The Winter of Our Discontent (Penguin Classics)

This is heralded as one of Steinbeck's best. I'm disappointed. It's just personal taste. The voice goes from 1st to 3rd person which doesn't flow smoothly in my humble opinion. But, why take my opinion? I'm at odds with literary history. I suggest that no one base a decision on one person's view of a literary w y. Give it a try. At least you can say you've read a class Steinbeck novel!

I read this book since it had been selected by my book club. It sounded interesting: the story of a man whose family background tells him he could have, should have been more than a grocery clerk and how a moral man reacts when presented with not-so-moral opportunity in a seemingly corrupt world.

I was expecting a story that would grab and hold my attention. While the central conflict was eventually revealed, the various tangents the narration wandered off on became too distracting to really enjoy the central core of the story. Perhaps the biggest disappointment of all was the ending. I won't give away any details, but suffice it to say that when I reached the last page on my Kindle I had to go back and see if I'd missed something. It was not only abrupt but Ethan's actions seemed out of character.

Steinbeck exposes what lies back of american development during the past decades. The sliding from the "american ideal" to todays wealth-based udemocratic society, depicted by the development of the main character, Ethan Allen. Steinbeck is among the very few that present the feelings that led to emigration from the States in the mid 60s.
A gripping book!

This book is a classic, and the one noted by the Nobel committee when John Steinbeck won the prize. It is a very American story which takes place in 1960 and unlike his earlier books, in New York. I recommend this book. It is very well written, and a good story.

It's written by Steinbeck, so how can you not love it? It's very interesting how the author changed the voice and perspective between first and third person. Some critics took aim and criticized him for such inconsistency. But, personally, I found it interesting, and certainly different. I've read it twice over the years, and enjoyed it both times.

Steinbeck is a great descriptive novelist. The first book I read was East of Eden. It was a great story but maybe not for the young as it can be brutally honest. What I like about his writing is it is very current but classic at the same time. I love reading the classics and this one is a great shorter read than East of Eden.

Typical of Steinbeck before going to the point takes the long walk around the block. It makes you want to go ahead and finish the story and then it end and you feel like going back around the block one more time to see if the end. An be different

I read everything (I believe) Steinbeck had written years ago...except for this (for some unknown reason). A great read. A timeless morality play set in eastern Long Island, far from the locale of Steinbeck's other works.

Pulitzer prize-winning book. Well written compelling and engrossing. Good characterization and descriptive. Not a page Turner but insightful I appreciate the analysis of the individually of each character

The Winter of Our Discontent is a nuanced story about human nature. Steinbeck masterfully weaves a tale that explores identity, class, wealth, love, and morality in a natural flowing style. The characters are well developed and the plot is intriguing. Truly, an American Classic.

Steinbeck perfectly captures declining morality in postwar America and creates his most offbeat novel. The author chose to experiment rather than repeat past successful techniques, and he certainly proved himself one of our nation's greatest writers and social critics.

I read this book many years ago. I saw the book through new eyes and found it amazing. I have now moved on to a reread of the Grapes . I will move on to other Steinbeck books but I am not sure if I have the courage to read Of Mice and Men again.

Having recently read the over-hyped "Freedom" by Jonathan Franzen, "The Winter of Our Discontent" proved an excellent respite from all the drivel that's being passed off these days as modern masterworks. Steinbeck is amazing.

I very much enjoy John Steinbeck's novels. This one disappointed me somewhat, I couldn't get into the main character, maybe too American for me to understand and feel comfortable with. I will go back to it at a later date.

It wasn't Steinbeck's intention for this novel to be his last work of fiction, but harsh reception from critics, his publisher and editor made it so.

Some of the criticism is understandable; the book is flawed in many ways that can be off-putting especially fans of "classic" Steinbeck, but the challenge here is to dig a little deeper.

The morality play within is timeless which makes the novel timeless as well.

A fitting end to a masterful career. Steinbeck goes out swinging.

I tried to like this novel. I love his earlier works, but really dislike The Winter. I think it seems so dated, not just because it was written in 1960, his other works are older. It reads like an old man trying to write as a young one but not quite achieving it. I don't understand how the book won the prize. Guess i will reread his earlier novels.

Set neither in a CA agricultural area nor in Yankee New England this grim novel pulls the reader in casually but relentlessly—to the point that we hope that the protagonist gets away with his contemplated crime. What kind of story condones such anti-social behavior; what kind of town winks at routine kickbacks and other petty acts of fraud which recur so often as to seem more or less respectable. After all, everybody does it—looks out for number one. So why is it shocking that an average-joe grocery clerk/manager gradually wants to take a piece of the American pie for himself and his family?

After the first two chapters in the third person Steinbeck switches to the first person—to delve into the secret thought processes of Ethan Allen Hawley (of proud New England whaling tradition) whose family fortunes have dwindled. Weighing the risk of robbing a bank versus reveling in the luxury of having money to Make money, Ethan’s life is buffeted by warm, coaxing winds of change and conflicting desires; suggestions, hints, and schemes gradually bore into and undermine his bourgeois morality. He does have to exorcise certain ghostly ancestors, but he always has his
secret Place to think things out: a hidden, tide-flooded sea hole.

Interactions with various townspeople sway him; some seem to offer too much information or themselves. Devoted to his darling wife, Mary, whom he calls countless pet names, he has tempestuous relationships with his two young teenagers. What is the power of an old amulet with serpentine design, which he regards as his sacred talisman? Should he screw his benefactor, the confiding banker, the hottest widow in town or his degenerate best buddy? What is the ultimate price of moral torment when acted upon? Teetering on the brink of success—how will his broken state of mind handle the greatest moral crisis of his life?

I was not terribly excited about this particular piece of literature....before I read it. Chalk it up to being not nearly as heralded as Steinbeck's other works, but I really did not know anything about this book before I picked it up.

Bottom line: The main character really connected with in a way that probably would not have if I had been forced to read this in high school. Steinbeck does a very good job of capturing what the American dream is really like for a lot of American men right now. I'm not a woman so I can't say if the book connects on that level. I found myself early on flipping around in the book to find when the time period for this book was set, because it felt like a comment on America in 2016. I felt like this novel presented a more likable version of the same story that John Updike presents in his "Rabbit" trilogy.

The Ending: It felt a little abrupt and inconclusive to my liking at first. However, after having time to reflect on it, I feel like the ending gives the reader the opportunity to really reflect on how the character lived out his life after the conclusion of the novel. Again, where Updike make his Rabbit character unlikable (in my opinion), at least Steinbeck left the question open to the reader's imagination on how Ethan (the title character) played out the remaining phases of his life.

Dislikes: Didn't really get the son angle in the story, other than the fact that he was a little punk. I also could have done without Ethan's banter towards his wife. Maybe in a few interactions it would have been ok, but the style and the incessant circle back to the annoying tone of the banter found me skimming over those parts.

Steinbeck is my favorite author. I never remember reading his work in high school having discovered him only after listening to a park ranger speak at the bottom of the Grand Canyon about The Grapes of Wrath. I found a copy of The Winter of Our Discontent at the local library book sale. There was no passing it up.

Ethan Hawley is a proud New Englander who is struggling to make sense of his life. He works as a clerk in a grocery store after having lost the store he owned to his poor business skills. Providing support to his lovely wife, Mary and two growing children, eats at his core. In Ethan's mind he must be poor since he is a "clerk". It's his mind that holds him back. When Ethan is faced with the choice between right and wrong, it's his mind that propels into a place he's not sure he wants to go.

The Winter of Our Discontent is Steinbeck's view of life in America in the late 1950's. The story focuses on thought more than plot which is what I love about reading a book. It's also what I love about Steinbeck. He writes a novel that plucks my heart strings and makes me think. This is the last book Steinbeck published. He didn't save the best for last, but he gave us a timeless story on what it takes to be human.

My name is Collette aka Coco Mojo and I buy books on the store.

Here is Steinbeck's rather gloomy, sad, but intriguing tale of a man disillusioned with life. Ethan's despair extends to his business associates and acquaintances and even to his own family. He is married and has a son and daughter. His son's dishonesty and indifference after cheating on an important essay is the final straw that nearly drives Ethan to suicide.

The story carries several themes, but the theme that interested me most is the one I will call Merit Vs. The Silver Spoon.

Ethan Allen Hawley's son bears his father's name, and it is to Ethan Allen Hawley II the father expects to "pass the torch" (see pg. 112. Only his son -- as well as his son's son -- and not his daughter is mentioned regarding family heirdom, as the one who will carry on). However, the son shows little character and little merit, being spoiled, dishonest, self-absorbed and self-important. He also seems indifferent to and even contemptuous of his father. He seems to have little heart.

Redemption, however, comes from an unexpected place -- in the form of his daughter Ellen, who shows signs of promise, of merit. She seems to be everything her brother is not. She cares about her brother and tries to save him from jail. She also is affectionate towards her father. She has a heart.

In the end, it is she in whom the father finds HOPE and thus the will to live. She is the rightful heir, the family Torchbearer (as symbolized by the beloved Talisman, the stone orb that "gathers every bit of light," as depicted on the very last page), having earned it by MERIT alone (after all, she is the "wrong" sex, which is why the father pinned any hope he might have had on his SON. The son's birthright as heir or torchbearer under patriarchy is a given -- or so it would seem).

The Talisman also symbolizes the HEART -- the bond of affection shared by father and daughter (see the bottom of page 137, "I felt close to Ellen because of it. I wonder, did the stone bring her somehow close to me -- to the Hawleys?). The stone is pink, but on the last page appears deep red, the color of the heart. This esteemed object represents Light, Life and Love -- things which money cannot buy. And in this book about greed for money (another theme), this beloved object stands as a counterpoint to all that is false and twisted. It is a symbol of something higher and truer, something everlasting ("I presume that every family has a magic thing, a continuity thing that inflames and comforts and inspires from generation to generation.").

I really appreciate this book and the symbolism therein -- and I'm all for meritocracies, in that I believe position and honor must be earned by MERIT ALONE, rather than by the "birthright" of the following "Silver Spoons": The color of one's skin, the sex of one's body, one's wealth, one's rank, etc.. (A variation on this theme is portrayed in the movie Whale Rider, which I saw a few years back with my friend Ron. He reminded me that the theme in that film is close to what I've been speaking about in this review.)

The "divine right of kings" is a concept and practice that needs to end. One should only get the position and honor that one earns, in all aspects of life.

The Winter of MY Discontent pretty much summed up how I felt about this book, as the snow was falling non-stop outside and the temperature dropping daily, only to be given an unsatisfying ending to a story I was invested in. No spoilers here, only to say that Ethan, dreamy and happy, content in his discontent, and seemingly courageous in his cowardice, finds himself completely out of character in the closing pages.
I've read a great deal of Steinbeck--all the great ones--but found "Winter" a disappointment as it wound to a finish. There was a whole brace of interesting characters--some good, like the sweet but determined daughter--to the less likeable: Banker Baker, the witch, and others, sometimes Ethan himself. And I hoped for more story revolving around them as they circled the drain of the last chapter. No such luck.
It was Steinbeck's last novel. Not a perfect way to go out. Give me Cannery Row; The Pastures of Heaven; The Moon is Down.

I found this a complete change from Steinbeck's California books. Ethan Allan Hawley works in a grocery store and has two smart kids; his wife works outside the house to bring in more income. Hawley would like to do better for the family, but even the fact of his being a Freemason doesn't open any doors.

An old friend of Hawley's is quietly drinking himself to death in his secluded house, with no family left. Hawley sees an opportunity to develop the land around that house into an airstrip. Who would this benefit, and could he see a way to make it benefit his family... even if it meant ignoring his own scruples and old friendship?

Gently paced, with a sub-plot involving the two kids and their rivalry, the tale grows in the telling. We can see in microcosm the development of America and enrichment of some to the detriment of others. I enjoyed this more than any other of Steinbeck's fiction so if you have not got on with his other novels give this one a try.

Aside from the title's Shakespeare quote, the book includes the phrase 'appetite for destruction' which was used by heavy metal band Guns 'N Roses to title their album.

The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck.

Ethan Allen Hawley's life has been a slow decline for years. A happily married man to wife, Mary, and two teenage children ...not everyone in his family accepts his lot in life. On the surface it appears that Ethan does accept his situation.
There is another side to Ethan. That's the quiet side deep within Ethan of his truer feelings towards people and the reasoning behind why he finds himself at this station in life after all the years of being an honest and forthright person in the community.
It's that quiet side that no one but Ethan hears or knows about that eventually take over.

This was a realistic look at a man on the down-slope. It's important to read all the way to the end.

“My friends,” I said, “what you are about to witness is a mystery. I know I can depend on you to keep silent. If any of you have any feeling about the moral issue involved, I challenge you and ask you to leave...No objections? Very well...”

Ethan Allen Hawley is the fallen heir of vast New England sea legacy. Now, near penniless, he has little left but pride, family, and a meager inheritance belonging to his wife. But Ethan is a man with vision and, akin to Shakespeare’s Richard III, Ethan secretly plans the usurpation of the local grocery store.
What follows is a man’s decision to take responsibility for his actions and resuscitate his family’s reputation. The twist comes from the methods Ethan goes to put his plans into motion. For the moral or ethical ramifications, Steinbeck demands we judge Ethan’s actions for ourselves. We could speak up and simply walk away from the text, but, as clearly stated twice, if we remain, we do so as accomplices. Ethan’s guilt becomes our guilt. His foibles and deceptions are small maneuvers admitted openly but in jest. Where family and friends see a stubborn whimsical man, we see a man adrift; moored to his sense of familial obligation.

