The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck

This 1961 was the last novel Steinbeck completed before his death. In 1962 Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize for Literature, not for this book but as was stated by the Nobel Committee at the time this book made clear that his greatness had not diminished and cast a bright light on his great works of the late thirties and early forties.

As to the reviews at the time of it's publication they were not their kind. Over time this book has been reassessed and now is considered along with the Steinbeck classics East of Eden, Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath as one of his best.

For me, personally, this book was one of, if not the most affecting, of the Steinbeck books. The conflict between ethics and money, contentment and coveting, the internal heart and the external desires was so well portrayed in this book that if one allows it they feel this story to their bones.

Ethan Allen Hawley lives in a fictional Long Island town. Ethan's family goes back centuries, his grandfathers and great grandfathers were sea captains, captaining whaling ships and owning much of the town of New Baytown. While Ethan was away serving his country in World War II Ethan's father made some poor investments and lost everything except the family home. When Ethan came home he was reduced to becoming a clerk in the grocery store that the family previously owned.

Ethan is a rare man however. He would like more things, to have wealth, but he is a content man. He understands what is important and holds onto his pride in his family and family history. He conducts himself with kindness and a sense of ethic that he feels, he knows is rare in the world.

Still Ethan has troubles and his heart is aching. His wife whom he loves aches to " hold her head up", she is tired of being poor and in moments of sharp pointed jesting refers to him as a grocery clerk. His teenage children would like more money, his son Allen consistently pointing out all the things they do not have, first and foremost a television. Ethan feels the pull of wanting to be more if only to try to settle his family. Every man wants to feel like a provider and Ethan is no different.

Still Ethan persists. He runs the store for the owner, an Italian immigrant named Alfie Marullo. Working next to the bank he is consistently badgered by the banks owner Mr. Baker to put the money in his bank account, received by his wife upon her brothers death. Ethan suspects that Baker feels guilty over whatever transpired during the war years when he was away and his father was losing all the family assets, he does not know how Baker was complicit but feels he was. Even more assuredly Ethan believes a family rumor that his Grandfather and Baker's forebears had a falling out when partnering on a whaling ship. The ship burned to the hulls in the bay, deemed an accident the insurance company paid but Ethan's grandad always suspected the Baker forebear of arson.

Ethan talks to the cans and vegetables on the shelf in the store. He visits daily with Joey Morphy the bank teller next door and Ethan begins to wonder if he should not suspend his ethics for a few minutes, a few hours, a few days, so that he can jump ahead in the town. He assures himself that in the war he killed people without being a killer, so could he not be unethical for a short time to get ahead and then resume to his natural bent.

Ethan concocts a plan and while it does not go as planned eventually his fortunes do change. He is not thrilled so much as glad to be able to resume his ethical course, his anger at Baker is given a tangible release, and all seems well. His son, the materialist, however has had his own ethical crisis and the fruits of that are coming home. Unlike Ethan however he feels no remorse or need to justify, he just wants to look out for number one. This causes a crisis of faith Ethan felt he had long ago resolved.

A couple of quotes in this book are for the books. Speaking about a house with teenagers in it who are being quiet Ethan advises that being in a house with teenagers not physically present is much quieter than being in a house with teenagers in it that are being silent. Why? Because teenagers even being quiet roil the air in a way that can be deafening. It is so true.

More perceptive even is the claim that people never want advice, they only want corroboration and I will tell you from a lifetime of experience both professionally and personally that nothing truer has ever been said. When you find someone who asks your advice and truly wants it embrace that person, he is rarer than a buffalo nickel.

I cannot speak highly enough of this book but I will caution that it is not a book to just read for the story, be prepared to have your mind and reason challenged. Steinbeck wanted to right a book about the struggle to maintain personal morality in a materialistic world. For ones sleep patterns he might have accomplished his goal all too well.