"Steinbeck" Topic

I've been sorting, cataloguing & cleaning my library and I've stumbled over books written by this Great American Novelist.

I always admired John Steinbeck's writing: I think I own a copy of everything he wrote. Am I not the only one to forget him? You don't hear much about him it seems. No reprints, no lit.crit books, no movies?

Has he undeservedly "gone out of fashion'?

Cannery Row BTW is an absolute favourite.

Still on high school summer reading lists in my neck of the woods. I'm not wild about all his stuff, but I loved East of Eden.

_Tortilla Flats_, written about a group of what we'd call
homeless WWI vets, is my favorite.

_Grapes of Wrath_ and _Of Mice and Men_ were studied in
my daughter's writing classes in college, 3-4 years ago.

I'd say Steinbeck still influences modern culture:

YouTube link

Those guys are modern, current, right? They're not just a couple of washed-up old rock-n-roll communists? Because if that's all they are, then what am I? And if not now, when?

I'd say he is still highly regarded and rightly so.

Love Steinbeck's work. In fact, I find myself liking his books more and more as I reread them. My wife and daughter love his work, too, and he's definitely still being taught/assigned in many schools and colleges.

Hard to pick a favorite, but Cannery Row and Tortilla Flats are right up there.

Saw Springsteen a couple of months ago. If that's "washed up," well, son, count me in. Three hours non-stop, and he played "Ghost of Tom Joad," too, one of my favorites.

I enjoy all of the movies based on his work, too, but my favorite is definitely Cannery Row with Nick Nolte as Doc.

When John Huston passed away, there was no voice left to narate.

"Greased grooves."

I like Steinbeck but I find his stuff to be more variable in terms of quality than other writers that I think of as great writers. Maybe that is a harsh assessment. Some of his stuff is very good, some just okay. Other than the Arthur stuff I've never read anything by him that I didn't think was at least good.

Glad to hear JS's work is alive & kicking. I'm not sure he even got the credit he deserved when he was alive.

His 'Sweet Thursday' got caned by the critics, I think because it wasn't 'Cannery Row'. JS was trying for something completely different even though it was a sequel.
I still like it.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, another great, also wrote some less than stellar books but like JS, I think if you've got such a huge output, not everything can be The Great American Novel.