Annoying winter: The Steinbeck Collection

Author: (American) Steinbeck, translated by Wu Junxie
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-03-01
Features: This book is the last long by Nobel Prize-winning author Steinbeck. After experiencing university life and World War II, the young and thoughtful Ethan returns to his hometown with enthusiasm. However, the simple and sincere relationships he once imagined among people have become difficult to find under the pressure of survival competition. Ethan can only cover up his inner frustration with mockery and self-mockery. Yet, his wife's expectations and his children's complaints eventually lead him to betray his "kind" self. He reports his employer to the immigration office, who had treated him like family, and takes over the employer's shop. He tricks his childhood friend Taylor out of his property and even defeats the cunning banker. Just as he has everything, the woman who had once incited him to seek personal gain, a half-prostitute who practices witchcraft, comes to blackmail him, and his son's cheating to win a national essay prize is also exposed. Ethan finally becomes lucid in the inner struggle between greed and conscience.