there was a time in my life when i read this each fall, as the the michigan winter was about to make my psyche turn to salt. i first read it by accident, finding it in my co-op on the floor in a room that had been abandonded and now was only used for smoking this and that. the walls of the room had been painted different superheroes from the previous tenant's childhood. i liked the rendition of green hornet, although the renderer claimed he was an after-thought, someone to fill the space between the wolverine and an early version of batman. i remember reading it instead of going to class for a few days and wondering why i had turned down steinbeck for so long, only having ventured into of mice and men sometime in high school.

before the winter of our discontent i was a vonnegut head, and i suppose i always will be in one way or another, but this is the book that brought on the onslaught of working class struggles and burgeoning life where there was little to find. i know this one got panned by the critics and doesn't really come into play much when people talk about the man, but it is something to miss if you pass it by. the story is a basic one of moral decay in america, especially interesting considering the present day. this was his last work, and with that i suppose you could say it was the book that ended his career, although that is a loaded statement. after reading this i tore into his canon, not really coming up for air until after reading the last word of east of eden, which now adorns my shoulder. so, if nothing else, i have this book to thank for cal and adam trask, and that is a lot.

i give this book a strong 4, and i do mean strong. a critical analysis of this book will bring flaws to light, but that is not why he wrote it, nor why i read it. the book does not pretend to not be heavy-handed. the moral message is strong, but not absurd. if you're looking for mystery look elsewhere, he does not hide his characters through his plot as in other of his stories. simply put, the book is filled with beautiful images of people in need of life who don't know where to look.

two quotes that always got me because of their simplicity:

"Most people live ninety percent in the past, seven percent in the present, and that only leaves three percent for the future."

"Money does not change the sickness, only the symptoms."

"The Winter Of Our Discontent" is John Steinbeck's last novel, published in 1961, which by the way is the year I was born, I could tell you how old that makes me but it's too much math. Almost everyone seems to love this novel. I say "almost" because usually if I happen to come across a review for it the reviewer loved the book, however, no one I actually know loved the book, probably because no one I know ever heard of it. In fact other than "The Grapes Of Wrath" no one I know knew John Steinbeck wrote more than one book, and the three people I know who read "The Grapes Of Wrath" had to in school and they all hated it. For some reason I missed out on the long ago school reading and from what the three other readers had told me I was in no hurry to read Steinbeck, I should have known not to listen to my sisters. When I did finally read "The Grapes Of Wrath" I loved it, I also loved "East Of Eden" and "Cannery Row" and "Tortilla Flat" and any other Steinbeck that has come across my path, but "The Winter Of Our Discontent", not so much. I'm not sure exactly what I think of it, so I decided to make a list, what I liked, what I didn't like, what I found interesting whether I liked it or not. Maybe then I'll be able to decide what I think of the book. But first I'll try to remember a little of what the book was about.

Our hero is Ethan Hawley once a member of the aristocratic class of his town. Ethan is married to Mary, and they have two teenage children, Allen and Ellen, who spend a fair amount of the book annoying me, which is what teenage children do. The family resides in a house that has been passed down to Ethan by his grandfather, in the New England town of New Baytown. For all kinds of reasons hard financial times came to his family, mostly in his father's time, but however it happened the money is gone and Ethan now works as a clerk in the grocery store he once owned. I see absolutely nothing wrong with being a clerk in a grocery store, but everyone else in the book seemed to be bothered by it. Mary seems like a sweet woman, but not the brightest lady I've ever met. When Mary's supposed friend Margie, who as far as I can tell is a middle-aged woman who likes to go around seeing how many men she can seduce just for fun, flirts with Ethan and he turns her down, she gets even by giving Mary a Tarot card reading in such a way to make it seem like Ethan is going to be rich, so now Mary is no longer content with Ethan being a clerk. This seems like the goofiest way to get even and the least likely to work, but apparently Mary and I don't think in quite the same way. Everyone is embarrased that Ethan is no longer a member of high society. Ethan's kids seem to resent the" just a clerk thing", they don't like their lower place in the social world. The banker pests him to invest his remaining money, although in what is beyond me. The seductress wants him to accept bribes, the bank teller Joey even gives him advice on bank robbing. I'll not say more of the plot, to see if all the planning works, go read the book. Now on to my lists.

