Portable Steinbeck.

"One might go so far as to say that Steinbeck's popularity has been based on the special combination of the good and the bad in his work--as in the case of Dickens. On the one hand, in pieces like 'Molly Morgan' or 'The Moon Is Down', we find theatrical trickery in almost pure form, calculatingly paced and truly parodying the basic view that underlies the best work. On the other hand, in some of the stories, for instance, 'The Chrysamthemums,' or some of the pieces from 'The Pastures of Heaven', or 'The Red Pony', we find fiction which develops (from the central insight of the story) a kind of narrative honesty which does not submit to the temptation to go whoring after 'effects'."Steinbeck, John is the author of 'Portable Steinbeck.', published 1976 under ISBN 9780140150025 and ISBN 0140150021.