Rating: 
Summary: Another Steinbeck Classic
Review: Winter of Our Discontent was quite typical of Steinbeck's writing. It was rather descriptive and tried to dissect the human psyche. This particular book studied the effects of compromising one's morals. It was pretty good and definitely worth reading, especially for any Steinbeck obsessors (like me hehe). For those who want to get a feel of Steinbeck's writing, but don't feel like investing enough time to read Grapes of Wrath, this would work as a decent substitute.
Rating:
Summary: Good Dissection of Morality
Review: Steinbeck comes forth with his usual superb character development as expected. What was unexpected was how relevant his question remains today. Is everyone dishonest in business? Is that what it takes? What happens to an honest man when he tries to get ahead? The story is set in the typical small American town. If you have ever watched small town politics, you know the cast. Except for Ethan. He is unique because he is honest. He is also "a failure" because he is honest. He has a wonderful wife - never openly begrudging and always accomodating. But then he has two kids, both of whom want to know why he isn't rich or when he will be. They are the future, as children naturally are and the question plays out between them too. Then there is Margie. Like a carbon copy of the perfect wife, she is the perfect "confidant" if you get my drift. As a woman, the contrast between them begs study. But it also pushes the fidelity angle too as Steinbeck goes into her relationships with various men. Like Young Goodman Brown (Hawthorne, I think) who goes to meet the Devil fearing what various people would think only to find out that they are all already there, Hawley questions of morality go there too. But the true grit of this, for me, is the honesty factor. When being asked by his family when he will be rich, one of his responses is that there are two kinds of money - no money and not enough. It will never be enough. At what point do you stop "bending the rules". Do you "bend the rules" to get a house and security and then behave as an honest and decent man? Or do you then have the "not enough" kind of money and have to keep going. Is to be rich necessarily to be dishonest? And in the return to honesty and decency, will the money be lost? This is an excellent book - and always will be. As long as we keep doing things we wouldn't "normally" do to make money, i.e. trade off our family and values to do this or do that. Are we being who we want to be? Are we striving to be the best spouse, neighbor, parent or does business come first? And, if so, why? Is that really success?
Rating: 
Summary: Overall, didn't work for me
Review: This book is short, but it seems to plod along. It feels forced, as though Steinbeck was straining to write about normal people when possibly he couldn't relate to them anymore. The characters are O.K. But nothing like the characters in the other books I have read by him thus far: Grapes, Eden, Cannery and the Pearl. Basically I was disappointed. However, I will still seek out more Steinbeck to read since most of the other works I have mentioned were so monumental. Every writer is allowed a dud here and there, especially one who has such an amazing track record.
Rating:
Summary: By far, one of Steinbeck's Best
Review: I read this book for American Lit in college. Since then, I have read it 3 more times. There is something about the main character and what happens to his life that is just so very....haunting.
Rating: 
Summary: A Gem
Review: I was intrigued by this book from the beginning. It has a charm and sincerity that is achieved without the shock value or vulgarity typical of modern fiction. The narrator, Ethan Allen Hawley, is a disgruntled family man who is perpetually offended by human greed. His wife and children want modest luxuries, like summer vacation trips. But Ethan is convinced that money is a false idol because the more people have, the more they want. This suicidal man denies every request with a moralizing "no," believing that he is teaching his children how to be happy. The affectionate banter between characters, and outright invention of many words, reminds me of James Joyce in Ulysses. I found Steinbeck, however, to be far more accessible than Joyce. This book would be excellent in the classroom. Although perhaps too dry for most high school students, it provides a crystal clear example of how themes and symbols can be threaded throughout a story. The recurrence of the word "scar" refers to psychic imprints that people leave on each other. (Hence the oft-quoted line, "To be alive is to have scars.") Each reference to money is richly nuanced. And the interactions between father and teenager are classic. It would be interesting to see what young people project onto the boy, who is only described through his father's eyes. There is also an important issue of race relations with, and citizenship of, an Italian immigrant.
Rating: 
Summary: A Failure
Review: We're not given a real protagonist. The author cares more -- much more -- about the sacred cows of his language and metaphor than about character. Ethan Allen Hawley is a Harvard graduate and a scion of old money who goes to work as a clerk in a grocery store because his father has squandered said old money. This is in 1948, and we meet him 12 years on, still in the same grocery store, still doing menial labor, in 1960. A college graduate was still a rather rare commodity in 1948, certainly a Harvard grad. Why on earth would such a man be willing to sweep floors and stock shelves for 12 years? We are never told. Why does he suddenly awaken and become ambitious in 1960? (this is the Easter metaphor -- the old Ethan dies and a new one arises) We are never told. Why does his ambition coincide with moral depravity? We are never told. He is not only a Harvard grad, he is impossibly witty, glib, and, all of a sudden, street smart. No such person would have sat still so long, any such person could have made money in 1948-1960 without cutting corners morally to a significant degree, and no such person would be surprised that cutting corners morally in pursuit of wealth would make him feel so bad that he might not be able to live with himself. Steinbeck wanted to make a statement about the sad state of morals in 1960 America, but immorality was not unique to that time, or our time, or the late '30s (Grapes of Wrath), or the Roman Empire or the Russian Steppes or anyplace or anytime else. Immorality is the oldest story in the book, so if you want to talk about it through characters, there is no reason for doing so other than simply as an excuse to write good characters, but Steinbeck fails to do that. Margie and Joey, friends of Ethan, are also like him: ambitious and impossibly perspicacious and witty, yet somehow stuck in dead-end lives year in and year out in a dead little town. It's a silly, tiresome book, micro-smart but macro dumb dumb dumb.