One of the first things that I found interesting had little to do with the story. It was about Good Friday. The story begins on Good Friday. Our main character Ethan asks another character:

"Why do they call it Good Friday?"

"It's from the Latin," said Joey, "Goodus, goodilius, goodum, meaning lousy."

Now what this rather strange answer did was to get me to do something I've been meaning to do for years, you guessed it, look up why we call it Good Friday. I found that there doesn't seem to be a single reason we all can agree on (of course) as to why. I got answers such as: "Good Friday is “good” because as terrible as that day was, it had to happen for us to receive the joy of Easter", that "good used to have a secondary meaning of holy", or as some believe the name simply evolved—as language does. They point to the earlier designation, "God's Friday," as its root, saying that "goodbye" evolved from "God be with you." So I guess I can take my choice. While I was thinking of it I looked up another one that has puzzle me for years, Maundy Thursday. I found this: " the word "Maundy" is Anglo-French word derived from the Latin "mandatum," which means "commandment." It refers to when Jesus, in the Upper Room during the Last Super, said to the disciples: "A new commandment I give you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another." I'll take their word for it and actually move on.

Another thing in my interesting category was this (sorry to all you non-religious folks out there):

"That Saturday morning seemed to have a pattern. I wonder whether all days have. It was a withdrawn day. The little gray whisper of my Aunt Deborah came to me, "Of course, Jesus is dead. This is the only day in the world's days when He is dead. "

This not only interested me, it amazed me. I could have fell over, but who reads standing up? I have a favorite day of the year, the day we start decorating for Christmas. I have a second favorite day of the year, the day the stores start to put out the Christmas decorations. I have a third and fourth also, and all my favorite days have to do with Christmas, but I'll spare you. I also have a least favorite day of the year. Only one, nothing else comes close. It's the day before Easter. Ever since I was a little girl I've hated that Saturday. It used to scare me, to my little girl mind Jesus was alive forever with God, then came to earth for 33 years, died, rose from the dead on Easter and now is alive forever. But on that one day, Saturday, he was gone. Even on that "Good Friday" he was here for awhile anyway. It scared me when I was little and I still don't like it, but this is the first time I've ever seen in print something that describes the way I feel, I was amazed.

On to things I didn't like, or that annoyed me anyway. This first one seems a little silly but it drove me crazy. Ethan has these "cute" names for Mary. Nicknames I guess, whatever they're called, he almost never calls her by her name and the ones he does call her drive me crazy after awhile, here are some of the names that if my husband starts to call me by them it won't be for long:

"Miss Mousie, Darling chicken-flower, my flying squirrel, my lovely-insect wife, my fancy, little mouse of a mouseness, muggins, my holy quail, my ablative absolute".

Ok, enough of the name calling. On to something else. I didn't care for the way everyone in the book seemed to be embarrassed by Ethan being a clerk in a grocery store. What in the world is so bad about being a clerk in a grocery store? Mr. Baker the banker, practically stalks him trying to get him to invest his remaining money, the money he is saving in case something ever happens to him. What is it any of Mr. Baker's business? And is Mr. Baker going to replace the money if Ethan loses this last remaining money?
Joey the bank teller says to him often that he shouldn't be a clerk, he should be the owner; is a clerk lower down the list than a bank teller and so what if it is? Early in the book Mary tells him:

"In this town or any other town a Hawley grocery clerk is still a grocery clerk."

"Do you blame me for my failure?"

"No, Of course I don't. But I do blame you for sitting wallowing in it. You could climb out of it if you didn't have your old-fashioned fancy-pants ideas. Everybody's laughing at you. A grand gentleman without money is a bum."

Where you work or how much money you make seems like a silly thing to judge a person by. Another thing that got on my nerves, the book is written in first person so I got tired of seeing the word "I". It just seemed like Ethan talked about himself constantly, I walked down the street, I saw him, I turned my head, I remember a story, I, I, I...I got tired of that word, of course I get tired of seeing that word in my journal too.

