Steinbeck Revisited

Sometimes naivety is a good thing when leaping into the unknown. Like the time I left the lab bench in New York in 1999 to become a freelance writer. This wasn’t the sort of thing I usually did. But I was childless and overseas for a short stint with my husband, so I had nothing to lose. Or so I thought…

Fast forward 16 years and now firmly entrenched in Melbourne, Australia, it’s time to be bold again. When I recently re-read John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath after a 30-odd year break, I was shocked how contemporary his story was – 76 years after it was published – that I wanted to do more. So I’ve set up an über niche blog, where I will reviews his books in chronological order.

It’s just as well when I began this project I had no idea what I was getting into. This giant of American literature had no problems tackling different genres, from reporting on the war front to penning plays and writing fiction about swashbuckling pirates, displaced farmers and fantasy too. Unlike Steinbeck, I have selective interests, but it’s too late to pick and choose what I read and write about.

I cannot bail out as I’ve invested too much in this venture. For starters, hundreds of dollars have been spent on the books. Then, there’s the business of reading them.

And now the scariest part. Writing. One book review at a time. Something I have never done before.

Hopefully, I’ll get to the end of this journey with a fresh take on reading and writing, and something more.

Wish me luck.