I’ve had this book on my shelf for almost 20 years. I know that because it was a gift from my parents seven years before my father passed away. My mother wrote the inscription
The stories of fathers and grandfathers and uncles. We see so many of these values again displayed in heroic fashion since 9/11/01. I hope these stories remind you why it’s so wonderful to be an American.
God bless,
Love your Mom and Dad
12/2001
My mother was born in 1945, the first year of the Baby Boomer generation. I was born in December of 1964, three days before the “end” of the Baby Boomer years.
My grandparents were part of the previous generation, what Tom Brokaw has called “The Greatest Generation.”
Did you ever think about how generations get named? Baby Boomer, Millenials, Gen X, Gen Z. They get named by ordinary people. Someone coins a name and it sticks. I’m not sure what the generation before the Baby Boomers was original called, but after Brokaw’s excellent work, they will forever be “The Greatest Generation.”
The book was printed in 1998. I know because while reading it I realized that it was from a different time. The Greatest Generation came of age during the Great Depression and then had to step up and win the fight against Hitler.
It was a time that many veterans and common people defined as pulling the nation together in a way they hadn’t seen before. Senator Daniel Inouye from Hawaii served in the Army during that terrible conflict. He described it.
The one time the nation got together was world War II. We stood as one. We spoke as one. We clenched our fists as one, and that was a rare moment for all of us
– Senator Daniel Inouye
As I read that sentence I remember thinking, “No, there was another time.” The book would undoubtably been different if it had been released after 9/11. We once again stood together as a nation and clenched our fists together. But, Senator Inouye was correct. It’s a rare moment. Possibly only once in a lifetime.
What I liked
What’s not to like? It was a wonderful book. Full of short stories about the famous (presidents and senators, artists and journalists) and the ordinary (farmers, nurses, scientists and housewives.) Brokaw has a very easy storytelling voice. He takes us into not just the lives, but the hopes and dreams of these people. He has a reverance for what they did without slipping into nostalgia. He chooses a wonderful mix of characters across a huge spectrum of society. This is at its heart a war book. There is no escaping the World War. Even those stories that do not involve the war are noteworthy for the fact that they don’t have a war tie. It’s easy to see your grandparents, or great-grandparents in these stories. And the account themselves very well indeed.
What I didn’t
The book is broken up into sections. He starts with ordinary people. After 139 pages he introduces “Women in Uniform And Out.” However, the first story he tells is a combination of Colonel Mary Hallaren and General Jeanne Holm. The two woman have no connection other than they both achieved hight ranks in the military. After having each story devoted to a single man or a man and his wife, it felt disconcerting to feel like the women didn’t get their own story, but had to be combined with others. Later he addressed some notable women in their own chapter, but the first impression was that women were getting short shift. Several soldiers whose stories appear in the book were award the Medal of Honor, the highest award given to a combat soldier. For some reason Tom Brokaw insists on mislabeling it the “Congressional Medal of Honor.” For a journalist, I would have expected him to get that particular detail correct. He avoids politics for most of the book, but turns his ire on President Nixon in several passages. Maybe it’s that Nixon’s disgrace was more real to him in 1998, 25 years after Watergate, than it is to us, 22 years after this book was published.
What It Means To You
The members of the Greatest Generation are aging and will soon all be gone. The book is a timeless written snapshot of who they were, what they did and why it was so incredibly important to us today. The book will help you explain to your children why a group of people who lived nearly 100 years ago literally saved humanity.
My rating
Three out of four stars
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
My lovely wife and I married in 1987. We’ll celebrate 33 years of wedded bliss next month. (Yeah, it’s an old joke, but practically a family tradition.)
We are not one of those couples who “never spent a night apart. . .” Pre-COVID, I used to travel a lot of work. Typically, I’m gone a week or less. Since COVID? Yeah, not at all. Which makes this week so different. My lovely wife and I will be apart of the next few days. But, unlike previous trips, this time, I’m at home watching the kids.
My daughter owns a ranch in Souther Utah. My daughter lives in Colorado Springs, courtesy of her Uncle Sam. She’s in the first year of her 4 year active duty commitment as an Army veterinarian. Her husband is a pilot for a local (Utah) airline. He mostly stays with his parents in Grantsville when he’s flying.
