Full name: John Steinbeck: A Biography

Author: Jay Parini Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: Biographies Purchase/reserch links: LibraryThing Amazon Goodreads ISBNs: 9780805016734 0805016732

This has given me everything I could have wanted from a biography of Steinbeck. In clear and accessible prose, Parini sets out Steinbeck's family and personal history and an analysis of the writer's various works in context. In some senses, the book is also a social history of the US in the first 2/3 of the 20th century, as it traces Steinbeck's relationship with his favourite subject, the American people. The Steinbeck of Parini’s biography is the Steinbeck I imagine from the relatively few of his novels I’ve read: compassionate, humane, a caring friend and generally observant and insightful. Parini also reveals Steinbeck’s darker side: insecure about his ability as a writer, emotionally volatile and prone to episodes of severe depression. This is a not a short book. However, I found it utterly engaging. It has inspired me to read some of Steinbeck’s lesser-known works, as well as his letters. It has also made me wonder why I don’t read more literary biographies. When they’re as good as this effort, they make rewarding reading. Similar books: Rebecca West by Victoria Glendinning The Life of Graham Greene, Volume II: 1939-1955 by Norman Sherry Balzac by Stefan Zweig Victor Hugo by Graham Robb Samuel Beckett by Anthony Cronin Aldous Huxley by Nicholas Murray Tony Hancock by John Fisher The Knox Brothers by Penelope Fitzgerald Dorothy Day by William Miller The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham by Selina Hastings Tom by Lyle Leverich The Lonely Hunter by Virginia Spencer Carr Gore Vidal by Fred Kaplan The Kindness of Strangers by Donald Spoto Anthony Trollope by Victoria Glendinning Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas Wager with the Wind by James Greiner Like the Roman by Simon Heffer Memoirs by Pablo Neruda