Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath Paperback – 1 December 1990

Very interesting to see John Steinbeck's journey in writing The Grapes of Wrath.

This is basically the log of progress Steinbeck kept as he wrote The Grapes of Wrath. He whines and complains. He berates and commiserates with himself for real and imagined faults.He cheers himself on and pats himself on the back. The whole thing is strangely illuminating and inspiring. This is the nuts and bolts way it feels to write a brilliant first draft... and in Steinbeck's case... the final draft.

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It's very interesting to read about Steinbeck's self-doubt; that's the one thing I will always remember from this book, especially when I feel defeated about something in my own life. He'd already published several acclaimed books, "Of Mice and Men" was a successful play, and he still said, "I'm not a writer; I've been fooling everybody, including myself." There are periods that he would get really down on himself and other times when he had to shut people out because he had to be productive. Very inspiring, especially if you're undertaking something like a dissertation or other big project that makes you feel hopeless at times. It's good to know that even the best have felt that way.

I was a little disappointed to find that a third of the book, at least, is taken up with 'editorial' comments rather than extracts from the Journal. There are also lots of asterisks marking items without giving any indication where to find the note that the comment relates to. These merely serve to distract from reading the daily writing.