Ok, what do I like about the book, I like that Ethan and Mary do seem to love each other. I like that it is a small New England town, I like small towns, and this one is perfect in an imperfect way. It has only one grocery store, as far as I remember, one bank, one restaurant where they all stop for coffee, a sheriff and deputy type hopefully eating doughnuts, the seductress, the drunk, one or two churches, the businesses even close from noon until three o'clock on Good Friday. It would be perfect if it wasn't for the money hungry people. Here are some of those lines that I remember:

"I thought of the most feminine story I ever heard. Two women meet. One cries, "what have you done with your hair? It looks like a wig." "It is a wig." "Well, you'd never know it."

"All men are moral. Only their neighbors are not."

"Only God sees the sparrow fall, but even God doesn't do anything about it."

"In the summer tourists come to see the architecture and what they call "the old-world charm" of our town. Why does charm have to be old-world?"

I'm finally done. I didn't like this book the way so many other people did. I'm not sorry I read it, but I won't read it again, twice was enough. Don't go by my review though, I am by far in the minority, then again I am with James Joyce too. I'm going to look up why charm has to be old-world. :-}

Review to follow

This is Steinbeck’s last novel, published in 1961 seven years before he died. Not as universally revered as earlier novels, it still has a real sting and master’s mark on it from page one.

Lamb to the slaughter. The reader can see it coming a mile away. Ethan Allen Hawley is more than an easy mark. He walks around town with a target on his back. At the beginning, glum, embarrassed Ethan walks the halls of despair. A proud but penniless Hawley manages a grocery store that he once owned. But Margie, a friend of his wife and a practiced tarot card reader, informs his wife, Mary, that fortunes will come to the Hawleys, and soon. Now that it is predicted that fortune will smile on Ethan, and from not-so-subtle snipes from Mary and others around him about how tiresome poverty can be, he is a different man, a happier man, a wise man. At least in his own mind. Already saturated with the family history of having been cheated by the smart money, reputable thieves like the town banker, Ethan is an easy mark for an aggressive but subtle campaign to regain the money, and thus town respectability and status.

With the stings of how his family was several times cheated out of its fortune, and thus good community standing, and the prediction of better times, accepting, quiet Ethan begins to adjust his attitude, flex his assertiveness, and plunges into the unknown world of hard-knuckle dealings, maybe even a bit of not so honest stuff. Some of this is kindness of a sort, some is tough bargaining and some is tom-foolery. Steinbeck leads us through many twists and turns to a surprise conclusion to this new Ethan Hawley enterprise. He seems to try a new tack on a New England setting, but still hammers on the question of what is moral? Are we all moral? Are we all moral fakes at heart, able to fool our family, friends and neighbors? Is everyone this way? Are open cheaters the only honest people?

Spiced with many light moments, even tragi-comedic moments, Steinbeck entertains while still smacking us in the face with the basic dishonesty and savage darwinism that underlies our capitalist-American economic system. This is a good time to remind ourselves of and come to terms with who we really are as a people. And who we could be, who we ought to be.

Steinbeck is my favourite author to read when I feel lost in the swamp of the human condition.

What is ethical? What is right? What is necessary for survival?

Can you be good while surviving?

These questions matter. And Steinbeck gives them context and personal relevance.

Back in the early to mid 1960's, when I was extremely young, like 5 or 6 years old, I noticed a paperback copy of this book in our home. I don't really know what it was doing there, I doubt either my father or mother ever read it. I was old enough to be able to read the title and the author's name, but it was the cover art that got my attention. It looked like an illustration of some scene from one of the unbearably awful soap operas of the time (The Edge of Night, As the World Turns, etc.). It depicted a dejected or anguished looking man with a cigarette-smoking seductress draping her arm around his shoulder. The man's wife stood aloof in the background. To a young boy this book cover almost defined the word "boring." So, when I fell in love with the works of John Steinbeck in my later years, I delayed reading this one simply because of that emotional impression at that early age.

