https://jaidevd.com/tags/travel/ Recent content in Travel on Jaidev's Blog Hugo en-us Tue, 29 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0530 https://jaidevd.com/posts/travels-with-charley-review/ Tue, 29 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0530 https://jaidevd.com/posts/travels-with-charley-review/ <p>It&rsquo;s the end of 2020, and when you&rsquo;ve been stuck at home for a year, with only your dog as your constant companion, <em>Travels with Charley</em> is a good book to read.</p> <p>But this book is a lot more about Steinbeck&rsquo;s road trip than about the dog.</p> <p>Steinbeck romanticises everything. If so much as a tree sheds a leaf in front of him, he bursts forth with pages of ideas, thoughts and memories. <a href="https://reason.com/2011/04/04/sorry-charley-2/">Scholars have mentioned</a> that <em>Travels with Charley</em> is clearly not non-fiction. And Steinbeck himself doesn&rsquo;t pretend that it is non-fiction. They say he knew he was dying, and was hit with an irresistible wanderlust. With almost everything he encounters - places, people and politics alike - he stresses that these were memories that were uniquely his. And he admits that any of his opinions could be cancelled out by a single counterpoint - and of those, as many could be found as there are travellers. He never took any notes. He let mulled his memories of the road trip over well before he wrote the book.</p>