Travels With Charley by John Steinbeck

Travels with Charley

John Steinbeck

Published 1962

⭐⭐⭐⭐

If you read John Steinbeck, then you are familiar with his novels. If you have not read this particular title, it is a non-fiction, travelogue kind of book. In the fall of 1960, Steinbeck took a trip across America with his poodle, Charley, and wrote about his experience. They set out from Long Island, New York, to "see what Americans are like today."

Unfortunately, I borrowed a Kindle version from my library and highlighted it, but had to return it several days ago after finishing it, and I did not write down my notes. Now I cannot share quotes and ideas that I saved. I can only write about this from memory. 

Steinbeck and Charley drove up the rest of the East Coast through New England to Maine and back through upstate New York, then through the Great Lakes states, then North Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Washington, Oregon, his home state of California, and then down through the desert of Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. He apparently had difficulties with Texas, Republicans, and rich people, especially rich Republican Texans. 

And then he drove through the Deep South, during a time when the segregated South was dealing with Civil Rights issues. According to Steinbeck, he witnessed (I think it was, but I could be wrong) little 6-year old Ruby Bridges being escorted into an all white school in New Orleans, while angry white mothers (no less) threw temper tantrums over it.

By this point in the trip, Steinbeck explained that he was so eager to get home, he was no longer seeing anything he meant to see on his journey. He had lost his appetite to discover and find out. (Those are my words.) Again, I wish I took notes. 

I gave Travels with Charley four stars because I found it very enjoyable -- not so much what Steinbeck had to say as much as how he said it. He was full of humorous, witty sarcasm about people and places, as well as about himself and Charley, and it was richly entertaining. Some of it could have been obviously  perceived as down right snarky though. 

But to be really specific, what I related to most was something that Steinbeck said regarding journeys. Journeys are different to everyone. People can take the same exact journey and see completely different things. Also, it is not so much that you take a journey, but rather that a journey takes you. Long after a journey is over, you will continue to go on that journey (or it continues to "take" you). It is my dream to one day take a journey across America, just like Steinbeck did, and I bet I was relying on him to visually share his experience until the day I can do this, too, God willing. 

Since I read this to my kids for literature that covered modern/post modern times and geography, our favorite part was how Steinbeck described Charley's encounter with a bear at Yellowstone Park.  First, he dreaded the idea that others would hound him if he admitted that he drove all that way and did not stop to visit Yellowstone. The self-pressure of avoiding an explanation forced Steinbeck to reluctantly visit the Park. 

Upon arrival, he was informed about the conflict between dogs and bears, and he was severely warned to keep his dog inside the vehicle at all times. Steinbeck was so confident about Charley's peace-loving and nonchalant demeanor, that he explained to the park ranger that this would not be an issue. Nonetheless, he was warned again. 

Within a few minutes of driving into the Park they had a bear encounter. What ensued next was the most hysterical description of a psychotic dog, lost of all self-composure over a bear; and it was so terrifying that Steinbeck had to immediately turn back and exit the Park; therefore, he genuinely never saw Yellowstone, and he had a good reason, guilt free.

I read the Afterward, in which Steinbeck and his wife were invited to the Inauguration of John F. Kennedy. I believe they attended, but they did not go to the ball, which my kids thought was unbelievable. Instead they watched it on TV (I assume in their hotel room), and Steinbeck felt like that justified their being there in case anyone asked how it was. After all, they went all the way to Washington D.C., and they were at the Inauguration. For sure they did not miss the ball, right?