Well, to say the least, I have learned (again) that I should not judge a book by its cover, and that I especially should not let my early childhood judgments hold sway over the adult me. The Winter of Our Discontent deserves a place with the best of Steinbeck's works, especially considering what a departure it is from his typical fare.

Ethan Allen Hawley, the protagonist and narrator (at least for most of the book) finds himself in a depressing situation. Despite being descended from a long line of prestigious and wealthy forebears, he is stuck being a clerk at the local grocery store in a small New England town where everyone knows everyone. His many years of hard and honest work have not paid off for him in any substantial way. He feels that he and his wife and children deserve much more. His wife even expects more from him. So, because of a series of coincidental events, Ethan becomes convinced that he can get away with a crime that will change everything for the better. In the end, however, due to another very timely coincidence, his plans are thwarted, and fortunately for him, the entire scheme remains unknown and unsuspected by anyone.

Ethan still manages to gain much of what he sought for, and, ironically, it is his strong reputation for hard work and honesty that steers the good fortune his way. Later, Ethan becomes completely discouraged and depressed when he learns that his own son has some moral and ethical failings of his own, which he justifies by the common claim and rationalization that "everyone does it."

The Winter of Our Discontent is a great book with a great message which forces us to ask difficult questions about ourselves, our relationships, and our society .

I love just about anything from John Steinbeck and this was no exception . Told a little bit in the beat style from the sixties, it still is a relevant novel for today.

يالهوي علي الملل

n  " لا ادري على وجه اليقين كيف تكون دخيلة الناس الآخرين، فهم جميعا يختلفون وهم جميعاً يتشابهون في نفس الوقت." n

الحياة الروتينية ، الرتم الهادى ،الخوف و عدم الطموح، الخوف من المجازفة ، إلقاء النكات دوما والمزح في كل شئ ، الخوف من كونه مملاً مما يجعله يقوم ويقول أشياء حتى لا يشعر من حوله بالملل . يحادث نفسه ويحادث الأشياء اكثر مما يحادث الآخرون ،لكنه بالتأكيد ليس أبله كما قد تعتقد حين تلتقيه .
‏ ‏n  " ستشعر بتحسن ياسيدي عندما تعتاد حقيقة أني لست أبلهاً فكهاً " n
‏
‏حياته رتيبة ، روتينية ، ليس بها شئ ليتم حكيه ، لايوجد أحداث مهمة ، لايوجد تغيير ، حياة مملة لكن بداخله شعور بالرضا تجاهها، لا يرغب في تغييرها لكنه يشعر بالضغط حين يطالبه الآخرون بالتغيير والمجازفة ..وهو شخص يخاف على الأشخاص الذين يحبهم ، زوجته وأبناءه وهم يرغبون في المال وهو يرغب في إسعادهم .

‏n  " فلنفترض أن وظيفتي المتواضعة التي لا تنتهي لم تكن فضيلة وإنما كانت كسلاً اخلاقياً ؟! فأي نجاح ، يتطلب جرأة . وربما كنت مجرد جبان ، اخشى النتائج، وفي كلمة واحدة : كسولاً. "n

‏هذا هو بطل روايتنا إيثان الذي فقدت عائلته ثروتهم وصار مجرد موظف في متجر بعد ان كان يمتلكه. لكنه يمتلك مبادئ واخلاقيات ربما لم يعد يتمسك بها أحد مثله.
‏هذه هي حياته وهذا ما تدور حوله الرواية ..

n  n

‏رتم هادئ من الحكي ليس به شئ جذاب .. قد ينتابك الملل ، قد تطالب بحدوث شئ .. حسنا فلتنضم لكل من يعرف إيثان ..
‏
n  "لماذا تبقى مفلساً؟ وأنت رجل له مثل عائلتك وماضيك وتعليمك ؟ ليس المفروض أن يلازمك هذا الإفلاس، إلا إذا كان دمك قد فقد حميته .ما الذي صرعك ، يا إيثان ؟ ما الذي يبقيك هكذا صريعاً؟ "n

n  n

‏وجدت نفسي بين السطور... بين الأحداث التي بدون أحداث..في رتم الحياة الروتينيه ، في عدم الرغبة في فعل شئ ، عدم الطموح لشئ ، والرضا بهذا الرتم من الحياة .
‏
n  "تساءلت عما إذا كنت أستطيع بعد ان خططت طريقي ، أن أغير الاتجاه أو حتى أرجع البوصلة تسعين درجة ، وفكرت في أنني كنت أستطيع ذلك ولكني لم أرغب فيه ."n