So, the ranch sits empty most of the time. Not this week. My lovely wife is spending the next three or four days there. Some of my kids apparently weren’t paying attention as we planned this little get away.
Is mom coming back tomorrow?
No. She’s staying until Saturday night, or possibly Sunday.
Why? What’s she going to do there all by herself?
True, no television. No interent. No neighbors for miles. My 18 year old cannot think of a worse punishment.
No doubt she’ll read. We recently donated two VCRs and our old VHS collection to my daughter. So, that’s there, but I doubt she’ll bother watching it. She’ll sleep late, undisturbed by the noise a house full of young adult men make even when “we are being quite!” She may go for a walk, or simply sit on the porch and stare at the valley.
There’s a storm coming this weekend, so she’ll watch the weather. It’s not supposed to be bad, and she’s driving an all-wheel drive Suburban, so she should be fine.
It’s odd being the “home-body” this week. But, working from home, and kids with their own cars, means I don’t have a lot that I need to do differntly.
She’ll be back on Sunday and next week will go back to “normal.” Whatever normal is for this crazy year. In the meantime she’ll do nothing. I hope she gets a chance to do a lot of it over the next few days.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
In honor of Veterans Day I thought I’d reshare a post about one of my military heroes.
This is a picture of my father, Lloyd Bliss. He was a reluctant soldier many years ago. A victim of the draft, he spent his service in Alaska and he and the Army couldn’t wait to part ways.
But, my family has a history of military service. My brother was in the Army. My daughter is currently in the Army. But, there was a family story of soldiers from the earliest days of the country.
Every family has the family stories of our earliest immigrants. My family was no different. Bliss is not a particularly common name. We were told that all the Bliss’s in America descended from two brothers who fought in the Revolution. I set out to see if I could find if this was true. The results were both exciting and somewhat disappointing. But more exciting than disappointing.
I went to http://new.familysearch.org to start my search. Here’s the genealogy.
My father, Lloyd V Bliss, pictured above, was born April 4, 1931 in Great Falls, MT. He passed away June 12, 2009 in Olympia, WA.
My grandfather Charles William Bliss was born 13 November 1910 in Creston, IA. He died in 1983, the year I graduated from high school in Olympia, WA.
My great-grandfather Howard A Bliss was born November 23, 1884 in Lincoln Township, IA. He died October 1966 in Harloton, MT.
My great-great-grandfather Charles E. Bliss was born August 24, 1861 in Creston, IA. He died September 26, 1950 in Riverside, CA.
My great-great-great-grandfather David Bliss Jr was born April 20, 1807 in Calais Township, VT, a town his grandfather helped to found. He died September 25, 1872 in Union County, IA.
My great-great-great-great-grandfather David Bliss was born October 19, 1767 in Rehoboth, Massachusetts. He died March 11, 1853 in Jefferson county, IA.
My great-great-great-great-great-grandfather Captain Abdiel Bliss was born December 15, 1740 in Rehoboth, Massachusetts. He died June 10, 1805 Calais, VT, a town he helped to found.
He was one of the founding members of Calais, Vermont. The grateful town erected this marker in his honor.
(Photo courtesy of www.findagrave.com)
Additional pictures of Abdiel’s grave are available at the www.findagrave.com site. I found that Capt Bliss was at the battle of Lexington, where the “shot heard round the world” started the war. He was at Concord later that day as the colonists won their first victory over British regulars. a few weeks later he helped defend Breeds Hill in the misnamed Battle of Bunker Hill. He served throughout the war.
In researching great-great-great-great-great-grandfather Abdiel, I was introduced to the Society of the Cincinnati. It’s an organization formed shortly after the Revolutionary war by the officers in the Continental Army. They had achieved such a remarkable feat against such overwhelming odds, that they felt a kinship that transcended their service. What made the Society of the Cincinnati unique was that membership was hereditary. It passed from each officer to his oldest son. It then went on to his oldest grandson, and so on down through the generations, always to the oldest surviving male heir, from the male line. If the rightful heir didn’t want the membership, another could take his place.
FamilySearch allows you to search both backwards and forwards through generations. I started tracing Abdiel’s descendants. Slowly, one by one the male lines petered out. I’d trace one line down for 4 or 5 generations and then go back to the next male descendant.
