Scan barcode
vanessakm's review
4.0
I stumbled upon the ArtsPlace series by chance looking for a book about Steinbeck, however now I'm so taken with the concept of this series which examines the life and work of an artist as it relates to the human and physical geography that served as their muse. Some other books in the series are on Michelangelo's Rome and Dorothy Parker's New York. Here's hoping they publish a volume about Faulkner's Mississippi.
This is a shortened biography of Steinbeck with lots of pictures and maps. It dwells on the locations that influenced him from his hometown of Salinas (the setting of [b:East of Eden|4406|East of Eden|John Steinbeck|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165432854s/4406.jpg|2574991]) to Monterey and Pacific Grove and, to a lesser extent, Carmel and Los Gatos. The final chapter is about Mexico, a country that inspired several of Steinbeck's books and two screenplays. If you are a Steinbeck fan or California history buff, you'll love it.
There are so many great anecdotes in the book. Pilon, Danny and the Pirate from [b:Tortilla Flat|163977|Tortilla Flat|John Steinbeck|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172329564s/163977.jpg|890203] were based on real people and there are pictures of them. Dora's Cannery Row brothel was closed by the US Military and turned into a storage house for fish meal. Steinbeck had a dog that kept getting kidnapped in Mexico and he would grumble about the scam but pay the local theater to run an ad promising a reward so it would be returned (another reason to love him: he was a big dog lover.)
There's also the funny yet sad story of his ex-wife and the creation of the Steinbeck bust in Monterey a few years after his death. She wanted to participate in capturing her ex-husband's likeness but kept insisting the sculptor (her sister-in-law) make the head bigger and bigger until the first version collapsed and would come to the studio and curse at the giant-headed likeness of her ex-husband who had left her after 10 years of marriage for a much younger woman. I'm torn between feeling sad for this woman who supported Steinbeck so diligently during his early career still hurt and angry 30 years later and giggling at the image of her venting her spleen on the Parthenon-sized cranium of her late, philandering ex.
This is a shortened biography of Steinbeck with lots of pictures and maps. It dwells on the locations that influenced him from his hometown of Salinas (the setting of [b:East of Eden|4406|East of Eden|John Steinbeck|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165432854s/4406.jpg|2574991]) to Monterey and Pacific Grove and, to a lesser extent, Carmel and Los Gatos. The final chapter is about Mexico, a country that inspired several of Steinbeck's books and two screenplays. If you are a Steinbeck fan or California history buff, you'll love it.
There are so many great anecdotes in the book. Pilon, Danny and the Pirate from [b:Tortilla Flat|163977|Tortilla Flat|John Steinbeck|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172329564s/163977.jpg|890203] were based on real people and there are pictures of them. Dora's Cannery Row brothel was closed by the US Military and turned into a storage house for fish meal. Steinbeck had a dog that kept getting kidnapped in Mexico and he would grumble about the scam but pay the local theater to run an ad promising a reward so it would be returned (another reason to love him: he was a big dog lover.)
There's also the funny yet sad story of his ex-wife and the creation of the Steinbeck bust in Monterey a few years after his death. She wanted to participate in capturing her ex-husband's likeness but kept insisting the sculptor (her sister-in-law) make the head bigger and bigger until the first version collapsed and would come to the studio and curse at the giant-headed likeness of her ex-husband who had left her after 10 years of marriage for a much younger woman. I'm torn between feeling sad for this woman who supported Steinbeck so diligently during his early career still hurt and angry 30 years later and giggling at the image of her venting her spleen on the Parthenon-sized cranium of her late, philandering ex.
More...