ذكرتني هذه الجملة برواية بارتلبي النساخ حين كان يجيب على كل شى بكلمة " أفضل ألا "

‏حسنا ربما هذه الحياة لا تستحق رواية كبيرة مثل هذه ... و ربما تكون محقاً .. لكن الا يحق لإيثان وأمثاله أن يجدوا من يتحدثوا عنهم .!!! وهل فقط الروايات للشخصيات أصحاب المغامرات والأحداث اليومية المثيرة ؟؟
‏ وربما يفاجئك إيثان بتخطيط هادئ فليس كل الناس صاخبين حين يرغبون في فعل شئ ما .

n  n   

" كأن الأحداث والخبرات كانت تلكزني وتدفعني بالمناكب في إتجاه مضاد لاتجاهي العادي ،او للاتجاه الذي توصلت الى التفكير في انه عادي _ اتجاه الموظف في محل بقالة، وفشله، اتجاه الرجل المقيد بمسؤوليات ملء بطون أفراد أسرته وكساء أجسادهم ، الرجل الذي حبس داخل قفص من العادات والتصرفات التي كنت أفكر في أنها اخلاقية وفاضلة . وربما انتابني نوع من الرضا عن النفس ،لكوني أصبحت ما أطلق عليه ( رجلاً طيباً)"

n  n
‏
n  n

لكن هل سيظل إيثان كما هو ؟ ام ان المجتمع والآخرون وتطلبات الحياة والأسرة وتأثير احاديث الآخرين ستغيره وتعلمه ان يكون شخصاً آخر؟
هل سيتغير حقا ؟! وماذا سيفعل ؟!
إلى أى مدى يصل تاثير كلام الآخرين وضغوطهم علينا ؟ وإلى اى مدى يمكن ان نتغير ؟؟ وهل إذا تغيرنا سنرضي عن هذا التغير ام لن نستطيع تحمله ؟!

n  " إن الفشل حالة ذهنية .إنه مثل واحد من تلك الفخاخ الرملية التي يحفرها صائد النمل. أنت تواصل الانزلاق الى الخلف . قم بقفزة واحدة ملعونة لتخرج منه . يتحتم عليك أن تقوم بتلك القفزة يا إيثان. واذا حدث مرة أن خرجت من الفخ ، فستجد أن النجاح أيضا حالة ذهنية " n

وتتطرق الرواية ايضا للمحليات الفاسدة وتكوين الثروات من خلال هذا الفساد. والنظرة المجتمعية لكل من لايملك راس مال قوى يدعمه .

الترجمة كانت اوقات مقبولة خصوصا في الحوارات وأوقات تانية سيئة جدا ، وفي مشكلة في شكل تركيب الجمل كانت بتبوظ اجزاء من الرواية وتوصيل الافكار .كنت اتمنى تكون ترجمة افضل من كده خصوصا من دار كبيرة زى دار آفاق .

الرواية قليلة الأحداث وبطيئة ، حسيت بملل شوية في بعض الأجزاء واوقات تانية كنت مندمجة معاها .
في المجمل كانت تجربة كويسة أول لقاء ليا مع شتاينبيك ومش هيكون الاخير ان شاء الله .

ترددت في تقييمي ما بين ٣ و ٤ ��جوم ومع الجزء التانى كنت مياله اديها ٣.٥ و اقييمها ب ٣ عشان الجودريدز مش بيعترف بالنص بس لما وصلت للنهاية غيرت رأى وقررت يكونوا ٤ .
نهاية مش عارفة اقول متوقعة او غير متوقعة بس كانت مفاجأة بالنسبالى بشكل حسيت معاه بالرضا لأن كان في تغييرات وتصرفات حصلت معجبتنيش فلما وصلنا للنهاية بالشكل ده حسيت ان هى دى النهاية الصح من شخصية زى شخصية إيثان .

