The Long Valley

I realized that I have not been talking much about the books I have been reading. Since that is one of the things I most enjoy about writing on my blog I wanted to get back to that.

I just finished a collection of John Steinbeck short stories called The Long Valley. First, you have to know that Steinbeck is one of my favorite authors so I am inclined to like what he writes anyway. Some of the stories were just OK, but the majority of them I really liked. One of my favorite aspects of these stories is seeing certain character types that appear in his longer writings also playing a part in the short stories. For example, Lenny from Of Mice and Men can be seen as quite similar to Johnny Bear the "moron" who unwittingly makes his life and the life of the people that care about him much harder. While I have nothing to support my position, it felt like some of these characters intrigued Steinbeck and he wanted to explore other aspects of their personality in different writings. So if you like Steinbeck, definitely worth reading.