Travels with Charley

People online say the story isnt true. The events certainly happened and they are romanticized recollections by John Steinbeck. A fiction writer taking us along on his journey across America. There doesn't seem to be a ton of evidence against Steinbeck beyond people who are willing to take incomplete evidence and make up their minds. Are some recollections fudged a bit? Duh. Are dates he was at locations not exact? Yeah probably. He states several times in the book that he doesn't really keep serious track of these types of things, much to the apparent chagrin of the obsessively casual historian. I dont think that is enough to make a story untrue. Especially not with the heart that goes into this book. The perspective and realizations about people that often still hold true to this day. That much felt very real. I would fudge my story too if I was trying to write a narrative while simultaneously trying to recollect memories of my journey. It is a romanticized non-fiction. This is a book for the wanderer. The malcontent. The minds that yearns for more. And the perspectives on life of a man knowingly approaching his inevitable death.

Travels with Charlie was the first book I picked for my new Kindle and my first non-fiction book by John Steinbeck.

It is a fantastic book as a travel memoir that really gives the reader a glimpse into the person that was John Steinbeck. I've always been a fan of his works although my breadth in reading his work has been limited to about 5 novels before this.

Travels with Charlie is a chronicle of the writer's journey from his 1960's home in Long Island across the Northern U.S. to the home of his youth in Monterey County (Salinas and Monterey) in California, back home by way of the south.

It is a relatively short book that perhaps provides the reader the best opportunity to get to know the person that was John Steinbeck. You'll find yourself a part of a journey just as you may have with the Grapes of Wrath only John and Charlie (his poodle) are your companions. Not only do you see the character of Steinbeck, you see the character of the U.S. at the beginning of the 1960's. The stories he tells, the people he meets, his interactions with Charlie are all fantastic.

If I had to make any criticism of the book, it would be that as the story progresses, things get a bit more sparse. However, this isn't really so much a fault of the book as a loss of patience on Steinbeck's part. You get the feeling during the beginning that this trip is going long, and it does. A lot of detail goes into the trip through the northern part of the country. I am not sure it is too much detail, but as Steinbeck gets exhausted with the length of his trip, so does his writing. From the beginning, I was interested in what his commentary would be as he came back around. Unfortunately, given the length of his trip, he became more rushed and the commentary more sparse. That doesn't necessarily hurt things as there are some interesting items from the South to be read about, but it is too bad there isn't a bit more. The end is a little too abrupt for the quality of the overall book.

Overall, it is a fantastic read, and the interactions with Charlie are really fantastic. He really does a fantastic job of showing the love that most people have for their dogs. I am thankful I gave this book a try as it really added to my admiration for John Steinbeck and gives the reader a window into a man who is obviously not perfect but is definitely respectable.