John Steinbeck
“Journey with Charlie”
trans.: Soti Triantafillou
ed. Papadopoulos, page 375

Following John Steinbeck and his poodle Charlie as they explore America around the 1960s is a unique experience. The journey is made in a semi-trailer truck called the Rocinante, and America’s body is delivered at the same time familiar and paradoxical. John Steinbeck will cross forty states, he will fall in love with Montana (“it’s like diving deep into greatness,” he writes), he will think about Texas, in New Orleans we will feel racism. But in all his travels, John Steinbeck will allow us to get to know him better, and this is an incredible gift. He proposes to identify himself with all the shocking contradictions of deep America.

John Steinbeck (1902–1968) has been a symbol of the international readership since the 1930s, and until the 70s his books were the gateway to adulthood. Fortunately, he became a “classic”, his books not only survived, but are still read with passion. “About Mice”, “The Grapes of Wrath”, “East of Paradise” are inscribed in the world consciousness and through the cinema (it’s hard to read “East of Paradise” without remembering James Dean in the movie “Kazan”). But Travels with Charlie is an autobiographical narrative, a journey in search of America and himself with the beautiful Charlie as a companion.

John Steinbeck expresses archetypal elements of masculinity with anti-heroic qualities. He is a compassionate giant, a tracker, an explorer, an artisan, an intrepid traveler, an animal lover, an all-rounder – in today’s terms. He remains the epitome of 20th century America until the great changes of the late 1960s and beyond.

As he begins his journey to the great homeland, he discovers its primal versions, as well as the momentum of a shared American identity fashioned with even greater consistency during the first half of the 20th century. He finds an explosion of the American soul, whether the origin is from Ireland, Italy, Scotland or Poland. His encounters in the deserts, eutrapela, failures, anxiety for Charlie when he is ill, motels, hotels, rivers, gas stations, highways, truckers, towns and villages make him see himself once again away from his family, home, publishing world, journalists.

On this trip, Steinbeck is 58 years old. Ripened, established, illustrious. He mastered the “economics” of fullness. He is pleased with what gives him this feeling. As in any journey, and even more so in such a campaign, the traveler reflects. Yourself, your microcosm, your homeland, your future. Steinbeck finds himself again. But he also rediscovers America.

In Greece

This leads to an inevitable cultural comparison with Europe. Steinbeck traveled a lot, because he is famous. France, Spain, England. He also mentions Greece. When he arrives in Wisconsin, which fascinates him, he says that he met this light only in Greece. In Texas, he thinks it is a place of “magical confusion” where myths, superstitions, feelings, desires and prejudices are intertwined. He writes: “Greece is a country where personal and subjective images predominate, like those parts of England where King Arthur walked – like Texas.”

Steinbeck visited Greece in 1954 and gave a press conference. Cleon Paraschos writes an account in the Kathimerini. He characterizes him as a man “made of a strong and thick material, with something rough and hard to get”. Probably Steinbeck is suspicious of journalists, he has a mechanism of self-defense. This is also seen in his journey with Charlie. He is a continent in itself, his body is a geophysical map, his observations are not hasty, he gives time, he believes in instinct.

Papadopoulos’ editions continue to publish Steinbeck’s writings, and Soti Triantafillou, who knows America, has given us a good translation of a book worth reading.