Personally, the final chapter is a cop-out. The empathetic reader invests too much time riding shotgun in Ethan’s brain for such an allegorical and frenetic resolution. Hell, there is even a POV switch from 3rd to 1st, just to ensure, we are sympathetic to Ethan’s motivation. So it comes as a let-down that as Ethan begins to reap what he has sown, we are given a jarring twist that, for me, severs my connection the Ethan I come to know. But I guess that goes to show, you really never can tell. Can you?

This novel of the financial struggle of one man's family was written in the late 1950's, but it is even more relevant today as it details the Hawley family, once a pillar of society in their Long Island community. But now the family's breadwinner is reduced in status to a grocery clerk: sweeping floors, stocking shelves, waiting on impatient customers, while he attempts to feed his family of four. It is hand to mouth, paycheck to paycheck. In a town rife with corrupt politicians, bankers, businessmen, and citizens, Ethan struggles to maintain his honesty as he sees others become rich through dishonest means. He decides to abandon his honesty policy and puts several plans of action into motion: taking a bribe, ratting out the store's owner to the Department of Immigration, taking advantage of an alcoholic boyhood best friend, and robbing a bank are all on his agenda. At the same time, his young son wins a national writing honor, which turns out to be based on plagiarism. Ethan, feeling his own dishonest plans corrupted his son, then considers suicide. The economic woes of the family are mirrored by today's stressful times. Steinbeck has laced his story with rich characters and detail. This is Steinbeck's last of sixteen novels. Quite a few, such as "The Grapes of Wrath" and "Cannery Row," deal with the human struggle to survive. He's an expert at depicting this battle. The title is taken from the first two lines of Shakespeare's "Richard III."

There is no doubt that Steinbeck is a masterful writer and this morality tale makes for very good reading, but in my opinion it is not his best work. Steinbeck too tightly constructed this plot of a man who gradually takes steps taken by millions every day to enrich himself at someone else’s expense. Thus this is the tale of a likable everyman, a family man, a husband and father, a friend and employee, who is put in a position to take advantage of an employer who may or may not be an illegal immigrant and to capitalize on an old friendship with an childhood friend who has become a completely wasted alcoholic sitting on valuable real-estate. To show a man gradually losing his moral code and gradually placing himself in a position to capitalize on the misfortunes of others required a very tight plot and chronology of action, maybe just a bit too tight, which keeps this really good novel from being superb.

This Steinbeck novel mesmerized me when I was young; it was my favorite "morality" book. But now that I'm older and I've read it again, I'm not so sure where it stands. I loved its cerebral but playful style, similar to Steinbeck's East of Eden, and I took as gospel the book's revelations about the ethics and reality of business. The story takes place in a small New England town, but it's meant to apply to the world at large.

On a second "older" reading, I feel that I have discovered why this book is an "overlooked" classic, which makes me wonder how Steinbeck's acknowledged powerhouses - Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden - would fare on a second reading. The Winter Of Our Discontent is still cerebral and playful, it's still a good story, but now it seems too clever by half. It's almost as if Steinbeck tried to put The Great Game into a small town and it doesn't quite fit. The characters are clever and witty, but none of them, not even the main character, Ethan, is truly fleshed out. The characters seem to represent ideas rather than people, or they exist merely to advance the plot. People are divided into two camps: those in the know and playing the game and those not. Ethan is an exception; he is a good man who is aware of the game but stays out of it and protects his family from it. But the price Ethan pays for goodness is to be meek and almost poor. Once Ethan begins to feel pressure from his family to rise up from his ethical but lowly station in life, he decides to get in the game, and he plays like a master. Ethan doesn't overrationalize his decision, but he is quietly desperate, making it feel a bit false and overplayed to me, especially at the conclusion when Ethan's ambivalence overwhelms him (I can't say more about this without giving an important part of the story away). In other words, The Winter Of Our Discontent seems like an oversimplistic moral story with undeveloped characters. It wasn't as "deep" as I remembered. I wasn't able to know or like any of the characters; I could only follow the plot, which, as I said, is still interesting enough.

Now I have the challenge of finding a new favorite morality story, one that is deep, true, compelling, and a great read. No, don't tell me about Ayn Rand! Any other suggestions?

John Steinbeck's last novel, The Winter of Our Discontent, is an interesting and readable account of a man dealing with his moral compass. Ethan Allen Hawley is the descendant of a prominent New England clan that made its money in whaling. Unfortunately, family fortunes declined after that industry collapsed and Ethan is now relegated to working as a clerk in a grocery store he used to own. He is resentful of and embarrassed by this and plots to change his lot in life by theft and chicanery. He justifies this through the old "everybody does it" dodge until the implications and consequences of his actions smack him upside the head. Not nearly as ambitious as The Grapes of Wrath or East of Eden, nor as tight and intense as Of Mice and Men, it is still well worth a reader's time.

After writing East of Eden, JohnSteinbecks productivity in writing fiction tailed off. He seemingly had said what he wanted to say in his fiction.The novel about modern france was one of his weakest but he rebounds with his best post Eden novel, The Winter Of Our Discontent. Ethan Hawley is the clerk at a New England grocery store .The building once belonged to Hawleys family but the fortune has been lost andEthan s now a Harvard graduate working as a store manager. The scenario is rather implausible if you think about it a Harvard grad managing a small city grocery.However Steinbeck quickly gets you into Ethans mind and he does it in such a compelling you believe it. The story is about how motivated by a fortune predicted by a good friend of his wife leads Ethan to listen and pay attention to the world around him and conclude that ethics and morality do not mix well with business. Ethan does nothing illegal or criminal but he does things that are ethically and morally dubious. The last scene is deliberately ambivalent does Ethan kill himself or not In looking at moral poverty and how the consequences of being self aware of ones moral deterioratioc coupled by a desire for personal integrity for at one point it was Ethans most prized possession Steinbeck creates another 5 star classic if not as good as some of his other novels. I call it the weakest of his 5 star novels because of the implausibility I mentioned earlier but consider it a classic despite that flaw

*No spoilers*

If you're reading these reviews and still haven't made up your mind to get this book, hopefully I can give you that one final push - for or against it.

When I started reading the first chapter, my first thought was, "What prompted me to read this?" It reminded me of required reading in high school, but without the distraction of good-looking classmates. But I persevered. And I was immediately rewarded with excellent characters, memorable descriptions of time and place - without being overly wordy - and one-liners that truly need to be read to be appreciated.

As I am writing this review, I realize there were a lot more characters than I realized. This is a testament to Steinbeck's writing that I was never confused about how a character fit into the story. If you've ever wondered "How well do I really know someone?" or "How well do I know myself?" then you are in for quite a treat since this seems to be woven into every relationship in this novel. If you get the chance to discuss this with a book club, you'll probably have a field day! Also for the book club, the Penguin Classics version has explanatory notes and a 22-page introduction by Susan Shillinglaw, though I personally had no use for this.

In a 280-page book, it would be hard to duplicate the inner thoughts of the characters, the descriptions of inanimate objects, motives and family history that stick with us after we read 'The Winter of Our Discontent'. Perhaps I have read others like this, but none come to mind.

Finally, I wanted to add some quotes from the book that showcase Steinbeck's wit and thoughtfulness. This was what really kept me focused and smiling as I read. From the 'Penguin Classics' paperback edition:

p.5
(Mary, Ethan's wife, sends him to get some eggs for the children. Ethan jokingly retorts.)
Ethan: "Why two dozen?"
Mary: "For dyeing. Allen and Mary Ellen asked specially. You better go."
Ethan: "Okay bugflower - but can't I just go up and beat the hell out of Allen and Mary Ellen?"

p. 72
(Ethan is discussing the old days of pirates and their search for gold with his son, Allen)
Allen: "I wouldn't mind that. I'd get the gold and bring it home. I guess they won't let you do it any more."
Ethan: "No - it's bigger and better organized now. They call it diplomacy."

p.149
(Ethan's young daughter, Mary Ellen is chastising Ethan for not listening to her, then leaves the room)
"She lounged away, a baby-fatted volupt. Girls kill me. They turn out to be girls."

Since I promised no spoilers, I will end here and encourage you to try this book for yourself.

`The Winter of Our Discontent' is a slight departure for Steinbeck in that this isn't set in the Salinas valley or California. It has a different feel to his past novels with the themes of human greed and also with a slightly different style to the prose and yet it still has the splendour and amazing technique that Steinbeck is famous for, and which I've grown to love. You still get his lush descriptions, and turns of phrase that encapsulate a feeling or scene in a few perfectly chosen words. The story itself is completely absorbing and as with all of his novels, once you start reading it is very hard to put this down. Written towards the end of his career and when he was living in New York with his last wife you can see the influences of this change come out in his writing, but this in no way detracts from the overall feel, if anything it adds to it. If you've enjoyed any of his past novels then this one will not disappoint and if you're new to Steinbeck I wouldn't recommend this as your first try (maybe Grapes Of Wrath or Cannery Row) but you should definitely come back to it at some point soon. Well worth a read.

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When John Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1962, many felt that this book was what reminded the Prize committee of Steinbeck's greatness. Like all of his books, short stories and non-fiction journalism, this is very well written, has developed characters who readers will recognize and presents a useful moral at the end. This might be his most modern and recognizable story, however.

Ethan Hawley is the well educated scion of a prominent Long Island family that has fallen on hard times and has lost its place at the top of society. Ethan is known throughout the community for his honesty and integrity, but there is pressure from everyone--his family, his boss, friends and local big wigs--for him to sacrifice his morales to earn a better living and make a name for himself. As he struggles with the temptation of a big pay day, he develops a plan which will destroy his own standards of decency, but will elevate his family back into the prestigious position he thinks they deserve.

The story is well told and engaging, plus it gives readers a great opportunity to decide whether the modern society Steinbeck sees is really worth the price it costs. I would highly recommend this book to Steinbeck fans or people who enjoy good writing and stories that make them think.

If you were forced to read "The Winter of Our Discontent" in high school, and a few years have passed, it's worth going back in for another read. The story is an American classic. A common grocery store clerk, Ethan Hawley, is shamed by his lowly status in a small town where his family name was once held in esteem. Believing that wealth and power will bring back that respect, Ethan sets in motion a series of events designed to return affluence to his family and political power to himself. Of course, the scheme has its victims, including those against whom Ethan is seeking revenge, and ultimately Ethan himself.

Published in 1961, "The Winter of Our Discontent" was Steinbeck's last novel. Some may criticize the book for its lack of subtlety. To be sure, the key theme -- the moral corruption of America -- surfaces throughout the novel's pages, and permeates many of its characters. While it may be true that Steinbeck avoided his usual nuance in crafting this story, to me this doesn't take away from the enjoyment of reading it.

The Nobel Prize committee mentioned THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT in awarding the 1962 Nobel Prize for literature to Steinbeck--and in so doing touched off a critical backlash against both the novel and Steinbeck's entire body of work. The novel had not been popular with American critics or American readers, and the author was savagely attacked as "past it," his current works dismissed as irrelevant and his earlier works as overrated. Steinbeck was so humilated that he did not publish another novel in his lifetime.

Part of critical reaction was due to the novel's structure, which jumps from third person to first person narrative and from character to character in an extremely jarring manner--and which in terms of plot seems prepared to run off in a dozen different directions but never actually does. But it may be more accurate to say that the bedrock of critical animosity was the nature of the story itself: an unflattering tale of America at its most hypocritical and corrupt. Given the tenor of the times, it was not a portrait that American critics or the reading public cared to embrace.

Ethan Hawley is a descendent of a notable New England shipping family--but the advent of petroleum products destroyed the whaling industry and the family fortune declined. As the novel opens, Ethan is a clerk in the very grocery store he once owned. His wife loves him, but is embarrassed for him; his two children, hungry for the luxuries of the small town upper class, are less discreet in their sentiments. At least Ethan has the satisfaction of knowing that he is a man of integrity ... but one day, for no significant reason at all, his eyes are suddenly opened to the truth. He can have it all. But there is a price to pay: his conscience.

Steinbeck's works frequently deal with the struggle between personal integrity and worldly success, but THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT is quite unlike his other works, for instead of painting the battle in broad strokes Steinbeck explores a gray area that gradually darkens to black--and suddenly ends the novel on a slightly ambiguous note, leaving the reader to wonder if Ethan will fight his way out of the darkness or merely strive to protect his family from knowledge of it.

Perhaps more so than other Steinbeck novel, THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT requires a careful reading. Yes, the structure is jarring, and yes the plot seems to run hither and yon, but at the same time these elements actually mirror the disconnected nature of the characters in a way that becomes increasingly disconcerting as the book progresses. And while there is no doubt that the book is deeply flawed, there is no denying the author's power, a power that seems to arise as much from his failings as from his virtues. As always, Steinbeck takes great risks in his work, and part of the pleasure in reading one of his novels is in seeing how well the gamble pays off.

I would not place THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT in the first rank of Steinbeck novels--but it certainly did not deserve the scorn heaped upon it in the early 1960s and which continues, to a certain extent, to dog it to this very day. Memorable, provocative, powerful, and recommended.

GFT, the store Reviewer

If I had never read so many of his other works, I would probably rate this fine classic five stars. I rate it just under four and a half stars solely because I don't think it quite compares to "East of Eden" and "The Grapes of Wrath". These are times in which I wish the store had a ten point scale rating system instead of five. How can I honestly give this novel the same rating as the two above referenced classics? Yet, please don't get wrong, I did thoroughly enjoy this book, especially the second half. What I love most about Steinbeck is that he is truly an American through and through. Which makes him very easy for me, an American, to identify with. I also enjoy the fact that he was an artist that lived among the people (just like, and arguably even more so than Mr. Hemingway). This is a very attractive trait, in my opinion, when it comes to writing the dialogue between the characters. Steinbeck has the language and the mannerisms of the common man down to a tee.

