Rating: 
Summary: Timeless Travel
Review: I have read my fair share of travel books. Intrigued by other's perceptions of distant places, I never mind being the passive partner in their adventures.Steinbeck's travels feel timeless. He has the skill to grasp the experience of yesterday and make it seem like it is today. It was with extreme pleasure to read of him simply packing up for his trip in his very new, custom made camper that he named Rocinate. He delights in explaining the intricate features of the camper, running water, stove, bedding and water tank. As he kisses his wife goodbye, he and his poodle, Charley take off to see the United States and the people that live there. Of extreme delight is getting to know the moods and habits of Charley. Before long, you feel as if he is sitting beside you, fftting you to go out. He was an attraction, the ice breaker that brought many of the characters Steinbeck writes about to life. As Steinbeck moves from state to state, he relishes his friendship with this dog. He writes down his memories and feelings and these beautiful, funny, timeless reminisces feel just as fresh today as they were yesterday.
Rating:
Summary: America, there you are!
Review: What a great book! It sure was a pleasure to sit down and just read a very relaxing read. Not a book that you have to rush through or try to understand or discover the hidden meaning. Just a man, his dog, his truck and three months across America. It may just be me, but there is something special, fun and exciting about going out and discovering America with your dog. This is a trip that we would all love to take. Why didn't they make us read this in High School instead of some of those other boring just put me to sleep books. If I would have read this in High School I probably would not have ignored books for the last 10 years. I need more books like this one.
Rating: 
Summary: "Fttt" and the Comments of his Human Companion
Review: Steinbeck clearly thought at the time he was writing The Winter of Our Discontent (1961) that America was in the middle of a serious moral and ethical crises, that the traditions and values this country was founded upon were no longer looked upon as serious guidelines for American behavior. The trip across America detailed in this book was undertaken at least in part as an attempt by Steinbeck to determine if this evaluation of the state of America was valid, if when Americans were approached as individuals, face-to-face, some other picture might emerge. To facilitate his investigation, Steinbeck brought along his poodle Charley, as companion and ice-breaker, and packed up a camper truck with everything he thought he might need in his travels (probably too much, as he ruefully admits at one point), and proceed to travel across the states in a large circle, from New York to Maine to Illinois to Washington, California, Texas, and the Deep South. As we travel along with him, we are treated to a rather incredible display of the sheer writing talent that Steinbeck possessed, as the people he meets along the way are described accurately and so very concisely, sometimes in just a couple of paragraphs, to where these people come alive to the reader, to where the reader can say "I know someone just like that". But perhaps more importantly, the book is spattered throughout with Steinbeck's acute observations and opinions on everything from antiques, the virtues of small towns, the value of manual labor, the homogenizing of American language and cuisine due to the influence of radio and television, the beginnings of the interstate system and its influence on everything along its routes, hunters, trash, and many other items, all carefully supported by his actual observations along the road. There are a few comments expressed by Charley here, too (typically a "Fttt" and a sniff). And although this book was written forty years ago, much of what Steinbeck wrote then is still very valid today. Whether this represents a good thing or not, that there has been so little change in some very basic elements of American society in the intervening years, must be decided and thought upon by the reader. It seems that many writers of stature eventually write some form of 'travel' book. This is one of the best of this genre, due to both Steinbeck's great powers of observation and his ability to distill what he sees to something that is recognizable, distinctive, that resonates with the reader's own experiences. This is not his greatest book - that distinction belongs to his great fiction works of The Grapes of Wrath, The Pearl, East of Eden, The Winter of Our Discontent. But it is a very satisfying look at a great writer and his outlook on the America of his day.
Rating:
Summary: Still very fresh
Review: It's amazing how relevant Steinbeck's observations of America are forty years after he wrote this book. In fact, much of what he says seems to apply even more now than when he first wrote it, such as when he observes: "the mountain of things we throw away are much greater than the things we use. In this, if in no other way, we can see the wild and wreckless exuberance of our production, and waste seems to be the index." In a similar vein, he wonders, when considering the expansion of large cities, "why progress looks so much like destruction." Steinbeck's sarcasm also comes to the surface when he notes some of the many odd habits and leisure activities of Americans, such as antique-hunting in omnipresent antique shops, which he felt were "bulging with authentic and attested trash from an earlier time." He was also quite impressed with the country's intrepid hunters, to whom he feared his poodle Charley would look like a buck deer. After spending an evening in Maine with some migrant farms workers from Quebec, he expressed (rather vainly, in retrospect) his hope that the country would not some day be overwhelmed "by people not too proud or too lazy or too soft to bend to the earth and pick up the things we eat." Far from being simply critical though, what comes out of this book is Steinbeck's great love for the country. His view that the "American identity is an exact and provable thing" still rings true today. "Travels with Charley" is not just classic travel literature, it is also a very readable and informative set of observations on America in the mid-20th century and beyond.
