Steinbeck's Sag Harbor

(via The New York Times)

This past spring I read John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley for the first time. Frankly, I'd never been a big fan, having cut my teeth on such Steinbeck works as Of Mice and Men, The Pearl, and The Red Pony (all eighth grade reads...thank you, Mrs. Jacques).

Abandoning my previous distaste for Steinbeck's style, I set out to read Travels with Charley, perhaps feeling a bit of restlessness and wanderlust myself. I read it traveling to New York, Texas, and Connecticut.

Unlike the previous works I'd read, I felt I could relate to the 60-year old writer and his canine companion. I imagined one day, too, packing up my belongings in a road-worn car just as the author packed his camper, his "Rocinante". The New York Times recently captured the Steinbeck Sag Harbor cottage in pictures--I urge you to check out their slideshow.

As much as Travels with Charley is a book about "capturing America" (as the subtitle suggests), it is also poignantly captures the quest for home. I'm still on that quest, and I hope you are enjoying reading about the journey here.