“Once a bum, always a bum.” The author of Grapes of Wrath, itself a kind of travel novel-cum-sociologue of America, admits to having harboured a travel lust all his youth. Now, at 58, the ageing author sets out with an unlikely travel companion, his poodle Charley, missing a piece of his right ear as the result of an alley brawl, to see the country he has written about for so long. The result is an extraordinarily personal, heartfelt and acutely observed record of the Deep South during the time of its greatest upheaval. Steinback’s laidback attitude turns the book into a kind of square yet hip On The Road that has treats on every page. His notes on the race tensions are leavened with the unlikely presence of his travel companion. When a great author lets his hair down and lets fly, the results are often magical, if dusty. As I approach Steinback’s age, this charming book brings out the bum in me and makes me want to do my own tour of the great American open road.
Ashok Banker is the author of the Ramayana and Mahabharata Series.