Rating:
Summary: great read for Steinbeck fans
Review: Travels With Charley: In Search of American is an entertaining and personal novel. You really get to know Steinbeck, which is why I think people who are already Steinbeck fans will enjoy this book more if they have read his other major works ("Of Mice and Men" and "The Grapes of Wrath"). Those novels will also give the reader a point of comparison (as well as an introduction) as far as his opinions, because, as usual, he does not hold back in his opinions. He was a very smart man with much to say of importance and he gives his opinions on what he sees directly in this novel. Steinbeck is one of my favorite authors, this is the fifth book I have read by him and I plan on reading most of his other works. He gives visual imagery like few other authors, so the reader really feels as if he/she is in the passenger seat with him. I give it 5 stars because nonfiction does not get much better. because it is, afterall, nonfiction. However I would recomend you read "Of Mice and Men" and "The Grapes of Wrath" before you read this, because frankly, they are better ... and are also good introductions.
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Summary: An amazing Odyssey across America
Review: This year marks the 100th aniversary of the birth of Steinbeck, and this book is one of the great pleasures of an avid reader. From his home in New York, there and back again, Steinbeck crosses America in a truck named for Don Quixote's horse, (all men should name their car Rocinate, after all), with a French poodle named Charley. The worst part about the book is it is far too short, leaving a reader desiring more. Steinbeck's journey touches a side of America, the true awe and wonder for the land and her people like few novels. The work is full of humor and insight, both profound and personal. Perhaps only a handful of books pierces the American experience like "Travels with Charley". It is a book that requires a slow pace, to savor the voyage across this great land and her treasures. My experience in reading the book can best be stated by Steinbeck himself, in an observation made while leaving the state of Maine, "There are times that one treasures for all one's life, and such times are burned clearly and sharply on the material of total recall. I felt very fortunate that morning."
Rating:
Summary: Examination of Americans
Review: I liked this book for the most part. It's not so much a story about John Steinbeck taking a trip, but rather a story of a trip, that happened to be told through the eyes of John Steinbeck. Steinbeck, himself, often takes third billing to the miriad of unique individuals he encounters (French-Canadian migrant workers, mechanics, hotel keepers, actors, etc.) and the beautiful scenery that Steinbeck describes so well. Other reviewers consider "Travels with Charley" the ramblings of a grumpy old man, but I disagree. Yes, his age and his opinions come into play in this book, but the world is always going to be seen through the eyes of an individual. This individual happens to be nearing the end of his life and is apt to compare the world as it is to the world as it was. This comes into play during the meeting of a young man who works on a nuclear submarine and when Steinbeck visits his hometown. Other times, Steinbeck comments on changing American opinions, such as his surprise that many Americans prefer to own a mobile home than own a piece of property--Steinbeck always believed that the stability that comes with a piece of land was superior to the advantages of mobility and he was curious to find out why the shift in attitudes. As the book neared its end, however, it seems as if Steinbeck got really tired of the project. His travels through the Deep South, during which time he encountered numerous racists was depressing. Furthermore, the ending of the book was quite abrupt. A book as good as this one deserved an ending with more effort put into it. In all, I would recommend this book. It's fast-paced (but with introspection, unlike "On the Road"), witty, and (with a few exceptions) makes you feel pretty good about being an American.
Rating:
Summary: A Master at Work
Review: Steinbeck is one of my all time favorite writers. This book is a fitting curtain call to an illustrious career. Steinbeck had a deep love for the common man, for the misfits and socially shackled, and spent a lifetime spinning tales about their trials and tribulations. Yet, he remained so humble despite all the struggles he had endeared to become an "accomplished" writer. The language in this book is a joy to read and I would strongly encourage any young writers to give it a read.
Rating:
Summary: Travels with Charley
Review: Steinbeck packs his bags at the age of 60, and heads out to discover an America he claims he hasn't known for over 20 years. Since he is a shy person, he takes his dog, a large bleu poodle named Charlie, with him to help break the ice with people as he travels around the country. What follows is an account of the places he goes and the people he meets during this three-month journey.
I hadn't read any of Steinbeck's novels until I picked up this great piece of American literature! I enjoy creative works by individuals who have an unquestionable love for something. I believe Steinbeck was such a person. Travels With Charley is a charming, honest, and in a way, innocent novel about the author's observations of Americans and the Americans people think they know. Alone in his thoughts, it is not a drawn out - chronological book on his life. It is almost a journal, but written in a style that makes you feel like a close and personal friend. It is not only a look at America, it takes you inside yourself. It inspires you to take a deeper look inside of you and the life that goes on around you. He broadens your perspective on subjects that you would never even think about.
John Steinbeck's journey across America was like being in a movie. Everything he did he described in every full and minor detail so I, the reader, was able to follow along with him as if I was really there.
Rating:
Summary: Gave Me Wanderlust
Review: Simple and wonderful, this book made me want to go get a big dog and pack everything I own into an RV. Steinbeck has such a gift for characterizations and elegant truths: "It occurs to me that, just as the Carthaginians hired mercenaries to do their fighting for them, we Americans bring in mercenaries to do our hard and humble work. I home we may not be overwhelmed one day by peoples not too proud or too lazy or too soft to bend to the earth and pick up the things we eat."
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