Three quotes I would like to add here. The first quote, will be the best I can think of when it comes to defining the story of Steinbeck's hero in the novel - Ethan Hawley. The second two quotes are two of my personal favorites from this novel, while they also aid in re-defining the book's main message.

"For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" Mark 8:36

"Any man of reasonable intelligence can make money if that's what he wants. Mostly it's women or clothes or admiration he really wants and they deflect him. The great artists of finance like Morgan and Rockefeller weren't deflected. They wanted and got money, just simple money. What they did with it afterward is another matter." (p. 45)

"Strength and success - they are above morality, above criticism. It seems, then, that it is not what you do, but how you do it and what you call it. Is there a check in men, deep in them, that stops or punishes? There doesn't seem to be. The only punishment is failure. In effect no crime is committed unless a criminal is caught." (p. 187)

I am huge Steinbeck fan, and I have read quite a bit of his work. In "The Winter of Our Discontent", he has definitely created in Ethan Hawley a main character that I myself can relate with like none other. I have just become a husband and father. I work in the world of real estate (not as a broker or agent) in the Silicon Valley in Northern California (a.k.a. hades, everlasting fire, nether world, etc...) where attempting to be a man of morality, a man with principals and ethics, is not very easy to say the least. Especially when you are the only breadwinner and you live in one of the most expensive towns. Like Ethan, I am plagued daily by temptations that could easily make me richer and 'more successful' such as kick backs, black mail, cougar women (i.e. Margie Young-Hunt), shady deals, etc... yet, so far, I have been able to hold my ground. For those of you who haven't read this fine novel, that is what you must now find out for yourself. Will Ethan, after years upon years of being Mr. Nice Guy, a man who is going nowhere fast as a grocery clerk, a man that can barely manage to make ends meet for his family, will Ethan finally throw in the towel and join them? God knows he has the pedigree, the smarts, the wherewithal to be a success, the question is whether or not he wants to sell his soul to do so.

Fans of Steinbeck's I can assure you that you will find this novel more enjoyable as long as you don't have the expectations of it being in the same league as those two above referenced classics. I still easily put this in my top ten favorites of all his work. My two only knocks (which are in no way a deterrent for reading this) are one, the lack of character development for everyone but Ethan and Margie, you really only get to know the other characters on more of a superficial, less than penetrating level. Which was a bit disheartening, because I really wanted to get to know some of these people more than he allowed me to. The other knock is that much of the book's plot was a bit too transparent for me. I was almost able to forecast everything that was going to transpire in the novel after reading the first forty pages. However, those are two very minor distasteful details when you consider who the author is. John Steinbeck could write a story about professional fly swatters stranded in a desert and still make it interesting. So I hope you all enjoy another little treasure from one of America's greatest twentieth century writers and definitely one of my personal favorites. Damn it! I really want to give this five stars!

ENJOY!

i had a modern american literature class this last semester and our prof gave us a choice of four steinbeck novels: grapes of wrath, east of eden, travels with charlie, and the winter of our discontent. i chose 'the winter of our discontent' and i was so glad i did. this is one of the finest examples of american literature i've ever read.

the novel itself starts out a bit slowly and i was afraid i wouldn't enjoy the novel. it's only in chapter four that steinbeck really hits his stride and shows why he's one of the crown jewels of american literature. i don't want to spoil it for anyone, but trust me, the prose is absolutely rapturous. i found myself constantly underlining sentences and paragraphs. pound for pound, steinbeck rivals oscar wilde in clever witticisms and aphorisms.

on the surface, yes, 'the winter of our discontent' is a novel about a middle-agend man coming to terms with the new american lifestyle and its accompanying materialism, but it's much more than that. it's a novel about family, love, morality, temptation, corruption, death and ultimately about life, and how our lives are infinitely connected, one to another. like most great literature, we're able to see ourselves in the book's characters.

unfortunately we live in an era where 'hip' writers (like david eggers) receive undue attention. consequently, american literature seems to have taken a few steps backwards in quality. not too many of our modern day writers really know how to *write.* fortunately, we still have steinbeck to show us what's right about our literary past and show us what quality literature looks like--there's a reason the man won a nobel prize.

This book reads like a howl of pain from a man who did not like where he saw his country headed. Sadly, no one was listening.
Ethan Allen Hawley is a Harvard educated descendent of New England shipping captains. In years past, his family was one of the most important in town. But now times have changed & after his father lost most of the family fortune & Ethan himself lost the family store, he is reduced to being a grocery clerk in the employ of an immigrant, Mr. Marullo.
Ethan's wife, Mary, and his two children, Ellen and Allen, push him to better the family's lot. Mary, for instance, wants him to invest the $6000 she inherited upon her brother's death.
The town vixen, Margie Young-Hunt, provides a powerful pull to kick over the traces & run a bit wild. She sends a representative from a food wholesaler to Ethan & he is offered a kickback if he'll buy from them.
Meanwhile, Danny Taylor, his childhood friend & now the town drunk, holds a piece of property that developers are desparate to get ahold of for their planned airport. The local banker approaches Ethan for help in getting the property away from Danny.
In short order Ethan is narcing on neighbors, betraying Danny, taking bribes & planning to rob the bank.
The ease with which the morally upright Ethan slips into a life of scheming and crime is not particularly believable. And I'll leave it to others to question the likelihood of a college graduate turned grocery clerk (lawyer/technicians shouldn't throw stones.)
However, Steinbeck had clearly perceived the general decline in morality that was occuring and accelerating as the nation entered the 1960's. As Ethan considers his schemes, he says, "A crime is something someone else commits". Here's his description of the year 1960: it was "a year when secret fears come into the open, when discontent stops being dormant and changes gradually to anger. The whole world stirred with restlessness and uneasiness as discontent moved to anger and anger tried to find outlet in action, any action so long as it is violent."
Steinbeck manages to paint an extremely bleak portrait of America & where it was headed, but it's hard to argue that he was wrong. He offers only two rays of hope. At one point, Ethan recalls the words of his grandfather, "Only in a single man alone--only in one man alone. There's the only power--one man alone. Can't depend on anything else." This nearly biblical incantation offers the way out of the predicament that Steinbeck has forecast. Each man must take responsibility for his own actions.
Then when Ethan has reached the end of his rope & considers suicide, a simple action by his daughter draws him back from the edge & he determines that he must try to help her, "else another light go out." I found this to be somewhat too little too late, especially as his daughter has already gotten up to no good.
I did find one thing remarkable about the book. Steinbeck may well have been the last of the significant traditional novelists. It is such a pleasure to read a straightforward story that doesn't resort to magical realism or interior monologue or other modernistic artifice. At one point, Ethan says, "A man who tells secrets or stories must think of who is hearing or reading, for a story has as many versions as it has readers. Everyone takes what he wants or can from it and thus changes it to his measure. Some pick out parts and reject the rest, some strain the story through their mesh of predjudice, some paint it with their own delight. A story must have some points of contact with the reader to make him feel at home in it. Only then can he accept wonders." Compare this to The Way of All Flesh, where Samuel Butler stated that he didn't care if anyone ever read his books or to James Joyce's completely inaccessible works.
It seems to me that this novel may stand as the demarcation of the end of a moral and a stylistic era.
GRADE: B

This underrated book presents the classic moral dilemma which pits the desire of the main character to live a moral, simple and decent life against the pressures from outside influences to obtain material wealth and standing through means which would cause him to give up the morals he holds most precious to him. This is the type of novel that all people should read after they have entered the workforce and can reflect on their own lives. Steinbeck leads the reader through the main character's thoughts and finishes this personal journey with an ending which will have readers turning back the pages to see the events which preceded the conclusion. I read the last chapters several times and each time was moved.

The reason why this novel is underrated is that while it lacks the size and power of some of Steinbeck's other novels, such as "Of Mice and Men", "The Grapes of Wrath" and "East of Eden", I often reflect upon the lessons of this novel years later in my own life. For this reason, it is my favorite of all of Steinbeck's novels. Like all of Steinbeck's writings, it acccomplishes its goals with a concise economic prose, which serves to emphasize the message of the novel. It is a novel of significant moral effect and it should be read several times during a lifetime to remind us of the difference between right and wrong and the significance that our actions may have on the lives of those around us and on ourselves.

I had a tough time rating this book. The story left me feeling abandoned and unsatisfied. I will admit that I like a story to have some redemption, no matter how tough the circumstances (think Victor Hugo), in order to say I really liked it. I had so many questions when it was all over. Which is a good thing. I wanted to know if Ethan was able to move forward in a positive way and lose some of his cynicism. I wanted the past to have less of a hold over him. I wanted to see his family come to love his quirky personality.

Nevertheless, I did enjoy the glimpse into an old New England family and the social structure of 1960, and the book easily captured my attention.

Steinbeck wrote this novel in the days when American Grocery stores were 94% independent single-owned stores. The hero isn't much of a hero, just a man struggling with the pressures of economic success in contrast to his moral beliefs.
With over 90% of the grocery stores today being multi-store operations, we see in this book the beginnings of the Madison Avenue economy we live in today, and what has been lost in the process.
At least Hawley struggled against the tide, where today it has become almost chic to lack morals, fool consumers, be the trickster guru, or market a ton of air in attractive colors and graphics.
Steinbeck shows us it should be a struggle, and indeed it will be a difficult one in a cultural setting where rationalizations ("It's only a crime against money - afterall!") eat away at the social requirements of honesty, decency, and respect for your fellow men and women.
At the end, a symbolic clue leads the reader back to a previous chapter and obscure dialogue. Left to ponder what this really means.

Steinbeck comes forth with his usual superb character development as expected. What was unexpected was how relevant his question remains today. Is everyone dishonest in business? Is that what it takes? What happens to an honest man when he tries to get ahead?
The story is set in the typical small American town. If you have ever watched small town politics, you know the cast. Except for Ethan. He is unique because he is honest. He is also "a failure" because he is honest. He has a wonderful wife - never openly begrudging and always accomodating. But then he has two kids, both of whom want to know why he isn't rich or when he will be. They are the future, as children naturally are and the question plays out between them too. Then there is Margie. Like a carbon copy of the perfect wife, she is the perfect "confidant" if you get my drift. As a woman, the contrast between them begs study. But it also pushes the fidelity angle too as Steinbeck goes into her relationships with various men. Like Young Goodman Brown (Hawthorne, I think) who goes to meet the Devil fearing what various people would think only to find out that they are all already there, Hawley questions of morality go there too.
But the true grit of this, for me, is the honesty factor. When being asked by his family when he will be rich, one of his responses is that there are two kinds of money - no money and not enough. It will never be enough. At what point do you stop "bending the rules". Do you "bend the rules" to get a house and security and then behave as an honest and decent man? Or do you then have the "not enough" kind of money and have to keep going. Is to be rich necessarily to be dishonest? And in the return to honesty and decency, will the money be lost?
This is an excellent book - and always will be. As long as we keep doing things we wouldn't "normally" do to make money, i.e. trade off our family and values to do this or do that. Are we being who we want to be? Are we striving to be the best spouse, neighbor, parent or does business come first? And, if so, why? Is that really success?

One of my very favorite novels is EAST OF EDEN, so I was especially curious to read this, his last novel. I couldn't devour it fast enough. The story of WASP-y Ethan, Mary and their small suburban town immediately gripped me and I was thoroughly captivated by Steinbeck's style of prose. The dialogue crackled with wit...the descriptive passages and storytelling all insightful and artistically composed. A real pleasure to read.

The disturbing course on which Ethan embarks, though both personal choice and circumstance, gets a little muddied in Part II but nevertheless my intent interest remained. I was born shortly after the time in which this is set (1960), so many of the references and mindsets rang so very clearly to the way I recall from my childhood. Yet, the lessons of morality remain completely relevant.

As I was reading The Winter of Our Discontent there was something about Ethan Hawley's character that reminded me of Willy Loman, Arthur Miller's tragic hero in his play Death of a Salesman. In Miller's work, Loman is a salesman who has lost touch with reality, and always is after what success is about, as he imagines talking to his dead brother Ben to try to get the answers to life. A man who was probably most successful in his daydreams than real life, Willy Loman might be considered an underachiever or loser by some, but there is a certain sympathy we carry for him. I bring up this character because Ethan, in The Winter of Our Discontent, has some of these same qualities, although he is not established like Loman (even in his own musings or dreams), and more glaringly, he is not as likeable or forgivable. Ethan also strives to gain a piece of the American dream, as he comes from strong family roots in New England, and works as a clerk in the town's local grocery store. Feeling the pressure from his wife and two kids, he wants to move upward in the world and be able to provide the wealth and comforts that make a father a success. He wants to carry on the family legacy with pride, and attain the status that makes him a success in his own mind. In this way, Ethan Hawley is a man with ambition; however, Macbeth was ambitious too. The crisis of conflict that Hawley ultimately experiences is that he gives in to moral standards to become "someone" in the world, which means setting aside morals, friends, and conscientiousness in hopes of attaining this status. Much like a Shakespeare tragic hero, or Willy Loman, he continues onward, attributing all things to fate, but ultimately has to come face to face with himself.

Hawley makes several key decisions that ultimately affect those close to him negatively. He loans money to his childhood friend Danny, a town drunk, to supposedly help him get some help with his drinking, but knowing full-well that he will drink himself to death with the money. He also gets him to use his own property as collateral if he shouldn't pay it back. His boss, who once gives him the advise to "look after number one," is deported after Ethan reports him to authorities; once this take place, the store becomes Ethan's, and he is no longer "just a clerk", but owner. Hawley also has plans of robbing a store in his mind, and is only stopped just short of doing this. One ironic aspect is when Ethan's son, Allen, plagiarizes on his "I Love America" essay and is scolded; just as Ethan has cheated the system to get ahead, his son has followed in his footsteps, yet only his son gets reprimanded for it. Ethan seems to legitimize his own actions: "Strength and success--they are above morality, above criticism...In effect no crime is committed unless a criminal is caught" (187).

