To a God Unknown (Audible Audio Edition) John Steinbeck Robert DeMott introduction Jonathan Davis Penguin Audio Books
Download As PDF : To a God Unknown (Audible Audio Edition) John Steinbeck Robert DeMott introduction Jonathan Davis Penguin Audio Books
Set in familiar Steinbeck territory, To a God Unknown is a mystical tale, exploring one man's attempt to control the forces of nature and, ultimately, to understand the ways of God.
To a God Unknown (Audible Audio Edition) John Steinbeck Robert DeMott introduction Jonathan Davis Penguin Audio Books
Many, many years ago, while I was in the military and in the few years thereafter, I read everything of Steinbeck's I could find. Those readings came in any random order. Recently, I decided to read through Steinbeck again, this time starting at the beginning. The exception was that I chose to skip Cup of Gold as I remember it being so out of sorts with the rest of the author. Well, I should have skipped To a God Unknown, too. I did not recall its being such a "surreal" endeavor, as one other writer recently mentioned. This book is way too full of odd symbolism and just plain spacey fuel.My return trip through Steinbeck is not a scholarly endeavor to analyze style or to map Steinbeck's development as a writer. Rather, my purpose is simply to revisit an excellent author who brought me such entertainment and pleasure so many years ago.
Allowing that To a God Unknown came very early in Steinbeck's writing career, it's still just a hard read for me. I've set it down multiple times, interspersing several other reads, and have faithfully returned in hopes of kindling some kind of excitement. Right now, Tortilla Flat is the "carrot" ahead of this donkey cart, and before I can finish slogging through To a God Unknown, I may just set it aside forever!
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To a God Unknown (Audible Audio Edition) John Steinbeck Robert DeMott introduction Jonathan Davis Penguin Audio Books Reviews
My husband just read this book, that I bought him last Christmas, and it turns out that it only had 117 pages in it. At first we thought this was normal, but realized that the story just stopped on a comma, the table of contents said the book has 185 pages!!! So I ended up purchasing a book with 68 pages less than it was supposed to have. If only we would have realized this a year ago when the book was purchased... very disappointed.
A somewhat clairvoyant Steinbeck novel delving into religious beliefs, paganism and the Bible...one can easily see why it took him nearly five years to complete.
The plot centers on California homesteader Joseph Wayne and his fanatical soul searching beliefs... God is the land, the rain, his cattle...nothing else really seems to matter. In fact there is marginal human emotion when two deaths occur on the homestead or when his son is born...only when the grand old oak tree and the underground spring in the pines falter...then it is complete mental disorder.
We do see reasonably good character development, along with plot and expressive writing, but it is still not quite what I expected from Steinbeck.
In this early novel of Steinbeck's, he writes of a man with a visceral connection to his land. Joseph goes west to homestead some farmland, and discovers a property with a huge oak growing on it. He builds his house under the shelter of the tree, and develops a close bond with it--placing offerings on and under it. Eventually, the spirit of his dead father enters the tree, and the bond grows stronger. When Joseph's religious fanatic brother kills the tree, a drought ensues.
Steinbeck very eloquently illustrates that there is a strong connection among all beings on earth. As Chief Seattle spoke in 1854, "All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life. He is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, He does to himself."
Steinbeck's To a God Unknown probes into the question of God's personality and more directly, how the various rituals and methods used by people to try and commune with said God are all based out of the same motive. A must read for any Steinbeck fan, or for anyone interested in philosophy and/or religious studies.
Not a bad Steinbeck book. I enjoyed the story of Joseph Wayne wanting to move from Vermont to the Northern California territory. I liked how he thought he was different, that the land wouldn't dry up, etc. I figured once he died, the rains would come back. And they did. I really liked the symbolism of the central rock and the tree; those were nice additions. Some of the exposition was long and unnecessary, while other parts could've been expanded upon.
Also, the INTRODUCTION by Robert DeMott was excellent, though I would suggest reading it after reading the novel itself; it kind of fills in some of the gaps from the reading.
I just finished rereading To a God Unknown, John Steinbeck's second novel. I first read it many years ago when I was fifteen and it made a huge impression-not quite the book that started me writing, but close. I decided to reread it to find out why it had such an influence on me.It's not regarded as one of Steinbeck's best or even a particularly good novel.
Criticism ranged from lukewarm to scathing. The New York Times called it "a symbolical novel conceived in mysticism and dedicated to the soil" which "attempts too much" and "achieves too little" and hence "fails to cohere." A reviewer for The Nation judged the novel "pitifully thin and shadowy." The New York Herald Tribune called it a "strange and mightily obsessed book." In reading it, I could see the roots of Steinbeck's voice, but not enough to explain its impact on me. The plot's a bit thin , the writing sometimes over-the-top. Steinbeck was clearly still developing his voice. So why did it impress me so much? At first, I thought it was the larger-than-life and deeply passionate protagonist, Joseph Wayne. I'm a great believer in passionate protagonists . But then I realized what I so admired was that the book was original and ambitious.
The young Steinbeck had taken risks. Years of living and writing have hopefully tempered my writing with craft. But in an age when originality, ambition and risk are frequently viewed with caution (how many movies today are remakes of old TV shows and comics?), perhaps aiming high should be part of the equation as well. After all, when did attempting too much become so out of favor.
Four stars for a flawed book with a larger-than-life protagonist and an author that aimed high.
Many, many years ago, while I was in the military and in the few years thereafter, I read everything of Steinbeck's I could find. Those readings came in any random order. Recently, I decided to read through Steinbeck again, this time starting at the beginning. The exception was that I chose to skip Cup of Gold as I remember it being so out of sorts with the rest of the author. Well, I should have skipped To a God Unknown, too. I did not recall its being such a "surreal" endeavor, as one other writer recently mentioned. This book is way too full of odd symbolism and just plain spacey fuel.
My return trip through Steinbeck is not a scholarly endeavor to analyze style or to map Steinbeck's development as a writer. Rather, my purpose is simply to revisit an excellent author who brought me such entertainment and pleasure so many years ago.
Allowing that To a God Unknown came very early in Steinbeck's writing career, it's still just a hard read for me. I've set it down multiple times, interspersing several other reads, and have faithfully returned in hopes of kindling some kind of excitement. Right now, Tortilla Flat is the "carrot" ahead of this donkey cart, and before I can finish slogging through To a God Unknown, I may just set it aside forever!
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