Eventually, I was tracing my line. My father had no brothers. My grandfather had no brothers. Imagine my surprise to find that the oldest male descendant of Captain Abdiel Bliss was my father. When he passed away the next in line was my older brother Charles. Charles never married. Next in line was my brother Howard who has two sons, Jesse and Richard. My older brother Rick has five daughters. And I have five sons.
So, Charles was the rightful heir to the membership slot awarded to the descendants of Captain Abdiel. With no descendants, would he want the honor? And would Howard?
Before I approached them, I decided I needed to figure out exactly how you claim membership. Each state has their own Society of Cincinnati. I found the website for the Massachusetts chapter and emailed them.
I received a response from J Archer O’Reilly III.
Mr. Bliss
I have no record of an Abdiel Bliss in Continental service. I have a Lt. Joseph Bliss who was paymaster of the Corps of Artillery and a Capt. Thomas Theodore Bliss who was in the 2nd Reg. Continental Artillery who is currently represented.
If you can provide a service record for Abdiel or are related to Joseph please let me know.
Membership in Massachusetts requires descent from an eligible officer or one of his siblings. I do not know if Abdiel and Joseph were related.
Thank you for your interest and contact me if I can assist.
J Archer O’Reilly III
Archer was pleasant enough, but was fairly adamant that Abdiel Bliss had never served in the Continental army. I did additional research and found that Massachusetts published a 17 volume record of everyone who served. There was Abdiel serving in various companies from 1776 to 1779.
And that is where the mystery was solved. Abdiel certainly served in the war, but not in the Continental Army. He was in the militia. As Archer explained,
I have done more research, due to your great interest and it confirms what
you have found. Unfortunately, that is that Abdiel Bliss was an officer in three
different Massachusetts militia companies between 1776 and 1779. This service
certainly deserves the title ‘Revolutionary officer’ but not membership in the
Society of the Cincinnati.The bottom line is that I am now certain that Abdiel Bliss was a militia officer with
substantial service and that he is not eligible to be represented in this Society.
I have to admit I was slightly disappointed that great-great-great-great-great-grandfather Abdiel wasn’t eligible for membership in Society of the Cincinnati. Okay, truth be told, I was disappointed that my brothers and I weren’t eligible. But, finding out your ancestor was one of the original Minute Men is still pretty cool.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
I’m not sure if there’s a similar warning that women give each other. But, “Your fly is down” is a phrase that no man wants to hear and every man wants to hear.
Yes, if my fly is down, I want someone to tell me. But, I also don’t want my fly to be down.
Let’s talk about virtual meetings.
There was a famous case recently where a man on a conference call was caught in an embarrassing situation. And by “caught” I mean he was broadcasting video of it in a virtual meeting.
Talk about having your fly down.
Let’s set aside, for a moment, the question of why would you be doing that during a work meeting. Uggh. I don’t even want to consider that one.
But, even more innocuous video can start to seriously blur the line between work and home.
Shortly after the United States Supreme Court started hearing arguements via a virtual meeting, they heard something else, not normally shared; a flushing toilet.
Everyone uses the bathroom. And I won’t say how often I’ve muted my headset and slipped off to answer the call of nature. But, it’s more than once.
I was in a meeting this week with members of our cross-company technical team. The project leader, a woman name Laura, works for the client. We had our bi-weekly status meeting. The project is mostly on hold waiting for internet circuits to be delivered to our data center in Oklahoma. If you’ve not been involved in the businesses of leasing internet circuits, you would be shocked how long it takes to get a 10 Gig circuit. Months. A lot of them.
Anyway, the meeting was going to be short, since we are still waiting on the circuits. I joined the meeting first with no video and a muted phone. Several other team members also joined. We chatted about the weather. I’m in Utah, they’re in Oklahoma. (Just not in the same town as our data center.)
And then Laura joined the call. Laura’s phone was muted, but her camera was live. Laura was taking the meeting in bed. Pillows stacked up. A modest nighgown. Messy hair and no makeup.
Laura’s video was quickly switched out for a stock photo of her in business attire. The meeting then proceeded as normal.
No one said anything. She had figured out on her own that her fly was down.
It’s a fear we all get to live with now that so many meetings are virtual. and I admit, I worry about it to. I use an external webcam. I leave it turned off. . .and facing the wall. . .and unplugged.