Unlike many of Steinbeck's novels, this one uses a good deal of inner character monologue to reveal the protagonist's train of thought. In that way, the writing style is not typical of the simplistic narration that Steinbeck often uses, and sometimes there is more to what Ethan is thinking or doing than it actually seems. Some have both praised and criticized Steinbeck for using characters to project aspects of human morality, and The Winter of Our Discontent, his last novel, is no exception. While I didn't enjoy this novel as much as some of his other stuff, there are flashes of exceptional writing. For any Steinbeck fans, this is a novel that is a bit different than the others in that we are taken away from the California setting, and into the character's point of view.

When reading Steinbeck it is easy to understand his prominence as one of the great contemporary American writers. He takes a human or societal flaw and dissects it page by page and the reader cannot but help thinking how real and how commonplace Steinbeck's characters and situations are. In "Winter" the author centers on the greed and lust for material riches that was prevalent in America of the late1950s and early 1960s. Ethan Hawley, the protagonist, is a Harvard-educated man of once-prominent social standing who through the misfortunes of his whaling captain father is currently the clerk in a grocery store his father once owned. The present owner, an Italian immigrant, is the target of hostility for the simple reason that he is foreign.
Ethan Hawley is a man pushed by the desires of his wife Mary and his two children, Ellen and Allen. This middle-class family yearns for a more upscale life than Ethan can provide. A television, new curtains and furniture are some of the material possessions they long for. Because Ethan cannot provide them he makes a decision that incorporates the worst elements of greed and avarice. He embarks on a well thought-out plot to illegally obtain the money necessary to give his family the luxuries they desire. And so in lies the crux of this story...what happens to a man that forsakes his morals for the happiness of his family?
There are many supporting characters that flavor the book. Most notably Ethan's childhood friend Danny, now the town drunk, and his wife's best friend Margie who apparently is the town's most popular call girl. There is also the banker, a teller, and Mr. Marullo, the immigrant grocery store owner, whose tragedy becomes Ethan's triumph.
When accepting the Nobel Prize for Literature for this novel, Steinbeck stated that a writer is charged with exposing our many grievous faults and failures, with dredging up to the light our dark and dangerous dreams for the purpose of improvement. Readers will certainly see a generation's most obvious faults and failures and have Ethan Hawley's dark and dangerous dreams exposed. Interestingly enough, the materialistic greed exposed in this novel is still very real nearly fifty years later.

Had Steinbeck not also written such works as Of Mice and Men, East of Eden, as well as The Grapes of Wrath, Winter of Our Discontent would be a much better known book. On par with the books previously mentioned, Winter is an engrossing study of a man and his society. The story focuses on a middle-aged man and his family, a family that used to have much greater financial and social status. He is an honorable and philosophical man, who must wrestle with the loss of status and the obvious hypocrisy he sees around him. We watch his character gradually change as he questions himself, planning acts and then questioning them. We see as highly charged an emotional moment as Steinbeck ever wrote when, during a confrontation, our hero informs his adversary that "You'll feel better, sir, when you have got used to the fact that I am not a pleasant fool." His children show the two possibilities for America moving forward. This book is worth serious study.

The Hawley family is "Discontent". Ethan Hawley is working as a grocery clerk in the store he previously owned. The store now belongs to Marullo, an Italian immigrant who tries to teach Ethan what makes a successful businessman. Even Mr. Baker, the banker, has advice for Ethan: he tries to teach him how to be a good investor. It seems that everyone has an opinion on how Ethan Hawley can bring respect back to his family name. His wife is restless and doesn't like the fact that they are poor and living in a town where they were once respected. Ethan's son wants to go on television and get rich quick, his adolescent daughter is too secretive for his liking.

Steinbeck's protagonist, Ethan Allen Hawley, is a moral individual who has always done the right thing. This novel is set in New Baytown, a fictitious town near Long Island, a town that operates within a realm of corruption. Yet things have operated that way for so long that no one remembers that it is corrupt anymore. Ethan's family feels that he is too ethical for his own good. He has to choose between his current morals and adapting the definition of his morality.

Steinbeck captures a nation that is growing economically but bankrupt morally. Where this novel differs from other fall from grace novels is that the central character observes himself as a third party and slides down the slippery slope knowing full well the consequences. Steinbeck offers redemption in the form or Marullo, on being deported he gives the grocery store to Ethan Hawley. This happens just when Ethan is about to rob the bank.

A short novel worthy of praise addresses moral questions that really make you stop and think; the dialogue is brilliant.The characters are clever and witty, but at times I found the plot was very slow.

”When a condition or a problem becomes too great, humans have the protection of not thinking about it. But it goes inward and minces up with a lot of other things already there and what comes out is discontent and uneasiness, guilt and a compulsion to get something--anything--before it is all gone.”

College is a bit like a hamster wheel right? You get in, you run wheels, churning out some good grades and some not so good ones. And then 4 years later you step out, fall on your face because oh god the real world, and it takes a bit to recover. But recovery is refreshing. Whatever work I do now isn’t just an exercise, isn’t just running another lap in the wheel; it contributes to other work, it comprises a whole. Or it’s this, a review written through self-motivation, not grades, not because I “have to.” Bottom line, I don’t miss college.

And yet I miss this, brought to you by good ol’ Wikipedia:

“In various letters to friends before and after its publication, Steinbeck stated that he wrote the novel to address the moral degeneration of American culture during the 1950s and 1960s. American criticism of his moralism started to change during the 1970s after the Watergate scandal; here is how Reloy Garcia describes his reassessment of the work when asked to update his original Study Guide to Winter: ‘The book I then so impetuously criticized as somewhat thin, now strikes me as a deeply penetrating study of the American condition. I did not realize, at the time, that we had a condition.’”

After I read a bit about the book’s history, my appreciation for it went from oh-doesn’t-this-have-some-nice-passages to YES-YOU-GET-IT-STEINBECK-YOU-GET-IT. And that’s the kind of good stuff hamsters in wheels have the luxury of time and resources to absorb. Professors package everything, from biographical info, to theory and criticism, and they present it to wonderful effect so that a book isn’t just what’s on a page, but part of a discourse that’s often too difficult to get a sense of without a mighty Virgil-like guide.

So I guess when people say they don’t like many classics, or simply never read them, it should be more a point of empathy than derision. Classics often need context, and Wikipedia is a poor man’s Virgil.

The Winter of Our Discontent plays its cards close to its chest, so the way the plot unfolds is intriguing. The narrator, Ethan Hawley, is a perceived fool, being the ancestor of a once reputable whaling family that lost their prestige after bad investments and a suspicious incident where their ship burned down. Ethan works as a grocery store clerk, and he and his family are unsatisfied with the livelihood. Hence, their “discontent.”

Ethan becomes compelled to change their situation, and his conviction that dishonesty and ruthlessness is often a party to success and business guides his actions...

”Strength and success--they are above morality, above criticism. It seems, then, that it is not what you do, but how you do it and what you call it. Is there a check in men, deep in them, that stops or punishes? There doesn’t seem to be. The only punishment is for failure. In effect no crime is committed unless a criminal is caught. In the move designed for New Baytown some men had to get hurt, some even destroyed, but this in no way deterred the movement.”

I really liked this book. There are slow moments, and yes, a hearty amount of moralizing that can get tiring, but the incisive criticism of American culture and morality makes it worthwhile.

Published in 1961, a mere year before Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize for Literature, *The Winter of Our Discontent* is the culmination and thematic summation of a Great American Author, the resultant craft of a man who, over the course of his career, concerned himself with the American Ideal and the American Reality, despaired at stagnancy and loss of character, and ever fought the rising forces of material obsession and moral capitulation; it is a masterwork, albeit a slow-going and rather depressing one at that. Steinbeck would never again produce a novel of this scope and social-penetration, nor need he try: along with *Grapes*, *Eden*, and a few other contestable entries, the man had made his mark upon the literary zeitgeist: with *Winter*, he had fulfilled his promise ten-fold, delivering a powerful fable of loss, despair and (potential) redemption.

Ethan Hawley is a deeply troubled man. A Harvard graduate and veteran, he has settled for the path of (dis)contented mediocrity. Forced to work as a clerk in the store his father owned - and lost, due to shady speculations during World War II - Ethan continually ruminates inwardly on the past, the present, and the rather-dim looking future; he is haunted by the daunting specters of his wild, whale-hunting ancestors, an imposing legacy he feels inadequate to challenge; he endures beneath the crushing weight of perceived - and socially imposed - *failure*. The ghosts of the ancestral dynasty are ever on his mind, while the concerns of his immediate family threaten his strongly-inlaid yet increasingly fragile moral bedrock - for his wife and children resent the poverty of the Hawley misfortune, the wife constantly giving subtle hints as to her personal shame, unable to "hold her head up high;" and the children, pining for the creature-comforts the productive 50's began to bestow (a television, new car, etc.), which the lack of solvency denies them, begin to slide into pubescent angst and experiment with the relative-morality ethic seemingly prevalent everywhere beyond the Hawley domain.

In a sense (as several of the negative reviews on this page have pointed out), one feels Steinbeck has crafted a too-perfect foil in Ethan: he is almost *too* good, *too* straight-laced, and thus a rather `easy' contrast to the various corrupting forces the author perceived in the United States - and wished to combat, via the artistic craft. And yet, and yet... there is more than enough psychological meat in the text to justify the technique. Ethan's character is complex, and complexly drawn - the reader is given the clues, well early on, that the seed of temptation actively writhes to undermine the protagonist's staunch moral code; the presentation of such is done in a way both obvious and yet subtle, for we know what will happen but wonder (and hope) that events might force these carefully-laid plans awry. Nearly the entire novel can be thus seen as a slow, achingly certain capitulation of the primeval American standard - that is, honesty and self-reliance, coupled with integrity - and the key, then, is in making the main character likable and sympathetic in his torment. And Steinbeck succeeds marvelously, not only in Ethan but in those around him, who alternatively tempt, encourage, repress: Mary Hawley, the loving yet anxious wife; his son Allen, already succumbing to the irresistible forces of corruption; bank-manager Baker, epitome of fat-cat syndrome; Danny, the childhood friend-turned-alcoholic wastrel; and Margie, the most vivacious and vividly-drawn, the fallen-woman & town comfort, grown desperate as the years march on... Steinbeck has the way, as with all masters of word-smithy, to fashion a character within the space of a few lines, and make them seem *real*: someone you've seen before, or perhaps known intimately.

Again, I stress that *Winter* is not an easy read: the phrasing is deliberate and dirge-like, alternatively evocative and experimental (~while avoiding the excess of stream-of-consciousness); the atmosphere of New Bayton - and Ethan's inward ponderings - is gloomily suppressive, a miasma of failure, discontent, addiction and existential angst. Even as the time-table of the novel enters into spring, then summer, the cold shadow of *Winter's* desolate, desperate themes linger on. No, not an easy read - but, in passages, a beautiful one, and well worth the effort undergone. It is Steinbeck's final masterwork, a thousand-year gaze penetrating the cozy illusions of the fifties and accurately predicting the turmoil of the upcoming Aquarius decade.

Five Stars.

First, I will state up front that John Steinbeck is one of my favorite authors. In this novel Steinbeck atypically writes about life in a town in the east, one somewhere on the lower New England coast. The depth of the characters, a Steinbeck trademark, is present here in spades. His protagonist, Ethan Allen Hawley, is one of the most thoroughly well written characters that you can find. His wife Mary, his boss Marullo, his friend at the bank next store Joey-boy, his wife's friend Margie Young-Hunt, his kids (maybe especially his kids)... are all so vividly displayed that it's easy to forget that this is a fictitious town filled with fictitious people. The subject matter easily matches the character's depth... the difficulty in a modern world, full of all kinds of pressures, to remain moral and honest in the face of an easier way out. (Although written in the early 60s, the relevance to current headlines is obvious). Suffice to say that Steinbeck is one of the great writers of all time and all his copious skills are on display here. Very highly recommended.

This is a beautifully written book ~~ and my second Steinbeck book. A friend complained to me recently that she finds Steinbeck a depressing writer ~~ I disagree. He writes realistically of the views that society has on one another and of the world. Steinbeck writes convincingly of people and this book is no exception.
The book focuses on Ethan, a descendant from the Pilgrims and of the whaling captains, reduced to semi-poverty by working for an Italian immigrant in the grocery store he used to own. His wife, Mary, complains of not having money to spend as well as his two children. Beset by memories of how it used to be, Ethan begins to look for a way to solve his problems. This book focuses on that attempt. Ethan is a lovable character ~~ he defuses every serious conversations or whining with humor, oftentimes at the expense of his good self-will and pride.
It is a journey into one man's soul and it's soul-wrenching as well. It makes you stop and think ~~ and you don't dare to criticize anyone because you're guilty of the same feelings of despair and defeat. Ethan struggles to find a way to deal with those expectations and dreams of his loved ones and still keep his pride. But it comes to a conclusion that he can't have both.
This may be a smaller book but one still grabs at your soul and your mind. It's a perfect addition to any serious reader's library.
1-3-04

Having read many of Steinbeck's books and thoroughly enjoying them, I have been looking forward to reading "The Winter of Our Discontent". The initial tone Steinbeck sets in the book is odd. The main character possesses none of the typical characteristics which mark a Steinbeck main character. Ethan Hawley is hard to like at times because of the strange things he says and does. But in reality, Ethan represents every man. Often not likable, but real.

