From the Bookshelf of Topeka & Shawnee Co. Public Library…

[close] **From KS Humanities Council TALK Brochure** John Steinbeck's 1945 classic tells the story of a group of loners considered lazy and shiftless, who survive at the fringes of a fishing and caning community on the California coast. These men, who prefer drinking and fighting to working a steady job, show us the other side of the coin of the post-war American dream of opportunity. Despite their rough edges, the men eventually pull together to throw a party for the quiet and sensitive Doc, and to give their own dreams a chance to flourish. Steinbeck's whimsical humor and great compassion for this bunch of outcasts create a sympathetic, almost idyllic portrait of life on the edge of society. Although the novel takes place over fifty years ago, the kind of community Steinbeck depicts - one forged by people locked out of the American dream, and one made of men isolated from women or children - is still very much alive today in every American city.