Travels with Charley is an interesting concept - John Steinbeck and his dog Charley take a months-long trip around the United States, and there are some segments of the book that live up to the premise, especially since Steinbeck's writing is so exceptionally crisp, but overall the travelogue fell a bit flat for me. Steinbeck seems to hint throughout the book at his reason for the trip, which is to make sense of the American spirit (who are Americans?). He doesn't draw any conclusions, which isn't my main cause of frustration, but he also doesn't very neatly seem to tie together any of his anecdotes to form a fuller picture of America (I refuse to accept the suggestion that "America is lost" -- that's really obvious without a country-wide trip. What is more interesting is what the "essence" of America is, which is what Steinbeck seemed to fail to capture).

Not only that, but it doesn't seem like he intended to tie together his experiences. I also found the narrative unbalanced; we saw plenty of the northeast, but only one episode (of an "orgy") in Texas, and one (mostly personal) episode in California. He has plenty of interesting observations and conversations, but they rarely seemed to connect to any bigger questions about what America is/should be. The road trip happened during 1960, which is a fantastic time (unbeknownst to Steinbeck of course) to analyze the American spirit considering it was nearing a major turning point in our history. He dedicates a decent amount of time at the end of the book to the treatment of African Americans in the South, depicts his outrage -- even recounts a scuffle he got into with a racist -- but also remarked that he is an outsider to southern affairs (I'm paraphrasing). He oddly mentions a black peer of his in high school whose family was brilliant, but, considering how progressive Steinbeck was, I find his lackadaisical and coy tone a bit underwhelming. It's plenty charming when he is discussing diners, run-ins with wannabe actors, or episodes of incompetent veterinarians, but he really could have taken a much stronger stance on the issue of segregation I think, and I am much less progressive than Steinbeck. Granted, it is easy for me to say this in retrospect, but we are talking about 1960 here -- the Civil Rights Act was right around the corner and he is for all intents and purposes a northerner (side note: his home in Sag Harbor is a short drive from me).

Maybe I lost the thread that ran among all of Steinbeck's anecdotes, but I could not find a definitive opinion on "what America is" and I don't really see the purpose of this trip, but it was a pleasure to read some Steinbeck prose.