قراءة مشتركة مع الصديقتين باكينام وسارة سمير ❤

٢١ / ٢ / ٢٠٢٢

Primera novela que leo de Steinbeck y ha sido un pinchazo total. Me sabe mal ponerle dos estrellas pero es que se me ha hecho pesadísima y no he sintonizado para nada con los personajes.

El tema es interesante, básicamente el capitalismo desatado de los años 60 y cómo el sistema empuja a las personas a la corrupción. El retrato de la pequeña ciudad de la costa este es bastante bueno pero de alguna manera no me han convencido los personajes - sobre todo el protagonista! - ni los diálogos. Confuso y farragoso y con un pretendido humor que a mí no me ha llegado.

Loss And American Regeneration

"The Winter of our Discontent" was published in 1961, just before Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize in 1962. The story is set in the late 1950s in New Baytown, a small (fictitious) New York -New England town which, Steinbeck tells us, had flourished during the whaling days of the mid-19th century. The main protagonist of the book is Ethan Allen Hawley. Ethan ("eth" to his friends) is descended from early pirates and whaling captains. His family had lost its capital through speculative business ventures during WW II and Ethan, with his background and his Harvard education, is reduced to working as a clerk in a small grocery store he once owned. Marullo, an Italian immigrant, owns the store and calls Ethan "kid".

For a short novel, the book includes a wealth of characters, many of which I found well described. There is Ethan's wife Mary who is impatient with the family's impoverished lot. She is eager for Ethan's economic success and for the success of the couple's two children: Allen, who is writing an essay called "Why I Love America" and the sexually precocious daughter Ellen. We meet the town banker, Mr. Baker, a bank clerk and a friend of Ethan's, Margie Young-Hunt, twice married and the town seductress, and Danny Taylor, Ethan's childhood friend who has thrown away a career of promise and become a drunk.

The book describes the deterioration of Ethan's life as he gradually loses his integrity and succumbs to temptations to lift his life, and the lives of his family members, from its materially humble state to a state consistent with Ethan's felt family heritage and education and with the desire of his family for material comfort. The story is sad and told in a style mixing irony and ambiguity that requires the reader to reflect and dig into what is happening. The story ends on a highly ambiguous note with Ethan's future left in doubt.

The book describes well the lessening of American standards and values. The book seems to attribute the loss to an increasing passion for commercial and economic success among all people in the United States. Juxtaposed with the economic struggle are pictures of, in Steinbeck's view, what America was and what it could struggle to be. I think the images are found in religion (much of the story is, importantly, set around Good Friday and Easter and these holidays figure prominently in the book), and in America's political and cultural heritage.

In the old town of New Baytown, America's history casts a long shadow with speeches from American statesmen such as Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and Abraham Lincoln tucked (suggestively) in the family attic. The book is set against a background of New England whaling and reminds the reader inevitably of a culture that produced Melville and a work of the caliber of "Moby Dick".

The most convincing scenes of the book for me were those where Ethan reflects in his own mind upon his life and compulsively walks the streets of New Baytown at night. I was reminded of Robert Frost, a poet of New England and his poem "Acquainted with the Night" which begins:

"I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain -- and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light."

Steinbeck captures much of the spirit of this wonderful poem.

The plot of the book seems contrived at is climax and depends too much on coincidence. The characters, and their inward reflections on themselves, the descriptions, the setting, and the theme of the book, mingled between a love for our country and a sense of despair, make the book memorable.

Robin Friedman

“And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews!” Matthew 27:29
A man will rise… A man will fall…
The Winter of Our Discontent is about guilty conscience.
The Winter of Our Discontent is about the nature of fortune and misfortune.

Now I was on the edge of the minefield. My heart hardened against my selfless benefactor. I felt it harden and grow wary and dangerous. And with its direction came the feeling of combat, and the laws of controlled savagery, and the first law is: Let even your defense have the appearance of attack.

Dishonesty is a foundation of prosperity… And honesty leads to discontent.