four short stories about the same characters instead of four chapters of one book, I liked it rather better. There's no plot arc amongst the stories--one calls back to an earlier one a bit, but overall they're not terribly connected. So I was dismayed that events from the previous stories are not really referred to in the final story. (Actually, I'm kind of baffled by the order they put these in. I feel like they really should have ended in "The Promise" instead of "The Leader of the People".)
Typical Steinbeck, it's still on the depressing side. The stories are about a kid growing up through exposure to death and disappointment. But imagery is so vivid, I still found it appealing. I loved the passage about Jody the mighty hunter gradually filling his lunch bucket with captured frogs and lizards, that "scrabbled unhappily against the tin", only to be forgotton and left for his horrified mother to discover.
This really shouldn't be the first Steinbeck someone reads, and it's certainly not his strongest. Go read Of Mice and Men. If you feel sick and jumping off a bridge sounds like a good idea (and a valid alternative to reading more Steinbeck), don't come back. If you find the quiet poetry of his simply constructed sentences and his writing makes your soul ache for the loneliness and beauty of the world, then read "The Red Pony"I'm not sure "The Pearl" is as much worth your time unless you're a completist, but they're both quite short, so it's not like it's much of an investment.
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Date: 2011-04-25 09:04 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2011-04-26 01:46 am (UTC)From:Travels with Charley is charming, though.