Steinbeck paints vivid characters in this story as he does in his other works. Ethan Hawley finds himself working as a clerk in the store his family once owned. Despite a heritage of wealth, his family has fallen on hard times. A fortune teller suggests this will soon change. When the store's current owner is deported, Ethan regains in possession of the store. The owner gave the store to Ethan at a cheap price because he is an honest man. Despite an apparent influx of wealth on the horizon, Ethan's other problems linger. His daughter merely wants him to be around. His son's fortune of winning an essay contest evaporates when he was found to have plagiarized. Danny, who is like a brother to him, may not have been rehabilitated from his alcoholism. The fortune teller lusts for him. The whole town seems to have fallen into corruption. His wife seems to be the last remaining sane person left.

As one would expect from Steinbeck, this book does not have a happy ending. The end is quite depressing, much like reality can be. Steinbeck has a gift for painting reality. While far from his masterwork, this story holds its ground.

Overall The Winter of Our Discontent, is a fairly decent book. It essentially follows the life of a store clerk named Ethan who is trying to provide for his family. He is trying his best to make enough money to give his family the things that they want but he struggles to do so with his job and the minimal business the store gets. Basically the story just follows his quest to make money for his family and it doesn't go much further than that. Additionally he goes on vacation with his family but that is about it. If you are looking for an exciting book this really is not it.

John Steinbeck is one of those writers who get in your face, who engage you in passionate conversation, if not downright argument, almost as soon as you turn the first page. I read this book in a paperback version, printed in 1962, whose dogeared cover featured an angry young man in tie and shirtsleeves, seated; a sleazy cigarette-smoking blonde, standing behind him with her arm over his shoulder; and another woman, younger and more wholesome, profiled in the rear. I loved this book and found it laughable at the same time, and the fact that I couldn't wait to finish it and write this review is, I think, a testimonial to its singular kind of greatness.

What kind is that? The greatness of perversity. Although Steinbeck meant this book to be a stern-browed statement on How We Live in America, Today -- as if tomorrow would never come -- forty-odd years later "Winter" is a remarkable antique, a pitch-perfect evocation of its much-ballyhooed era. Here are all the usual fifties tropes: neighbors all knew and spoke to each other, every kid had a mom and a dad, families stayed put for generations, corner bank, corner grocery -- and here is Steinbeck happily blowing them all to smithereens, reveling in the locals' hypocrisy, corruption, and xenophobia, having a splendid time steering his virtuous hero -- one Ethan Allen Hawley, something of an UberW.A.S.P. -- around various tempting and lethal shoals, pullling off a grandstanding switcheroo ending in which the hero's fate remains unclear till the last sentence.

So why was it laughable? Because Steinbeck's ripsnorting righteous exposure, of course, is as worn-out as the plasticated happy-days delusion it condemns. "Winter"'s world is deader than Dickens, buried under so many layers of historical effluvia -- electronics and mass media, computers, feminism, relativism in all its forms, the end of the Cold War -- that even those old enough to remember those times groan aloud over this Ozymandias of a novel. Was there really a time when a man could talk nonstop in graduate-level literary references to a wife who appeared to have the I.Q. of a chipmunk? After I identified the 13th Shakespearean nugget in the one-sided banter of overeducated Ethan and his acorn-brained wife, I found myself wondering whether the right medication might have made Steinbeck more ready to edit himself (for the record, I doubt it). Would the nation snatch up as an instant celebrity a fourteen-year-old boy who'd won honorable mention -- honorable mention! And one of five at that -- in a patriotic essay contest? Was there actually, and did I live in, a time when the federal government would -- on an anonymous tip -- dispatch agents to hunt down one -- one! -- illegal alien? (I must admit I bonded at once with the grocer Marullo. He was after all the only ethnic in the book, and like Steinbeck's diverse Californians magnificently rendered). And was there ever a town mattress as friendly and presentable and prescient as Margie Young-Hunt? Why, this gal sleeps with every man in town, from the not-so-picturesque local drunk to the police chief, and no doubt the dogcatcher; and upstanding Ethan and his doe-eyed wife leave their CHILDREN with her for the weekend.

Steinbeck's rendition of the Hawley children -- actually teenagers -- remind me of Timothy Leary's remark, made in the early 70s: "the genocidal hatred of a generation for its young." Allen and Ellen Hawley are nasty brats, but their parents barely seem to notice their existence, and when they do, it is mostly to plot an escape from the troublesome offspring. There is, throughout the novel, an almost palpable antipathy on the part of Ethan Hawley toward his son. Allen is unpromising, to say the least, but one wonders what he and his sister might or might not have been, if someone had bothered to love them, or at the minimum make their acquaintance.

The tight-lipped coldness of these people ... UberW.A.S.P. is an understatement. These people eat ham and cheese with butter AND mayo, they wash down onion sandwiches with bottles of milk. Ethan Hawley drinks a martini and straight away praises the brew as a "sacrament." Here we have men and women who don't argue; they just fold their lips like Jo in "Little Women" and retreat into another room, or a drunk night. By the ethos of this novel, or that of the culture it purports to represent, it is better to be drunk in public than to display sober emotion. In some ways, Steinbeck's New Baytown's as exotic as Bhutan.

The book works anyway, and I repeat I loved it, in large part because Steinbeck took such loving and inspired effort in its construction. Hawley's genealogy, the DNA cross he must carry, is its own potentially fascinating, if not entirely original, story. His motives and actions are consistent, as well as psychologically sound. The narrative/P.O.V. switches are seamless, and in fact I barely noticed the shifts from third-person to first and ] back again. While in good old reliable Steinbeck the reader always knows where he/she "is" -- no somersaults in time, no leapfrogging back and forth in the mode of Joyce or Conrad -- those who seek will discover envelope-pushing aplenty. Withheld information, delayed description, shell games with various characters, all testify to Steinbeck's monumental storytelling power. Dated and ridiculous as "Winter" may be, the novel is not about its setting in space and time. Ethan Hawley may be an annoying and motormouthed snob, but the reader wants to like him, wants him to end with some money in his pocket and some pride in his arid heart. Steinbeck, the writer, gets into your face; his characters creep deeper, and stay there.

John Steinbeck is one of those writers who get in your face, who engage you in passionate conversation, if not downright argument, almost as soon as you turn the first page. I read this book in a paperback version, printed in 1962, whose dogeared cover featured an angry young man in tie and shirtsleeves, seated; a sleazy cigarette-smoking blonde, standing behind him with her arm over his shoulder; and another woman, younger and more wholesome, profiled in the rear. I loved this book and found it laughable at the same time, and the fact that I couldn't wait to finish it and write this review is, I think, a testimonial to its singular kind of greatness.

What kind is that? The greatness of perversity. Although Steinbeck meant this book to be a stern-browed statement on How We Live in America, Today -- as if tomorrow would never come -- forty-odd years later "Winter" is a remarkable antique, a pitch-perfect evocation of its much-ballyhooed era. Here are all the usual fifties tropes: neighbors all knew and spoke to each other, every kid had a mom and a dad, families stayed put for generations, corner bank, corner grocery -- and here is Steinbeck happily blowing them all to smithereens, reveling in the locals' hypocrisy, corruption, and xenophobia, having a splendid time steering his virtuous hero -- one Ethan Allen Hawley, something of an UberW.A.S.P. -- around various tempting and lethal shoals, pullling off a grandstanding switcheroo ending in which the hero's fate remains unclear till the last sentence.

So why was it laughable? Because Steinbeck's ripsnorting righteous exposure, of course, is as worn-out as the plasticated happy-days delusion it condemns. "Winter"'s world is deader than Dickens, buried under so many layers of historical effluvia -- electronics and mass media, computers, feminism, relativism in all its forms, the end of the Cold War -- that even those old enough to remember those times groan aloud over this Ozymandias of a novel. Was there really a time when a man could talk nonstop in graduate-level literary references to a wife who appeared to have the I.Q. of a chipmunk? After I identified the 13th Shakespearean nugget in the one-sided banter of overeducated Ethan and his acorn-brained wife, I found myself wondering whether the right medication might have made Steinbeck more ready to edit himself (for the record, I doubt it). Would the nation snatch up as an instant celebrity a fourteen-year-old boy who'd won honorable mention -- honorable mention! And one of five at that -- in a patriotic essay contest? Was there actually, and did I live in, a time when the federal government would -- on an anonymous tip -- dispatch agents to hunt down one -- one! -- illegal alien? (I must admit I bonded at once with the grocer Marullo. He was after all the only ethnic in the book, and like Steinbeck's diverse Californians magnificently rendered). And was there ever a town mattress as friendly and presentable and prescient as Margie Young-Hunt? Why, this gal sleeps with every man in town, from the not-so-picturesque local drunk to the police chief, and no doubt the dogcatcher; and upstanding Ethan and his doe-eyed wife leave their CHILDREN with her for the weekend.

Steinbeck's rendition of the Hawley children -- actually teenagers -- remind me of Timothy Leary's remark, made in the early 70s: "the genocidal hatred of a generation for its young." Allen and Ellen Hawley are nasty brats, but their parents barely seem to notice their existence, and when they do, it is mostly to plot an escape from the troublesome offspring. There is, throughout the novel, an almost palpable antipathy on the part of Ethan Hawley toward his son. Allen is unpromising, to say the least, but one wonders what he and his sister might or might not have been, if someone had bothered to love them, or at the minimum make their acquaintance.

The tight-lipped coldness of these people ... UberW.A.S.P. is an understatement. These people eat ham and cheese with butter AND mayo, they wash down onion sandwiches with bottles of milk. Ethan Hawley drinks a martini and straight away praises the brew as a "sacrament." Here we have men and women who don't argue; they just fold their lips like Jo in "Little Women" and retreat into another room, or a drunk night. By the ethos of this novel, or that of the culture it purports to represent, it is better to be drunk in public than to display sober emotion. In some ways, Steinbeck's New Baytown's as exotic as Bhutan.

The book works anyway, and I repeat I loved it, in large part because Steinbeck took such loving and inspired effort in its construction. Hawley's genealogy, the DNA cross he must carry, is its own potentially fascinating, if not entirely original, story. His motives and actions are consistent, as well as psychologically sound. The narrative/P.O.V. switches are seamless, and in fact I barely noticed the shifts from third-person to first and ] back again. While in good old reliable Steinbeck the reader always knows where he/she "is" -- no somersaults in time, no leapfrogging back and forth in the mode of Joyce or Conrad -- those who seek will discover envelope-pushing aplenty. Withheld information, delayed description, shell games with various characters, all testify to Steinbeck's monumental storytelling power. Dated and ridiculous as "Winter" may be, the novel is not about its setting in space and time. Ethan Hawley may be an annoying and motormouthed snob, but the reader wants to like him, wants him to end with some money in his pocket and some pride in his arid heart. Steinbeck, the writer, gets into your face; his characters creep deeper, and stay there.

The Winter of Our Discontent, Steinbeck's final novel, doesn't read much like early Steinbeck. But, contrary to many critics, that's not entirely a bad thing. A lot of early Steinbeck read like faux-Hemingway, and while the first couple chapters of The Winter of Our Discontent read like faux-Sinclair Lewis (at least he was imitating a better author by this point), after that he seems to find his own voice and later the stylistic similarities to his masterpiece East of Eden emerge...though by the end this is a rather unique novel, even among Steinbeck's own oeuvre.

The Winter of Our Discontent follows Ethan Allen Hawley, a down-on-his-luck grocery store clerk who decides to put morality aside temporarily in order to gain wealth and power, after which he intends to resume his former incorruptible ways. But in the end he learns this is too high a price to pay and is nearly destroyed by it.

Exceptionally well written (perhaps Steinbeck's best in that regard), and with fascinating, complex characters and an interesting story (if you stick with it, though it has its ups and downs), this is the kind of book that you feel like you need to read at least two or three times to fully get a handle on. But after my first reading, I'm provisionally rating it four stars and declaring it my second-favorite by Steinbeck, after only East of Eden. Skip The Grapes of Wrath and read this!

This is a frightening book, with more real horror than ten of the standard fare. By detailing one man's sliding morals, it holds up a mirror to everyone, as we all have faced similar decisions between doing what is right and doing what is convenient. And facing ourselves can be truly horrifying -- especially when
the collective result of everyone's decisions is clearly evident in the ethical morass of today's world, from a President trying to re-formulate the English language to the Enron financial fiasco to wide-spread cheating on exams at our military academies.
For this novel Steinbeck decided to remove himself from his normal California setting in favor of the East Coast. By doing so he availed himself of a milieu where tradition and 'old money' set the standards for acceptance into 'society'. Ethan Hawley is a man whose family used to be part of that 'society', but due to bad financial decisions he now finds himself clerking for an immigrant who owns the grocery store he himself used to own. With a wife quietly but constantly chiding him about her desires for a better life, to be able to hold her head up in society, and two kids constantly clamoring for more things, Ethan finds himself at a crossroads between a rigid moral code instilled in him by his aunt and grandfather, and providing a better life for those he loves.
Told partially in first person in spare but very effective prose, the road that Ethan spirals down is brilliantly portrayed, from his 'sermons' to the groceries, to his internal 'conversations' with his grandfather, to the seemingly chance happenings and conversations in his little town that spawns an idea and method for robbing the local bank, to his 'dropping a dime' on his immigrant boss, to his betrayal of his alcoholic friend Danny. Each action and decision proceeds logically from the previous one, each one more step down a path with no end, a path which Ethan continues to tell himself that he can abandon with no lingering aftereffects at any time. Each point is meticulously plotted, with all the proper items set in place before the action, and the choice of time, setting, and materials is rich in irony, a sure mark of an author fully in control of his subject.
The ending is deliberately ambiguous. By the time I reached that point I had been so drawn into Ethan's character I found that his final decision was tremendously important to me. Each reader ultimately must draw his own conclusion about what Ethan will do, but regardless of what answer the reader reaches, no reader can remain unaffected by this book, and will find his life richer for having read it.
Steinbeck was one of the great American writers. His Nobel prize was richly deserved, and this book, while not as well known as his Grapes of Wrath or East of Eden, is certainly one of the reasons why, rivaling his other works in power and insightful looks at American society, just as valid today as when it was written, and peopled by a very living set of characters.

