Steinbeck on NOLA

I read Steinbeck's Travels With Charley over the weekend. I picked it up for a quarter at the Goodwill. It's easy to get in over my head with a cheap book. I feel like I don't have anything to lose because it's not really costing me anything and if I never read it then it's not a big deal. I can end up reading some pretty powerful stuff that way.

I've had it next to my bed in a pile of books for a couple of months now and finally thought I ought to at least give it a try. It looks kind of dry and I've heard so much about how literary it is that I was sure I was going to have to really work to read it. I was dead wrong. It's a joy to read and I loved it. It's quite funny at times and always interesting.

But the most interesting thing is how 40 years later the eyes of the nation are once again turned to New Orleans to watch as races clash and the military patrols the streets. Steinbeck writes about a group of awful women who scream verbal abuse at a little black girl who is going to a newly segregrated school and how it makes him sick to his soul. Every few paragraphs I read something that made me think it could be written about what is going in New Orleans today.

When people are engaged in something they are not proud of, they do not welcome witnesses. In fact, they come to believe the witness causes the trouble.

If you have a copy reread the last couple of chapters. Listen to what he is saying and you'll see what I mean.