And don't forget John Steinbeck!!!

[ferolynn]

On eof my favorite American classic authors. There are several lesser-known works like "Burning Bright" that many people don't know. And Steinbeck's works are a good way to explore the landscape of America via literature.

[willowy]

I would enjoy discussing Steinbeck,I enjoyed his major works and have always been fond of The Pearl. I haven't read the book you are talking about but I have heard of it and it sounds very interesting. I think how it was written sounds interesting too, the "play-novelette" I think Steinbeck called it.

[donyskiw]

Yes, I read The Pearl in high school and again a few years ago. Also, East of Eden is great for discussion.

Denise

[fanuzzir]

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ferolynn wrote:
On eof my favorite American classic authors. There are several lesser-known works like "Burning Bright" that many people don't know. And Steinbeck's works are a good way to explore the landscape of America via literature.

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I don't know these works you have mentioned, but please share your enjoyment and I'll catch up!

[Erin]

In Middle School, I read Of Mice and Men. I had a difficult time getting through the book because it was so depressing. I admired the devotion that Lenny had toward George and vice versa. I almost cried when Lenny accidentally killed the puppy.
Therefore, I am not a huge Steinbeck fan, but am open to reading other of his works.

[LizzieAnn]

I have mixed feelings about John Steinbeck. Many years ago I tried The Grapes of Wrath several times, but I just couldn't get through it. However, I was able to read Of Mice and Men. Yet, I've been reluctant to try another.

[fanuzzir]

I'm looking for one more voice, pro or con, to weigh in on the Steinbeck question. So far, there is such ambivalence I'm a little reluctant to push a thread on people. Any Mice and Men lovers out there?

[donyskiw]

Liz,
Try Cannery Row. It's actually a pretty amusing Steinbeck novel.

Denise

Message Edited by donyskiw on 11-06-200610:49 AM

[LizzieAnn]

Thanks for the recommendation. I'll put it on my list!

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donyskiw wrote:
Liz,
Try Cannery Row. It's actually a pretty amusing Steinbeck novel.

Denise

Message Edited by donyskiw on 11-06-200610:49 AM

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[fanuzzir]

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LizzieAnn wrote:
Thanks for the recommendation. I'll put it on my list!

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donyskiw wrote:
Liz,
Try Cannery Row. It's actually a pretty amusing Steinbeck novel.

Denise

Message Edited by donyskiw on 11-06-200610:49 AM

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That happens to be the one Steinbeck novel I really like. Do you know it was made into a movie with Nick Nolte and Debra Winger as Doc?

[donyskiw]

I didn't know that but I bet it was funny. I just remember it being a very amusing book. Especially after reading The Pearl and then going on to read East of Eden. I got a free movie coupon for a rental from Blockbuster. I'll look to see if they have it. Sometimes they don't carry older films, especially if they haven't been converted to DVD. Then I have to borrow them from the library.

Denise

[fanuzzir]

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donyskiw wrote:
I didn't know that but I bet it was funny. I just remember it being a very amusing book. Especially after reading The Pearl and then going on to read East of Eden. I got a free movie coupon for a rental from Blockbuster. I'll look to see if they have it. Sometimes they don't carry older films, especially if they haven't been converted to DVD. Then I have to borrow them from the library.

Denise

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I never did see the movie, but I knew they were going to try to create more sparks between the two antagonists in the story if they ever made a movie out of it. Anyone watch Grapes of Wrath lately? Here's an author whose filmed novels starred both Henry Fonda and Debra Winger. When was the last time you saw them in the same sentence?

[donyskiw]

Actually, I rarely watch movies that are made from books. I'm not sure why although I did purchase the DVD of Memoirs of a Geisha. I read the book twice and then watched the movie.

Denise

[fanuzzir]

What did you think? I've been avoiding that one.

[donyskiw]

I enjoyed it. I had planned on watching only half of it because I had to go to work the next day and then watching the rest the next evening. Instead, I watched the entire movie and went to bed after midnight! Even though I knew the story, I was drawn in. It captured the book as well as a movie can capture a book. There are the inevitable changes that have to be made because movies never can capture all of the nuances of books, especially because movies are so limited in scope and time. Maybe that's why I usually don't watch the movies made from books. But I thought they did a good job with this one. I think because a geisha is so much about beauty and a movie is a wonderful way to showcase beauty that it was carried off so well.

Denise

[fanuzzir]

The geisha theme does freak me out a bit; I keep thinking that the moviemakers and novelist are trying to add alot of tragic glamour to the world's oldest profession.

[donyskiw]

I think the novelist may be trying to make the distinction between the role of a prostitute and that of a geisha. The geisha did not sell sex. What she was selling was a form of living art. The geisha was a valuable commodity but sex was discouraged because it brought down her value. However, her virginity was auctioned off to the highest bidder and, later in life, she would often have a damma, or patron, who was really just a someone who took her as his mistress in exchange for a financial arrangement. It could be argued that she was trapped into this lifestyle, in the novel, the girl in the book was sold into a geisha house (and her sister was sold into a house of prostitution) when they were very young and their mother was dying, so, I don't think Japanese girls grew up saying, "I want to be a geisha". At the end of the novel, the elderly geisha is in New York and people there are uncomfortable with her because they do not understand the difference between a prostitute and a geisha. She is trying to point out, "What is the difference between a kept woman and a geisha?" I discussed this book in a face-to-face women's book group where we specifically talked about where a geisha fit into this heirarchy of women's roles. We all definitely held the geisha in a higher level than a prostitute because of the training and emphasis on art and beauty and skill in dance and entertainment and music required for her profession. Her success, unlike a prostitute or even someone's mistress, was not based on sex.

Denise

[Bruce]

I'm really glad that Cannery Row was mentioned. If anyone doubts Steinbeck's deserved status as a master of American writing, just read the perfection of the famous opening. The prose imposes a cadence that floods the reader with images and transports you to a different time and place, yet one that you can perceive and appreciate without ever having experienced anything quite like it. And his colorful commentary on the duality of man fits seemlessly into the description. Enjoy:

"Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream. Cannery Row is the gathered and scattered, tin and iron and rust and splintered wood, chipped pavement and weedy lots and junk heaps, sardine canneries of corrugated iron, honky tonks, restaurants and whore houses, and little crowded groceries, and laboratories and flophouses. Its inhabitants are, as the man once said, 'whores, pimps, gamblers and sons of bitches,' by which he meant Everybody. Had the man looked through another peephole he might have said, 'Saints and angels and martyrs and holy men,' and he would have meant the same thing."

[fanuzzir]

Denise, thank you for that. Did the members of that group see that value of an aesthetic life that valued a woman for her beauty in the eyes of both men and women?

[fanuzzir]

Bruce, Cannery Row is my favorite too. Thank you for the extended passage.