Lucas Blogs About Books

Oh? Thomas Steinbeck , the author of two novels and a collection of stories? Be serious, we're gonna talk about his dad, Nobel laureate, chronicler of the Great Depression, extraordinary describer of California , and someone who's made me cry : John Steinbeck. A (semi-representative) sampling of the works of John Steinbeck. Oh, like in the style of Lucas Blogs About Dick  from last year? Yeah, but I think it's more of a  Hey, Hypothetical Reader!  kinda thing going forward. All right, let's dive in! Okay, so John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. (1902-1968) is probably best known to American public school students for novels that have become assigned reading standards like Of Mice and Men , The Grapes of Wrath , and East of Eden . Themes that run throughout his work include the beauty of the California landscape and the ugliness of living in poverty in America. In addition to well known novels he was a prolific writer of non-fiction and served as a war correspondent ...

DICK! Confession time: in high school and college, I was obsessed with Dick. Really? You're writing about one of your favorite writers, and you're starting it off with a dick joke? Oh, I didn't see you there, Hypothetical Reader. I thought I would handle this one on my own. What? You don't think I have anything to add to a discussion of the works of Philip K. Dick? Well, it's more that Philip K. Dick is one of those writers who looms large in my reading life so I thought that I might make this one a little more personal and a little less joke-y. I'll refer you to the first line of this post. Fair enough. Philip Kindred Dick (1928-1982) was a prolific and influential science fiction writer who published dozens of novels and over one hundred short stories in his thirty-ish year career. Outside of his writing he's probably best known for his struggles with drugs and mental illness. Inside of his writing, he's best known for intel...