The Winter of Our Discontent is a masterpiece in every sense of the word. Had it not been for Steinbeck's already intimidating library of classics, this novel would have definitely gone down as one of the most important of the 20th century.

The wit of part one is nothing short of amazing. I actually found myself laughing uncontrollably a few times, which is an extremely rare occurrence when it comes to good literature.

Ethan is both one of the easiest to love and easiest to hate characters at different parts of the story that I've ever come across. The transition from honest working man to greedy businessman is done perfectly. His final confrontation with Mr. Baker was one of the most exciting climaxes in recent memory.

The entire ensemble of characters alone would make this an instant classic. Steinbeck then goes as far as to create dozens of themes and potential discussions, all the while effectively making sure the plot was not forgotten.

I can see how some would see it as boring at times. Part two goes much faster than part one, which is probably due to the plethora of off-topic discourses in the first part and the equal amount of dialogue in part two.

I wouldn't suggest starting with this if you're trying to get into Steinbeck, but it shouldn't be the last title on your reading list. If it seems to drag on at times just stick with it. I will most definitely be reading this time and again.

As a student of American literature at Columbia more than fifty years ago, I found Steinbeck presented as a rather literal-minded and awkward novelist. It wasn't until many years later that I actually read his Grapes of Wrath and then the epic and extraordinary East of Eden. (Let me assure any interested persons that you will not get a very full sense of this from the wonderful film with James Dean, although Henry Fonda's Grapes of Wrath is just a bit better.) Winter of Our Discontent is worth reading but it is in all sorts of ways a failed performance. Steinbeck's protagonist--to call him a hero is tempting but a temptation best resisting--is a very strange man. Steinbeck presents him in third person narration, from the outside, as it were, and also in a good deal of first person--inside--narration. But although Ethan Allen Hawley is in some regards admirable--I think Steinbeck means to present him as a brave hold-out against contemporary (1960s) amorality--but he is also a stiff, rather pompous, and self-infatuated...fool. It's o.k. , of course, for a novelist to keep things open, but it doesn't work out very well here. Seems to me it's a somewhat interesting book, but ultimately also somewhat of a mess.

I liked this Steinbeck offering. I liked the fact that it's about small town morality, and ultimately society's morals too. The narrative raises questions about our attitudes towards the mundane and the everyday humdrum things like friendship, honesty, ambition, deception, fidelity, sex, family, avarice, petty corruption and to those of us who fall between the cracks.

Okay, so that may sound very traditional and staid, perhaps it isn't sexy enough, but that's exactly why I admire Steinbeck's work. He writes about the real and our day-to-day lives and in this novel he highlights questions of morality through the story of failed businessman Ethan Hawley and New Baytown in late '50s early '60s America.

I found it a compelling read, it wasn't an obvious story to tell and so I never really knew where the story was going to turn. It grabbed me with some clever structure and brilliant characterisation. I was particularly struck by the finely observed relationship between that of the protagonist and of his wife Mary, "My Mary".

Steinbeck's power for social realism shone out, describing the life of New Baytown and its occupants in minute detail and through it showing the quiet nobility of ordinary working people. It reminded me strongly of similar evocations in his masterpiece, The Grapes of Wrath.

This is a quirky and deceptively well-written book, with snappy dialogue, memorable characters and an intellectual seriousness lying behind the seemingly innocuous events. Recommended.

Ethan Allen Hawley was a man who had it all; money and more importantly status in their small town community. A person's ego is carried into their profession, the amount of money they earn and their social status. And it is one way to climb up the ladder. But it is another matter to fall from the ladder, as if one has fallen from the grace of God.

When I was 14 I picked up this novel and I had read most of Steinbeck's classics of my own volition. But this one was so sad, and the protagonist, Ethan could not catch a break.

So he went from high society to managing a grocery story. And he had to eat crow at the social events, with people feeling sorry for him as he owned so much and lost it; he felt like hiding under a rock.

He had an affair because he felt he had nothing to lose. Similar to his suicide attempt, life just kept on beating him down. But it was not life beating him down; he had an inability to cope with life's situations and to adjust. He had a job, could put food on the table, had a fine family. He had to work on his thin skin and needed to try to go out on his own to become an entrepreneur as his father was in years past. But it was his decision to choose not to try. He did not realize how much his daughter really loved him by replacing the razors in his pockets with her special rocks. But could he man-up and accept what life had given him?

These actions would help him focus on the positive instead of focusing on the past failures. But all he wanted to do was feel sorry for himself; enough to leave a widowed wife and orphaned children without financial means. He was selfish even to his death.

I enjoy Steinbeck as he wrote about people in California along the coast. He wrote of the people suffering in the Grapes of Wrath, a moral struggle between two brothers in East of Eden, Of Mice and Men, which culminated in one friend having to kill his mentally slow best friend, before the mob would tear him apart for touching a young woman. The there is Cannery Row and As I Lay Dying. This is just a small sampling of a large body of works.

I would recommend The Winter of Our Discontent, as it brings the reader into the world of Ethan Allen Hawley and his trials and tribulations. Steinbeck does not write to fill the book just to meet publishing criteria - when it is done it is done.

We all know the difference between right and wrong, but the temptation to commit something that is wrong to make things more right is incredibly strong. That is what Steinbeck main character here has to deal with. Every where he turns their is another temptation to do something and many times he almost gives in, but the decent soul always wins out; well almost always. He does commit somethings that maybe weren't the best things to do, but... This is a fine book, well written and everyone should be able to identify with these all to real characters. The setting is a small town in the east, the kind of town that we have seen in movie after movie, but in all these towns, just as in real life, there are things that are not altogether wholesome going on. This couls be set at anytime, anywhere and still be as true to life as it is. This is a book that should be read.

The Winter of our discontent by John Steinbeck
Ethan runs the store and others approach him to take some cuts in the form of money. Everybody does it, bribes..
Mary his wife wants more for her and the kids. She has money from her family that she hopes he will turn into more by investing.
Others in town want him to buy some stocks and bonds, others want him to buy real estate.
He's quite happy with what he has and wants Mary to save the money for her future, if he's not around.
His boss tells him how to charge more money for food they sell by not cutting off fat or the bread edges..
Love the legend and talk of the widow's walk and the history of the whaling industry in the town.
Love the cave he found to really think about things..
His father had gambled their money away and he's very reluctant to gamble his wives money...
His children also are involved in a contest, write how you love America and they hope to win money..
He has the opportunity to change their lives...

This book didn't knock me out as did other Steinbeck works, but it had enough to say about double-dealings, the battle between contentment and seeking more from life, and social interactions to make it ring true. It is a comforting slice of life in a time that brought back memories to me of my own childhood, especially the views of a small town in the early sixties. The plot had some moments that threatened credibility and some of the characters were cliches, especially the cops, the drunk, and the banker who should come with his own evil music cues. Furthermore, I found Margie Young-Hunt to be a bizarre invention - a classy town skank who is embraced by the town's women as a trusted friend and part-time sooth-sayer and men as, well, a classy town skank, but she is arguably the most interesting character as well. The book picks up greatly towards the end after you suffer from a bit too much meandering and overly eager exposition. Not a starting point for Steinbeck, but a good place for further exploration.

We obviously weren't paying very close attention when books like this started emerging from the Eisenhower years. They are all dire warnings of where, not just our lives, but our very souls are heading as we walk the grim path of increasing affluence and keeping up with the Joneses. Beautifully and sensitively drawn, this portrait of Ethan Hawley's conversion to guerrilla capitalism and its consequences is nothing less than a must-read for every American who has been tempted to trod the same path. Take a half star off, though, for Hawley's (and other characters') male chauvinism which really gets to be a drag along the way (and I'm no big feminist).

Steinbeck wrote this book to address the moral degeneration of America. I don't believe there was such a degeneration, I believe this is the way humans have always been.

Regardless, Steinbeck never passes on the opportunity to teach us something about ourselves. These lessons range from insightful domestic truths to bigger, more easily identifiable truths about what motivates us to make our decisions. He doesn't allow his readers to rationalize or gloss over Ethan Hawley's decisions despite Ethan's own attempts to do just that.

His grasp of different characters make me smile as I relate to myself and the people I love, and the dialogue between these characters is witty and more fast-paced than any Steinbeck book I can remember.

Some gems:

"No one wants advice--only corroboration."

"In poverty she is envious. In riches she may be a snob. Money does not change the sickness, only the symptoms."

"She gave the best of herself because they demanded nothing of her."

"You wouldn't be so worried with what folk think about you if you could know how seldom they do."

This book is a perfect way to become deeply enveloped in the psychology of a loveable man grappling with the temptations of corruption, greed, and adultery. The characters are vivid and personal, and often we are privy to their most intimate- and amusing- thoughts. Steinbeck is a master of recreating the essence of a culture, and he successfully creates this New England town which remains steeped in its own quaint history despite the increasing infringements of modern life. As with much Steinbeck, it is the characters and the culture that make this short novel great, and I highly recommend it.

I like this Steinbeck novel because it suggests ideas about morality, but requires the reader to further those ideas allowing the reader to form a relation with Steinbeck's ideas. I found this novel to be more insightful and thought out than a few of Steinbeck's other novels, notably Cannery Row. While Cannery Row and even Of Mice and Men pave a definite internal path for the reader, The Winter of Our Discontent allows the reader freedom to expand his or her mind on the ideas of morality standards and temptation.
Overall, The Winter of Our Discontent reminded me of how much we, as humans, are saturated in a greedy, free-riding society. Steinbeck's story implies that maintaining one's morals within society is an impossibility, but the novel also challenges me, and other readers, to prove that wrong.

The moral decline of the nation is reflected in the inner struggle of Ethan Allen Hawley, resident of New Baytown, a sleepy New England town about to expand its tourist industry. Ethan, who lives in a house built by his forefathers, is a clerk in a store once owned by them. He has not lived up to the family fortune and promise, as a descendant of pilgrims, pirates and whaling captains. It seems as if he has found a sort of contentment, is in love with his wife, loving towards his two kids and spouting sermons to the canned goods in the early morning. "A reflected cathedral light filled the store, a diffused cathedral light like that of Chartres. Ethan paused to admire it, the organ pipes of canned tomatoes, the chapels of mustard and olives, the hundred oval tombs of sardines." He has the Place as well, an escape where he can be alone and take stock. And he needs to take stock, because the pressures of others-- his family, the town banker who is plotting for the overthrow of the local government, and the town fortune-teller and promiscuous divorcee, Mrs. Margie Young-Hunt who has her designs on him as a "back-up plan" of sorts -- they all want him to desire more for himself. They want him to reclaim his family's fortunes, to pursue money and rise in position. Marullo, the owner of the store, tells him how business really works: "'Business is money. Money is not friendly. Kid, maybe you too friendly--too nice. Money is not nice. Money got no friends but more money.'" Within the same day, Ethan resists a bribe by a traveling salesman to switch his meat vendor and take a kickback, being told that "everyone does it." Even his friend Danny Taylor, who is now the town drunk, holds himself in higher regard than Ethan because of his lowly position as store clerk.
Between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, a plan begins to form in Ethan's mind to change his situation and the vague outline of it is slowly revealed to the reader. He wonders if he can have a short moral lapse, set the rules so ingrained in his being aside for a short time for a large, temporary gain. Will he be able to carry out the plan? Will he be able to live with himself afterward?
Steinbeck's characters are interesting and memorable. Joey Morphy, aptly known as the Morph, turns into what he needs to be, often saying things he suspiciously "heard from a friend." Then there is Margie Young-Hunt, who is indeed a hunter. She sets a bit of a trap for Ethan, who never trusted her despite her being close to his wife. He calls her a witch, and by the end of the book, I did wonder if she had cast a spell over him. Ethan's grandfather, Cap'n, has long since passed away, but to him Ethan still loudly recites the rigging of the ships in the harbor. He is also haunted by Aunt Deborah, whose moral fiber runs deeply ingrained in her nephew.
This is a very different Steinbeck than Of Mice and Men or Grapes of Wrath. It is rich in its use of dialogue, with both interior and exterior conversations. This book is superbly written, complex yet a "page-turner" in its suspense. It is clear why it is considered an American classic.

Reader seeking to identify fictional people and places here described would do better to inspect their own communities and search their own hearts, for this book is about a large part of America today--Preface

Written in 1961, these words are as pertinent today--perhaps even more so. A social protest novel like THE GRAPES OF WRATH, THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT tackles the moral corruption that Steinbeck perceived in America during the era of the quiz show scandals in the late 1950s. Reflecting on the recent corporate and plagiarism scandales, readers today will have no trouble relating to Steinbeck's setting. Just as importantly, however, readers will have no trouble identifying with the book's characters.

Named for the famous speech of Richard III, WINTER takes place during a period of peace following a protracted conflict. Like Richard Gloucester, Steinbeck's protagonist, Ethan Allen Hawley, gets ahead by betraying a brother. Driven by the demands of his wife and children that he acquire more money and public prestige, Hawley cheats his closest boyhood friend out of land coveted by developers. As with Richard's attrocities, each bad deed leads to more (and worse) deeds.

But whereas Shakespeare depicts evil as flowing from the depraved character of Richard, Steinbeck attributes his hero's shortcomings to society itself. As with his other books, Steinbeck portrays human beings as naturally good individuals corrupted by their economic and social surroundings. This idea is debatable to say the least, but there's no question that Steinbeck makes a good case. Reading Ethan's reflections on his own community and witnessing the consequences of all types of greed is like watching QUIZ SHOW, the Redford film depicting the same era.

