The Great Gatsby

jingl I love Steinbeck too!

As far as GG is concerned, it's a book that I hadn't read until it popped up one year on the "A" Level syllabus and everyone else had got there first and picked the ones I knew. So I had to read it, and teach it, and loved it. (Same with Plath..)

I have booked to take DD and DGD1 (17) on 28th May - the day before DD's 48th (48?????!) birthday. Theseus will drive us into town, we shall watch the film, then have dinner, the DSiL will pick us up. So, whatever the film is like, a good time will be had!

Steinbeck - now your talking - a writer who focusses on the poor and the ordinary (didn't the 19th century do stories about rich people to death?).
I agree pity he did not write a few more long novels and live longer. But Cannery Row is a short classic.
Last thing I read by him was Travels with Charley. A wonderful selection of essays about travelling around the States. Did Steinbeck invent the camper van I wondered?

Now, I liked Cannery Row. Sweet Thursday came after and had the same characters. But, for me, ran out of steam part way through.

Yes the best bits out of that part of his life made it into Cannery Row.

"Travels with Charlie" is something I must read again! thanks, jess! My favourite is "East of Eden" to which the film does not begin to do justice, and I must read it again....in the glory days of 100% coursework I taught at GCSE and after the usual "Oh miss, it's sooooo long!" it was a resounding success.

But nothing could beat "The Grapes of Wrath". Ever.

A short story often makes a better film than a big fat book, doesn't it Ariadne. I haven't seen Brokeback (yet) but it was a brilliant short story, for instance.
I loved East of Eden for its male characters, particularly the Chinese man. I watched a film (on a plane) recently that reminded me a little - about father/son/brother relationships, called Jayne Mansfield's Car. BB Thornton in it and directing. I thought it was really good.
Also watched the one about Hitchcock with Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren - pretty good I thought and of course GREAT acting. And another one, also based on real people, about middle aged love, about Rooseveldt. If you bear with me, as they say, I will post the titles.

Hitchcock (doh!) and Hyde Park on Hudson.

Agreed (as usual) Ariadne. I love The Grapes of Wrath - even the film (Henry Fonda0 was good. My African pupils enjoyed it too. I think there were aspects of it that they could related to. Travels with Charley stuck in my mind because of the dreadful scenes he observed of white protesters shouting and swearing and threatening little black children brought in to attend a previously all white school.

Indeed anno

Ariadne. I was just thinking about Grapes of Wrath while I fought weeds in the garden today. What was the word that Adam used at the end? It meant 'He may', something like 'timshel'. It's bothering me and I've lost our copy.

My students sat a special GCSE oral exam for mature students which involved talking about a book they'd read. One of them, doing a mock oral with me, told me she'd been reading 'CANARY Row'. Luckily for her I was able to put her right and she passed.

I think that may have been East of Eden Broomsticks. I can't find my copy either so can't help.might have Oxfamed it in a fit of clearing out-Ness.

Broomsticks it was "timshel" but, as jingl says, it was in "East of Eden". Love the concept.

"Of Mice and Men" is another one that the students of all abilities loved and could deal with well. (That being the case, it will probably be taken off the syllabus!!) #don'tgetmestarted

A Steinbeck novel that went down very well with my Kenyan pupils was 'The Pearl', for some reason not so well known as 'Cannery Row' and 'Of Mice and Men', maybe because its anti-materialism message doesn't resonate so well with today's GCSE candidates.

'timshel'. I always really liked that. It's a good thought. I don't know why I wrote Grapes of Wrath instead of East of Eden - nobody say 'Senility' !!

There is a new e-book coming out soon published by Harper Collins called 'Cat's Eye' that really reminded me of Tortilla Flat quite a bit.

Actually, I would think Steinbeck would be pretty well the direct opposite to Scott Fitzgerald.

Sorry Feetlebaum