A review by morgob
The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck

3.0

I don't really know what to say about this book. I liked it, but it was just a really strange read for me. It's not like it was an egregious read; there were a lot of parts I liked. For instance, I really did enjoy the writing. Though I agree it is not like Steinbeck's other work, I didn't think it was bad. The point of view was interesting because for the first few chapters, it's third person, then it switches to first, then back to third, and then to first again. At first I wondered if that was supposed to happen or if I was reading a different version, but the suddenness and unexpectedness of the point of view shift startled me. I almost wished it remained in first person throughout, though I know he switched to third to give some other characters' perspectives. I honestly could have done without that, though. That whole chapter that was third person focusing on Margie, I thought, was unnecessary. We already knew enough about her to assume most of the information anyway, all it did was make her seem a little less like a slutty homewrecker and more like an intelligent and conniving woman whose sole goal is to provide herself with a secure future. I'm not sure if that bit made the book better, though. Did it make her a better character? Sure. But did we need that for the story? I don't think so.
Another thing I thought was odd was the main character. Throughout, he has this odd sort of inner monologue, and he's made out to be this poor suffering man who fell from grace and is now broke, and he's just trying to help his friends out. But underneath, he has all of these plans and schemes, so by the end, I couldn't tell who he actually cared about and who he was just using for his own personal gain. That's what really upset me. Did he know what he was doing or did it just happen serendipitously? Either way, I think he's sort of an interesting character (of course, he'd be more of an interesting character if it was the former) but that quality about him was just unsettling. I could hardly tell when he was being genuine, and in that way I suppose he is a bit of an unreliable narrator. However, I suppose the characters in the book--particularly Mary--felt the same way about him.
One thing I will note: this book reminded me a lot of It's a Wonderful Life . I can't really pinpoint exactly why, except that the main character is a man who used to come from a wonderful family, promised his wife and children a good life, and then wasn't able to deliver, so he spends a lot of time feeling sorry for himself. In both stories, the main character has lots of friends who he helps along the way and everyone knows what a good person he is. And also there is an evil banker. And both main characters contemplate suicide. Except in this story, the main character ends up doing some rather dubious things and it all works out in the end. The people he connects with end up changing his life, but it's in a very different way. I just expected the main character to be different, after all of his talk about honesty and being a good man. Besides that, though, this book very much made me think of It's a Wonderful Life, which I thought was altogether interesting.
Finally, I will make a small note about the ending.

Spoiler

I totally thought he died. I had to read the last two paragraphs over again to make sense of it. The whole last few pages didn't make sense to me. He finds out his son cheated on the essay and thinks, "Well, this life's done for. There's nothing left to live for even though I have a new business, the respect of the town, a loving wife, a strangely affectionate sleepwalking daughter, an Italian immigrant father figure, and a shitload more money than I had a week ago. Nothing left to live for. I'm going to go kill myself." But then that one interaction with his daughter, and the fact that she left the talisman in his pocket, made him change his mind in an instant. Seriously, it did not make sense to me at all that, after he got their lives turned around WITHOUT having to rob a bank, his first thought after his son lies is to kill himself. But then the thought of that one simple act by his daughter redeemed the world for him and made him decide not to go through with it. But yeah, I totally thought he was just going to drown at first. The last line of the book is a good one though.

All in all, I did like the book. There were just some aspects of it that were strange.