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FEBRUARY 3, 2011

Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck's last novel, The Winter of Our Discontent, will be February's choice for the On-the-Road at Starbucks Book Club.   Join us Tuesday, February 1 at 7:00 p.m. at the Starbucks in Oakwood to discuss this Long Island morality tale that won the author the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962.

Steinbeck writes of Ethan Allen Hawley, who, as the story opens, works as a clerk in the grocery store his family once owned. His wife is restless and upset with the decline in the family's status.   His teenage children want more than he can afford.   Then, one day, in a moment of moral crisis, Ethan decides to take a holiday from his own scrupulous standards.   On discovering that the current store owner, Italian immigrant Alfio Marullo, might be in the country illegally, he places a tip with the Immigration and Naturalization Service.   Marullo, forced to leave the country, gives the store to Ethan, because he has always seemed so honest and deserving.   As Ethan continues to gain status and material wealth, he also continues to tweak his moral code, until he sees that his corrupt behavior is transferring to his family and he must confront the person he has become.

Explore the Winter of Our Discontent with a Reading Guide, courtesy of the Beaufort County Library.   Find our more about John Steinbeck and the Nobel Prize for Literature.   You might also enjoy the Oprah Interview with Thom Steinbeck, son of the Nobel Prize winner, who describes life with his illustrious father.   A searchable bibiliography of John Steinbeck's writing is available at The Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies and a concise bibliography of his popular works is available at Fantastic Fiction.

Reviews:
Atlantic Monthly
Life Magazine

The Wright Memorial Public Library carries the following Steinbeck works:

Fiction:
Of Mice and Men
The Red Pony
The Grapes of Wrath
The Moon is Down
Cannery Row
The Pearl
East of Eden
Sweet Thursday
The Short Reign of Pippin IV
Novels and Stories, 1932 to 1937
(includes The Pastures of Heaven, To a God Unknown, Tortilla Flat, In Dubious Battle, and Of Mice and Men)

Nonfiction:
America and Americans, and Selected Nonfiction
Working Days: the Journals of the Grapes of Wrath, 1938 to 1941
Travels with Charley
The Harvest Gypsies: On the Road to the Grapes of Wrath
Journal of a Novel: the East of Eden Letters
The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights
Zapata

Biography:
Conversations with Steinbeck
John Steinbeck: a Biography
John Steinbeck: an American Writer (VHS; an A&E Production)

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posted by Reference Staff

Category: Book Club

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