Travels With Charley

In Search of America

Hardcover, 246 pages

Published July 27, 1962 by Viking Press.

ISBN:
978-0-670-72508-3
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4 stars (6 reviews)

A quest across America, from the northernmost tip of Maine to California's Monterey Peninsula To hear the speech of the real America, to smell the grass and the tress, to see the colors and the light—these were John Steinbeck's goals as he set out, at the age of fifty-eight, to rediscover the country he had been writing about for so many years. With Charley, his French poodle, Steinbeck drives the interstates and the country roads, dines with truckers, encounters bears at Yellowstone and old friends in San Francisco. And he reflects on the American character, racial hostility, on a particular form of American loneliness he finds almost everywhere, and on the unexpected kindness of strangers that is also a very real part of our national identity. "Pure delight, a pungent potpourri of places and people interspersed with bittersweet essays on everything from the emotional difficulties of growing old to the …

34 editions

Review of 'Travels with Charley in Search of America' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Creo que Streinbeck, más que salir a descubrir como era América, se fue de viaje para comprobar que no era como a él le gustaría.

Me han parecido muy interesantes las reflexiones que deja caer a lo largo del libro sobre racismo, ecología y otros muchos temas. Me ha sorprendido lo actuales que son y lo mucho en lo que estoy de acuerdo con la mayoría.

El libro está muy bien escrito y se lee fácil.

Review of 'Travels with Charley (Penguin Modern Classics)' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

I haven't read many travelogues; off-hand I can only think of three prior to this one. Two of those were pleasant enough but unspectacular and the other was so dull I did not finish. But this is Steinbeck! Travelogue by a Nobel Prize winning writer - surely it's got to be good? After all I'm a big fan of his fiction - surely I would like this!

And I did. It's 1962 and Steinbeck has decided he's out of touch with his own country so he's going to go on a road trip in a camper van, taking his dog, Charley the elderly French Poodle, with him and leaving his wife behind...interesting choice there, John! But before he can leave a hurricane hits Long Island and he has to heroically rescue his boat. This tale of adventure before the trip even starts reminds me that Steinbeck was a fully paid …