As with his other works, WINTER is full of characters respresenting various sides of socieity but having sppech and habits that defy any stereotype. Like GRAPES, Winter combines the best of literary naturalism and romanticism. But even more than GRAPES, the plot and characters of WINTER continue to be "about a large part of America today."

Wow, what a novel! Read it later in life... it is so beautifully written. It goes without saying that John Steinbeck is one of the best there ever has been and ever will be, and I lovedddddddddddddd this book so much. I read it so many years ago I can't list anything specific other than this book was my baby. Long, yes, but beautiful and wonderful.

I like Steinbeck a lot and I admire his ability to adeptly write about so many different themes in his various novels. Out of all of his books, I think this is one of the least known, which is really too bad. Steinbeck's prose and descriptive ability never falters; he makes the book come alive but never overwhelms the reader with detail. The variety of characters (another one of Steinbeck's traits) usually would seem like too much for this relatively short novel, but each one is memorable, adding another layer, another necessary part that makes this novel work so well. This book's themes, especially the theme of whether it's worth it to sacrifice ideals in order to get ahead, are applicable to this day and age and ensure the timelessness of this novel.

Although the title portends a setting of bleak winter, the main plot activities take place in the heat of summer. The winter of discontent resides metaphorically, in the soul of the protagonist. Steinbeck is in great form here, and his character development is superb, most especially with the two women in the novel, who are finely drawn, studied, mysterious, fascinating. The last couple of pages, while inevitable I suppose, were sort of a let-down, and the children in the novel beg a deeper exploration. But these are smallish concerns. This novel is a fine one, open & easily accessible if one is looking for a quick read, yet also filled with philosophy, symbolism, & enough "opaqueness" to withstand deep inquiries & graduate-level studies.

This book is amazing in a very specific and unusual way. It chronicles the slow slide, not to the depths of immorality that come to mind when we use that term, but merely to one step down on the morality ladder. There is not a mountain of difference between the man on page one and the man who stands on the beach on the final page, contemplating suicide. He has committed no crime, has resisted cheating on his wife, and has tried to save the life of his drug-addicted friend... the tiny difference lies not in the things he hasn't done wrong, but in the things he didn't do quite right. This difference is all the difference in the world. Steinbeck's power is in his portrayal of the nuances that make up personal experience. Where Grapes of Wrath was a powerful epic, the depths of poverty the characters endured enabled us to keep the experience at a distance, since few of us will ever know such poverty. The Winter of Our Discontent allows us no such respite. Each of us experiences temptation on a daily basis, and the risk of moral poverty that we all face and either resist or become accustomed to, is at the heart of this book. The final page is, oddly enough, a mystery, though this fact can easily escape you. All the members of my family read this independently, and only when we discussed it several years later did we find that we each had interpreted the end in different ways. Does he commit suicide or not? We were firmly split, and the wording Steinbeck uses is ambiguous. The answer is in the story that emerges from you as you read the book. Perhaps the most subtly powerful book you will ever read, if you are willing to allow it to affect you.

When I think of the most influential books I have read, this is may be at the top of the list. I had read five or six of Steinbeck's works when I picked this up because I was reading Steinbeck. The work spoke volumes to me because we know that success is no longer hard work and honesty. I look at the leaders of my company and my work place and think "I could probably succeed but could I get up every morning and look myself in the mirror?" Steinbeck ran the scenario for me and I found my answer. And I will always be grateful.

Winter is another of those books more easily appreciated at the age of 20 than at 50. I loved it as a young person, care nothing for it as an older one. I was disappointed to discover that fact. As a Steinbeck lover I'm tempted to believe Winter of our Discontent was a book written at a time when the writer was in a state of abject depression. The book lacks the usual penetrating characterization, the solid plotting and the rapier wit found in his best works.

Here, Steinbeck's character, an old 'founders' family descendant, finds himself in a moral turmoil. He struggles and comes up lacking in his own eyes. The struggle then evolves with a different type of challenge: to continue to live, or to choose death as an alternative to imperfection, of being a flawed human being.

In reading some of these other reviews, I'm pretty much seeing long explications of the plot and characterization but very little about HOW this book was written and whether it communicates or not. To me, it did not, and I kept wondering if other reviewers were referring back to their Cliff Notes in order to sound convincing...The opening chapter sprinkled with the so-called witty dialogue was my first red flag, but because it was Steinbeck, I persisted, and got progressively lost until I couldn't wait to turn that last page. Narrative shifts, cryptic conversations in a jargon that only certain types of people can get a grip on, poorly developed characters...more than once, I put it down, shook my head, and said, out loud, "This is Steinbeck?" I am either a dense reader or this was poorly written...I think it's a combination. Just when I thought I was "getting it," I lost it again, and if it hadn't been for a Wikipedia entry, I would never have known what was going on, because so much of it was written in some kind of code that I never learned. And I am not overly fond of books in which I have to keep back-paging to "find my place" or reread a passage until it becomes clear to me. I've read lots of obtuse stuff in my 50+ years of reading, and I always wonder if they received the accolades because so few people are brave enough to swim against the tide of approval. Well, if I could swim, I would be. My only consolation is that I didn't buy this book.

This review is for the condition of the book not the stories within. I normally don't have a problem with old books. This book was smelly and unpleasant. After Lysol and airing outside it was still highly unpleasant. There should be a line drawn where a book is no longer pleasant to hold and read because it REEKS as in the literal scent of the book. Fuel for the fire.

After reading Of Mice and Men, The Red Pony, and The Pearl in high school, I was not an admirer of Steinbeck, but when I picked up The Winter of Our Discontent as an adult, I was awed by the author I had once shunned. Steinbeck's keen sense of character and a mastery of the language carries this novel from first page to last. The story revolves around Ethan Hawley, a descendent of proud New England stock whose life seems betrayed by circumstances as he struggles to provide for his family. His wife Mary urges him to be more ambitious, and his restless teenage children exhibit signs of being morally corrupt. When Ethan decides that his ethics no longer matter in this demanding world, he enters his own compounding crisis.

In perfectly rendered language, Steinbeck explores the themes of two Americas - the old Puritanical and morally staid one, and the one where every man fights for himself. The corruption in New Baytown is rampant. Issues about privilege and entitlement, family values, skewed priorities, flagging morality, and work ethics simmer underneath. Steinbeck's depiction of Ethan and Mary's marriage is witty, biting, and affectionate, demonstrating both his humor and his talent for dissecting domestic issues as well as the grander, social ones.

A fine novel by a recently underappreciated author, The Winter of Our Discontent is worth every minute spent with it.

Steinbeck? Oh, right. Steinbeck. THE Steinbeck. I can imagine the man sitting in his study on the eve on his sixth birthday. He opens that letter from his publisher, or maybe James Dean. Whoever. It's the letter same letter he's receiving for the millionth time:

::John, East of Eden was... It was... Gosh! I've just got no words, man. But then again, that's you're job. Really though, you've really done it this time, the pinnacle of your literary carrier. You're golden, now just kick back and have a martini, maybe give the kids a call. Anyway you can take it easy and die in peace `cause I happen to know that Governor Schwarzenegger is going to make an awesome speech about you in like, 50 years when he adds you to the California Hall of Fame... ::

Yeah maybe he's getting pretty old at this point, but he's a writer. He doesn't like playing bingo. He doesn't want to move to Florida and sit on his ass day, he wants to write, even if he's loosing steam.

I think Steinbeck's biggest mistake with this book was simply writing some of the world's most brilliant literary fiction, beforehand and not afterward. He kindof sets himself up for some pretty rigorous criticism.

Ethan Hawley, admittedly, is a pretty interesting guy. His wit matched with an offhanded and loving sense of humor keeps his interactions with anyone, and sometimes even anything (the cans of produce at the Marullo grocery store, the surreptitious jury of his own subconscious) upbeat with a jolly sort of humor that adds flavor to his constant moral introspections.

The rest of New Barrytown though, I couldn't seem to shake the eerie feeling that I'd landed inside a really well written 1960's sitcom. Even Margie, the town floozy, seemed antiquated, repressed, compelled or bound by the book's own courteous tone. The whole reason I love Steinbeck so much is that he usually gives narrative priority to the modalities of commonplace human life before a book's higher social or political motivation. (in Cannery Row he spends nearly an entire chapter delineating mankind's prehistoric relationship with frog hunting) I felt that here, too often, I was getting `American capitalism breeds immorality' smeared around it my face so much, I couldn't see though to what was actually going on, i.e. a portrait of life and money in a very interesting town.

Long story short, it's a good read, but nowhere as good as some of his others. Unless you just have to have it all, I'd recommend first sampling the Grapes or the Mice or the Cans.

As social commentary on the "spirit of capitalism" as it manifested itself in small towns in the coastal U.S. this is as good as it gets. In stunning prose and articulate style, we are taken into the world of the mind of a man who was born into a world where he never felt he belonged. Upon returning home after becoming a decorated war hero, the protagonist discovers that running the family businesses is a different ballgame. After losing the "family farm" but keeping the house, this Ivy league literature graduate pines away tending shop for a successful Italian immigrant-entrepreneur. Then one day he snaps and the story really begins. Having taught several classes on political science and political economy, I can honestly say this is one of the best expositions of the pervasive power of capitalism to drive a good man to do "ruthless" things. Never black and white, Steinbeck portrays an endless array of ethical dilemmas while keeping a nail-biting dramatic tension throughout. To the reader who chooses to put oneself in the character's shoes, there is much to be gained from an honest reading of this slim volume. I can see why the Nobel committee considered this book to have put him over the top in earning the prize in 1961

John Steinbeck's last work of fiction, 'The Winter of Our Discontent', examines the 'moral flabbiness' of post-war America, particularly that of the late 1950's. Its stated question, posed by the main character Ethan Allen Hawley in a first person monologue, is whether an ethical man can set aside his principles, do what is required to advance himself in the world, and then, objective reached, reclaim those principles without suffering moral damage. That Hawley does eventually convince himself to attempt such a 'moral holiday', to prove for himself that it's possible, and the results he obtains is the crux of the book - but from its melodramatic set-up to its engineered ending, it seems as though Steinbeck were shouting out his subject's terrible relevance on every page.

I nearly put this book down before I finished the first chapter. It begins with several pages of dialog that sounds artificial and too special, followed by a character sketch of Hawley as he interacts with the same townspeople he'll have to deal with during his 'holiday'. This blatant foundation seems amateurish, and I can't help but think of the last Steinbeck book I read, 'To a God Unknown', which, while it had its faults, had an intrinsic vitality to its spare prose and a calm, evocative pace that is lacking in this much later work.

In the book's third chapter, Steinbeck changes his point of view, and Hawley begins to address the reader in the first person. At this point, I did get somewhat drawn into the story, and once his machinations come clearer, there is a bit of tension to their resolution. Unfortunately, the necessity of having the story impart a lesson trumps a realistic, though probably ambiguous, ending, and instead concludes with Hawley frantically out of character.

'Winter of Our Discontent' isn't as terrible as I've probably made it out to sound, but it is disappointing in relation to other Steinbeck novels that I've read. In this Penguin Classics Edition, Susan Shillinglaw writes a perceptive, and positive, introduction that contextualizes 'Winter' with Steinbeck's life, and also catalogs some of the references to the outside world that gives this novel an extra layer of texture and nuance; however this still fails to overcome its melodramatic air. In that sense, 'Winter' is reminiscent of 'East of Eden', and readers who enjoyed that Steinbeck work may also find 'The Winter of Our Discontent' to their liking.

I order many, many books from the store and this was the first time I was disappointed. I knew the book would not be in perfect shape, but I didn't expect it to fall apart from the first time I opened it. Each time I opened it to read, more pages fell out. Very disappointing. The book did come quickly and was packaged very well.

"The Winter of our Discontent" was published in 1961, just before Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize in 1962. The story is set in the late 1950s in New Baytown, a small (fictitious) New York -New England town which, Steinbeck tells us, had flourished during the whaling days of the mid-19th century. The main protagonist of the book is Ethan Allen Hawley. Ethan ("eth" to his friends is descended from early pirates and whaling captains. His family had lost its capital through speculative business ventures during WW II and Ethan, with his background and his Harvard education, is reduced to working as a clerk in a small grocery store he once owned. Marullo, an Italian immigrant, owns the store and calls Ethan "kid".

For a short novel, the book includes a wealth of characters, many of which I found well described. There is Ethan's wife Mary who is impatient with the family's impoverished lots and eager for Ethan's economic success as well as the couple's two children, Allen, who is writing an essay called "Why I Love America" and the sexually precocious daughter Ellen. We meet the town banker, Mr. Baker, a bank clerk and a friend of Ethan's, Margie Young-Hunt, twice married and the town seductress, and Danny Taylor, Ethan's childhood friend who has thrown away a career of promise and become a drunk.

The book describes the deteriorations of Ethan's life as he gradually loses his integrity and succumbs to temptations to lift his life, and the lives of his family members, from its materially humble state to a state consistent with Ethan's felt family heritage and education and with the desire of his family for material comfort. The story is sad and told in a style mixing irony and ambiguity that requires the reader to reflect and dig into what is happening. The story ends on a highly ambiguous note with Ethan's future left in doubt.

The book describes well the lessening of American standards and values. The book seems to attribute the loss to an increasing passion for commercial and economic success among all people in the United States. Juxtaposed with the economic struggle are pictures of, in Steinbeck's view, what America was and what it could struggle to be. I think the images are found in religion (much of the story is, importantly, set around Good Friday and Easter and these holidays figure prominently in the book), and in America's political and cultural heritage.

