Travels with Charley

I just finished the Steinbeck book "Travels with Charley" and found it to be a very enjoyable, easy read. Steinbeck had won fame and some fortune after receiving the Nobel Prize in literature, but like many men of distinction found it hard to settle. While not enjoying his retirement, Steinbeck decided to set out across America to rediscover the country which had supplied him with the backbone of his writings. I suppose that, even after years of studying Americans, he did not understand all he had composed and questioned what makes one citizen the same or different than the next. He has a special "house" built on the back of a truck, and with the help of his poodle Charley, embarks on his quest.
Steinbeck is as insightful and articulate in this non-fictitious book as he is in his more famous works, such as The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men. He is a great "describer of things" including trees, states, and people, and is always questioning and willing to look at both sides. His journey takes him out to California where he encounters some of the same characters from his other book Cannery Row, and gives a great soliloquy about how "you can never go home again". He makes his way down into Texas, which is "both a state and a state of mind" and over to New Orleans to witness segregation in action.
Through it all, Steinbeck draws few conclusions and seems to have gathered more questions about America than he can bother to deal with. Eventually he makes his way up through New Jersey and back to Long Island where the book comes to a sudden halt. The book is thought provoking, funny, and easy (compared with Grapes) and would be highly recommended by The Garden.