The Winter of Our Discontent
Steinbeck's last great novel focuses on the theme of success and what motivates men towards it. Reflecting back on his New England family's past fortune, and his father's loss of the family wealth, the hero, Ethan Allen Hawley, characterises successin every era and in all its forms as robbery, murder, even a kind of combat, operating under 'the laws of controlled savagery.'
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5recommend
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2017–2020years
83% recommend17% neutral
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- - F-451
- The Winter of Our Discontent
- Man's Search For Meaning
- I love Steinbeck, but I had never heard of The Winter of Our Discontent, thanks!
- Winter of our discontent - Steinbeck
Amazing piece of work, specifically the book he won the nobel prize for literature. Great story of a normal man trying to be good in the face of great temptation.
- > I could never "get into" American novelists like Hemingway and Steinbeck because I found their characters unrelatably thin automatons ...
I pretty much agree with you on Hemingway, and maybe there are examples in Steinbeck's work, but at least in his case I can say that most of what I've read had a pretty high degree of realism and profundity. Maybe check out 'Winter of our Discontent' if you'd like another sample.
- The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck. There are probably better novels that I liked more, although this one is good and I liked it and it's kind of silly to pair off great works of literature Highlander-style, but I think this one has the most to say about a person's own approach to American capitalism and morality, and therefore has had more of an impact on me day-to-day.
- One of my quarantine projects was to read more great literature. I'd always joked that I'd be happy being in jail as long as I could read all the books I've ever wanted to read. Figured this was a good chance to put my money where my mouth is. Haven't gotten to Anna Karenina yet but did finish the Brothers Karamazov, The Winter of Our Discontent, Moby Dick, Lolita, East of Eden, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Breakfast of Champions and The Idiot.