In the old town of New Baytown, America's history casts a long shadow with speeches from American statesmen such as Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and Abraham Lincoln tucked (suggestively) in the family attic. The book is set against a background of New England whaling and reminds the reader inevitably of a culture that produced Melville and a work of the caliber of Moby Dick.

The most convincing scenes of the book for me were those where Ethan ruminates his life in his own mind and compulsively walks the streets of New Baytown at night. I was reminded of Robert Frost, a poet of New England and his poem "Acquainted with the Night" which begins:

"I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain -- and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light."

Steinbeck captures much of the spirit of this wonderful poem.

The plot of the book seems contrived at is climax and depends too much on coincidence. The characters, and their inward reflections on themselves, the descriptions, the setting, and the theme of the book, mingled between a love for our country and a sense of despair, make the book memorable.

Robin Friedman

I was pleased, but not enraptured. Whereas "East of Eden" or "Of Mice and Men" provide the reader with beautifully rich characters wrapped in poetic narrative, "The Winter of Our Discontent" offers an expanded cast encased in a comparatively mediocre prose.
Ethan Hawley--grocery store clerk, heir of a small town American legacy, father, husband, and friend--is the books sole intriguing character. Tempted by greed, lust, violence, and crime--through which he skates unscathed-- Ethan's struggles lead to his near suicide which is prevented by love for his daughter and a desire to see his name thrive.
Ethan's relationship with and attitude toward his children is where this story shines. This alone makes it a novel worth reading. He is brutal in pointing out his children's flaws, but constant in his love and devotion towards them.
Overall, not my favorite Steinbeck, but it was surely interesting. The few brilliantly poetic sentences interspersed in passable prose kept me reading.
Yes, I will deign to give this book a completely subjective letter grade: B+.

A thoroughly decent and ethical man is influenced by but not swallowed up by the ubiquitous soft corruption in his hometown. Throughout, a novel about bedrock morals and the test that modern times gives them. A much slighter, smaller story than "East of Eden" or "The Grapes of Wrath," this later novel probes some of the finer intellectual notions the others do not.

Steinbeck had this book in a different fashion than I found the many others I read of his. I have always found him to be a literary god at creating character clashes (in each and every other of his I read). I loved how he had the characters interact. Althuogh this book was different. It was changed in that one character clashed with himself as much as everyone else… I was expecting maybe a lower personal ranking to his other books, but I found it just as good, and literally beautifully written. The book not only is fun to read (and im not that much of a reader) but I found its moral lesson very agreeable and useful to societies commonly immoral business habits.
i suggest it to be read... though sometimes hard for some of us non readers to keep up with such deep thought, it is none the less a great read and understandable...

John Steinbeck shows true artistry of dialogue in this book set in New England in the 1950s. The protagonist, Ethan Allen Hawley, conveys every bit of his is misfortune (or missed fortune, as the case may be) and everyman, grocery store clerk persona in his words along with something deeper, darker, and perhaps undetectable to one who isn't privy to what haunts his mind at night. He is a delightful character, despite his self-indulgence. Although the plot is slow and relies heavily on somewhat unbelievable coincidences, the story is chock-full of brilliant dialogue. You can practically see the scenes in black and white in your mind with a Jimmy Stewart-esque Ethan tapping out the language in a beautiful staccato song of times gone by.

Winter of Our Discontent was quite typical of Steinbeck's writing. It was rather descriptive and tried to dissect the human psyche. This particular book studied the effects of compromising one's morals. It was pretty good and definitely worth reading, especially for any Steinbeck obsessors (like me hehe). For those who want to get a feel of Steinbeck's writing, but don't feel like investing enough time to read Grapes of Wrath, this would work as a decent substitute.

I recommend this book for numerous reasons; a good story, a good reflection and Steinbeck is a genious with words. This is a book written by a man with experience, one who has the ability to look backwards in his history and plumb the youth, to look forward into the mirror and see the inevitable changes time wroughts and to look future with hope and despair, in short Steinbeck's main character Ethan is a metaphor for the human condition and a glimpse into the man behind the words.

Only bad thing in that book is atempt to answer the question.
May be it is the most powerful of all Steinbeck books. May be only one of them, where author do not really know the answer.
Of course, he is trying to answer. While Dostoevsky in same situation forced his hero to commit murder, Steinbeck forces world to teach hero a lesson. But he have enough taste to live hero with gains from his crime.

I disagree with the opinion that this work should stand as Steinbeck's finest. I do not call this work a poor one; in some ways, it begs to be argued, it does stand out as a master-work. But it suffers fundamentally, that is, instinctively. In effect, Ethan Hawley has too many instincts that we find to be right (a heavy-handed, narrative utilitarianism not so insistent in Steinbeck's best work), but that are actually wrong (and morally wrong -- narrative epiphanies -- but, curiously, convictions of Ethan's long before his present woes in the novel). But some will say it is the point! That Ethan, to satisfy his worldly instincts, ignored his moral ones. If it is then the ending is appropriate but nothing more, the novel a long-going morality tale. I do not call it as simple as that. Yet, In the meantime, is Steinbeck-on-canvas reaching frantically for his old colors, finding them gone primary, and, as if by persistence alone, gamely imitating the best, life-colored attributes of his own far-previous writing -- his brilliant ability to create life-blood characters and a setting that a meaningful narrative, like seconds, can move carelessly through. I do not fault him! His book is thematically ambitious and thus rewarding -- untrustworthy dialogue and character devlopment/correspondence, notwithstanding. A person that I know and whose opinions are valid disagreed with me outright, so it could be that I am projecting here. But I urge you to read anything Steinbeck has written from say, mid thirties to mid-forties (b.1902), and compare it, in texture and tone of voice, to this, his late novel of the finance quandary. I really think you will note a difference.

An intriguing take on morality by Steinbeck. Not that i necessarily take the same position as Steinbeck, a well written piece nonetheless.
Have only just discovered his books but am loving them so far. Didn't enjoy as much as East of Eden but still worthy of a classic status.

I probably would not have picked this book to read on my own. I was assigned it in an English Literature class at Santa Monica College. I loved it. It is timeless piece of literature. I give this book as a gift to anyone who has ever paid a fortune teller. It is a perfect example of how a seed can be planted. I give it 10+++++++++++++++.

This book is short, but it seems to plod along. It feels forced, as though Steinbeck was straining to write about normal people when possibly he couldn't relate to them anymore. The characters are O.K. But nothing like the characters in the other books I have read by him thus far: Grapes, Eden, Cannery and the Pearl. Basically I was disappointed. However, I will still seek out more Steinbeck to read since most of the other works I have mentioned were so monumental. Every writer is allowed a dud here and there, especially one who has such an amazing track record.

Without doubt, one of the finest in the Steinbeck pantheon. A wry, delicately written novel of intense moral conviction made all the more effective by not making a moral pronouncement. A haiku poem in novel form. Recognition at last by the Nobel committee of the greatness of Steinbeck as a writer.

Having read much of Steinbeck in my youth, I lately read one book I missed. Wow. This is a masterpiece in my view. Put it on your list, for sure. You will probably reread the final couple of chapters. You can also write your own ending.

John Steinbeck is one of the greatest novelists in American history and all of his work deserves reading. But The Winter of Our Discontent is far from his best work. Even his shorter works such as Mice and Men and The Pearl are better. The basic plot is trite and overdone in literature. A "good" man is tempted to compromise his morality for personal gain. The story itself drags as the characters spend a lot of time talking and musing. There is relatively little action. Even the ending is murky. Read it if you must, but read other works by Steinbeck first.

Steinbeck has with this book achieved a rare feat. He has conclusively demonstrated the impossibility of creating material success in a capitalist system and at the same time having sound morals. Ethan realises that his cotownees are unwilling and unable to recognise the all-pervasive, evil American values preventing them from being better people. This saddens and frustrates him. His challenge is to find a way to retain his integrity while accommodating the desires of his family and the expectations of the capitalist system he finds so oppressive. He cunningly nearly achieves this, with little compromise, though he saw his friend from school-days as a casualty of his actions. In the end he feels his conscience is sullied, leaving any future for him fatally devalued, in his eyes. No wonder so many Americans didn't like it. A brilliant novel.

I suppose the book has 'grist' for book club discussions about character. However, the main character is so-o-o reflective it can drive you nuts. There is not alot of action in the story, a lot of mulling instead. If you're interested in what life was like in a zenophobic small town, East Coast USA 1960, you'll get a snapshot of a 'dark Andy Griffith' life: town drunk, town 'tart', thin cop, fat cop, foreign guy. I thought the first half of the book was more clearly written.

i found this to be a very disappointing book from an author of steinbeck's quality. the characters are paper thin. what drives the protagonist from good to evil is unclear at best. yes his family wants more from him, but who doesn't face that. the interesting point is that as he turns on the townspeople, many of them, as a result of recognizing his goodness, begin to reward him. this particularly true of the two characters he damages the most. then, even after he learns what they have done for him, he appears to feel no remorse. only after his son shows the same traits does he overreact and attempt something totally unexpected. what saves him is the integrity of his daughter.

all of this seems contrived. i had no strong feelings for any of the characters. they are driven by greed with no regard for their fellow man. ethan hawley, who appears to be above the rest in the beginning, ends up the worst of the lot.

bottomline, this is low quality steinbeck. why waste your time here when you can read "east of eden", "the wayward bus", "grapes of wrath", or many of his short novels.

In an example of what great writing can be, Steinbeck has created a modern morality tale of sorts. In it their are no "good" or "bad" guys, just people who are the victims of their own demons and desires. No one comes out a clear winner...but then does anyone in real life?

This was my first Steinbeck novel. If this is not his best (as the critics say) then I can't imagine what the others will be like. This is easily the best book I've read this year. Excellent piece of writing. The events of this book are in no way exclusively American, the message it conveys is a global one.

This book was not the masterpiece that The Grapes of Wrath was in my eyes but it had its own charm and meaning that I feel shows the value of Steinbeck's writings. I thought the story was believable. I also think that the portrayal of the conflict Americans face when it comes to morals and values was also very well done. I do reccommend this book to both Steinbeck and non-Steinbeck lovers alike because it is an excellent and interesting read. I plan on reading it again a few years from now, only after I re-read the Grapes of Wrath again.

I liked The Grapes of Wrath, so I decided to give this Steinbeck novel a whirl. While the book did delve deep into the characters and their personalities, the characters are completely boring and the book was a snooze fest. In fact, several times I found myself reaching for this book when I was having trouble getting to sleep some nights. Worked like a charm.

The subject matter is drab, and the characters are less than enchanting. You can tell from near the beginning of the book that this "moral man" (Ethan) is eventually going to decide that succeeding in the world is more important to him than his ethics. Surprise, surprise, another fool sells his soul in the pursuit of wealth.

Steinbeck is known for being a master of the English language, and I won't argue with that. The use of words and phrases in this book are obviously brilliant, however, that is ALL this book has going for it. I agree with how one other reviewer described this book as "a silly, tiresome book that is micro-smart, and macro-dumb, dumb, dumb".

I went on a binge about a month ago and started reading Steinbeck's books, finishing with The Winter of Our Discontent. It's not my favorite Steinbeck story, but it is a great story told well. Sorry it took me so long to get to it.

This book is easily one of the best I've ever read, and I've read quite a few! It's captivating and it's different. It deals with middle class morality and a man's struggle with it, or is it for it? It is very profound and the style of the prose is pure 24-carat gold. This book scores very high both on subject matter and presentation. Vintage Steinbeck!

I have read a lot of Steinbeck books and this book is one of my favorites. I loved the Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden, but there was something about this book that made it my favorite. It might be because of the prose or the theme of the book,I really think it is the combination of the two. I think that it hits home with the middle class morality.

I love this book. I am only 16 and still in high school and my incredable english teacher made us read of mice and men and I loved it so much i went and read this it is stienbeck is now my favorite author his work is just amazing if you have more than 2 brain cell you can grasp the feelings he is trying to express. my only problem is that every book he writes ends with every one dead? what is that about?

I was strolling the bookshop at the Monterey Bay aquarium and saw that book that I hadn't read in many years. I am recommending it, because as a seasoned adult I was able to get a whole different reading experience from it, this second time around!

I marked off many passages to read to my 16 year old son. I was dazzled by many parragraphs. That said I would not recommend he read this book. I found the story confusing and drawn out and skimmed through much of it. Read Grapes of Wrath or Cannery Row instead.

I know it is looked down upon when a "classic" novel gets a less-than stellar review, but it is appropriate in this case.

Steinbeck's last book is extremely disappointing, mainly because of its unbearably slow pace. The story of a man who veers away from his stringent moral code is a strong premise. However, very little happens in the book. The narrative is plagued by the main character's irrelevant musings and the odd shifts in POV. I struggled to finish the book, especially the last 90 pages, and there is no real payoff.

Steinbeck certainly has the talent (Of Mice and Men is amazing) but good writing is only part of the formula for a good book. It should also have some element of entertainment. Sadly, this book is flat out boring.

It is a shame that Steinbeck did not end his career with a better book.

Steven Donahue was a copywriter for TV Guide magazine for 14 years. His first novel, Amanda Rio, was published in 2004. It has received critical acclaim from reviewers for the store.com and thebestreviews.com. Steven currently resides in Bucks County, PA with his wife, Dawn. He has two new novels that were released in 2013: The Manila Strangler (Rainstorm Press) and Amy the Astronaut and the Flight for Freedom (Hydra Publications).

There are NON-PENGUIN versions listed here; this specific listing is for a Penguin Classics version of "The Winter of our Discontent". You could have people asking for refunds from sellers who have errantly listed the non-Penguin version.

If the sellers are listing non-Penguin versions then they're liable. Misrepresentation!