Rating:
Summary: Very highly recommended
Review: First, I will state up front that John Steinbeck is one of my favorite authors. In this novel Steinbeck atypically writes about life in a town in the east, one somewhere on the lower New England coast. The depth of the characters, a Steinbeck trademark, is present here in spades. His protagonist, Ethan Allen Hawley, is one of the most thoroughly well written characters that you can find. His wife Mary, his boss Marullo, his friend at the bank next store Joey-boy, his wife's friend Margie Young-Hunt, his kids (maybe especially his kids)... are all so vividly displayed that it's easy to forget that this is a fictitious town filled with fictitious people. The subject matter easily matches the character's depth... the difficulty in a modern world, full of all kinds of pressures, to remain moral and honest in the face of an easier way out. (Although written in the early 60s, the relevance to current headlines is obvious). Suffice to say that Steinbeck is one of the great writers of all time and all his copious skills are on display here. Very highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: America, 1961 and 2001
Review: This is a frightening book, with more real horror than ten of the standard fare. By detailing one man's sliding morals, it holds up a mirror to everyone, as we all have faced similar decisions between doing what is right and doing what is convenient. And facing ourselves can be truly horrifying -- especially when
the collective result of everyone's decisions is clearly evident in the ethical morass of today's world, from a President trying to re-formulate the English language to the Enron financial fiasco to wide-spread cheating on exams at our military academies. For this novel Steinbeck decided to remove himself from his normal California setting in favor of the East Coast. By doing so he availed himself of a milieu where tradition and 'old money' set the standards for acceptance into 'society'. Ethan Hawley is a man whose family used to be part of that 'society', but due to bad financial decisions he now finds himself clerking for an immigrant who owns the grocery store he himself used to own. With a wife quietly but constantly chiding him about her desires for a better life, to be able to hold her head up in society, and two kids constantly clamoring for more things, Ethan finds himself at a crossroads between a rigid moral code instilled in him by his aunt and grandfather, and providing a better life for those he loves. Told partially in first person in spare but very effective prose, the road that Ethan spirals down is brilliantly portrayed, from his 'sermons' to the groceries, to his internal 'conversations' with his grandfather, to the seemingly chance happenings and conversations in his little town that spawns an idea and method for robbing the local bank, to his 'dropping a dime' on his immigrant boss, to his betrayal of his alcoholic friend Danny. Each action and decision proceeds logically from the previous one, each one more step down a path with no end, a path which Ethan continues to tell himself that he can abandon with no lingering aftereffects at any time. Each point is meticulously plotted, with all the proper items set in place before the action, and the choice of time, setting, and materials is rich in irony, a sure mark of an author fully in control of his subject. The ending is deliberately ambiguous. By the time I reached that point I had been so drawn into Ethan's character I found that his final decision was tremendously important to me. Each reader ultimately must draw his own conclusion about what Ethan will do, but regardless of what answer the reader reaches, no reader can remain unaffected by this book, and will find his life richer for having read it. Steinbeck was one of the great American writers. His Nobel prize was richly deserved, and this book, while not as well known as his Grapes of Wrath or East of Eden, is certainly one of the reasons why, rivaling his other works in power and insightful looks at American society, just as valid today as when it was written, and peopled by a very living set of characters.
Rating:
Summary: A must read
Review: As social commentary on the "spirit of capitalism" as it manifested itself in small towns in the coastal U.S. this is as good as it gets. In stunning prose and articulate style, we are taken into the world of the mind of a man who was born into a world where he never felt he belonged. Upon returning home after becoming a decorated war hero, the protagonist discovers that running the family businesses is a different ballgame. After losing the "family farm" but keeping the house, this Ivy league literature graduate pines away tending shop for a successful Italian immigrant-entrepreneur. Then one day he snaps and the story really begins. Having taught several classes on political science and political economy, I can honestly say this is one of the best expositions of the pervasive power of capitalism to drive a good man to do "ruthless" things. Never black and white, Steinbeck portrays an endless array of ethical dilemmas while keeping a nail-biting dramatic tension throughout. To the reader who chooses to put oneself in the character's shoes, there is much to be gained from an honest reading of this slim volume. I can see why the Nobel committee considered this book to have put him over the top in earning the prize in 1961
Rating:
Summary: There but for the grace of God.......
Review: Discontent was required reading in high school and has lost nothing in the past 40 years. Ethan Hawley and his story was relevant in the fifties and is even more so today. I've never met a Steinbeck book I didn't like but this one has to be my favorite. Maybe it's because I know more than several Ethan Hawleys and Steinbeck's portrayal is dead on. Although I can't believe the Nobel committee waited until 1962 to award Discontent the prize for literature (what about Of Mice and Men and East of Eden)? this novel surely deserved it. This is a novel that bears rereading every five years or so. If ever an author chronicled the lessening of American standards and the downward spiral of a man's moral integrity, it was Steinbeck!
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