Travels with Steinbeck

Ever since being forced at school to read The Grapes of Wrath, I vowed never to read John Steinbeck again; not unless I wanted to be really depressed. But the other day I was looking for a travel book to read. The bookshop had its ‘hilarious’ self-satisfied accounts of house moving to Tuscany, and superficial jaunts of the sort that would make Wilfred Thesiger turn in his grave. But I was looking for something different.

 

I then came across A Russian Journal by John Steinbeck. It was certainly different. Just as the Iron Curtain was falling across Eastern Europe, Steinbeck travelled through the Soviet Union, accompanied by a war photojournalist, Robert Capa. They visited Moscow, Stalingrad, the Ukraine and Georgia, observing the lives of ordinary men and women. Frustrations abound. Aeroplanes fail to arrive or are hopelessly late, people who promise to meet them fail to turn up, there are barriers of language and the inevitable bureaucracy. At the same time, they are treated with extraordinary generosity wherever they go.

 

Steinbeck and Capa rile each other, and lose their tempers with the unfortunate translator who is assigned to accompany them. They complain about the sheer exhaustion of eating, drinking and travelling to excess. Their journey is set against the background of devastation caused by war, and there are poignant moments. In Stalingrad a child is seen visiting his father ever day – at the cemetery. A shell shocked girl emerges from a hole in the ground that she has made her home.

 

Inevitably, Steinbeck’s compassion for the people shines through at every turn, as does his sense of humour. His car is falling to bits, but it is a superb water heater. Orders are orders and must be obeyed; it is easier to change a sentry than to change the sentry’s orders. Meanwhile, Capa’s photographs capture the lives of the people, harvesting, dancing, wrestling, queuing, and hanging washing amidst the war torn rubble.

 

This is more than a travel book. It is an insight into a past world, and into the mind of an exceptional writer.