Anything to avoid potentially getting caught with my fly down.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
I said hello to my boss when I arrived at work today.
Good Morning, Peter. Welcome to a new week!
ha, good morning Rodney.. my new week as has started with flooding and high winds here in florida
Are you okay in your area?
so far, im sure power will go out eventually.
My week started with 2″ of snow on my lawn. Winter has come to Utah. . .Finally
you like the winter months?
Fall is really my favorite. I don’t mind the snow. And I live right up against the base of a mountain..in Utah, so snow is part of what we plan for.
i miss seasons, we don’t get it down here
Are you from FL?
nah. Chicago
Wow, that is a change. I lived in Chicago for a couple of years. Coldest weather I ever experienced was -78 (with wind chill, of course) Utah gets pretty mild winters. I don’t need anything. Just htought I’d say hello to start off the week.
thanks man, lets knock this week out of the partk!! 2020 is almost over
I’ve never met my boss. Not in person. We’ve worked together for nine months. We started just before the pandemic hit. I used to sit right next to my previous boss. We were in the same building. We’d talk daily. He was a huge sports fan. We had hallway conversations about random topics. Nothing really important. But, the kind of conversations that build relationships.
That’s hard to do in a virtual environment. Too often we only reach out when there’s a question, or worse a problem. We come together to solve the problem and then we go back to not talking.
The topics aren’t important. It’s the shared experience of telling stories that is valuable. Even if it’s as simple as talking about flooding and snow. . .3000 miles apart.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
Today the last of my children left. I still have five living at home. But, they aren’t children anymore. Today my youngest two children, twin sons, had their 18th birthday.
Of course, my children are still and always will be my kids. But, they aren’t kids. Not anymore. My son laughed as he passed me on the stairs,
It’s weird to think that I can go to jail now.
Well, I wouldn’t put that on your bucket list.
The boys are still in high school, so for the next several months not a lot will change. They have plans. One is planning to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints shortly after he graduates. He then wants to attend Utah State University and study law enforcement.
He’ll make a good cop.
The other has different plans.
I want to be an auto mechanic. . .like my dad.
I’m a backyard mechanic. I’d call me a hack. Mostly self taught courtesy of a lot coaching from my neighbor and youtube videos. Oh, and a healthy dose of “What’s the worst that can happen?”
But, my son won’t go that route. He’ll go to school. (He’s already applied and been accepted.) He’ll learn the theory and then put it into practice. He’ll be one of the guys making the youtube videos.
I’m proud of both of my boys. I’ve watched them grow up. Watched them play basektball and football. I’ve watched them join Cub Scouts and get their Arrow of Light and then become Boy Scouts and Eagle Scouts.
I watched them think girls were “ickie.” And then I watched them go on dates. I watched them go to dances and parties.
It’s not the first time one of my kids has crossed from childhood to adulthood. In fact, it’s happened 11 times before now. My oldest is 30 and has kids of her own. The rest of them are spread out from 30 down to the twins.
I didn’t think their birthday would affect me. We have ten beautiful grandkids. And I’m happy to move on to the role of grandfather. And my sons are turning into good men. So good it makes me almost not miss the good boys they were. . .almost.
Happy birthday, boys. Welcome to being a grown-up.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
Hello, there! Slow going?
Look, I don’t mean to be rude, but this is not as easy as it looks, so I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t distract me.
Sorry.
Thank you.
I do not suppose you could speed things up?
If you’re in such a hurry, you could lower a rope or find something useful to do.
I could do that. I’ve got some rope up here. But, I do not think that you would accept my help, since I am waiting around to kill you.
That does put a damper on our relationship.
But, I promise I will NOT kill you until we finish the counting.
That’s very comforting. But, I’m afraid you’ll just have to wait.
I hate waiting. I could give you my word as a politician.
No good. I’ve known too many politicians.
Is there any way you’ll trust me?
Nothing comes to mind.
And so we wait.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
I’m a white, middle-aged christian man. I live in a middle American state. I’m typical middle-class. I live in a two story house in the suburbs. I’ve been married to the same (wonderful) woman for the past 33 years. I have thirteen great children and (as of next month) ten beautiful grandchildren.
I’m average.
I’m not often the “offended” party in any sort of national scandal. There isn’t a group that needs to “defend” me. There’s not an anti-defamation league, or an NAACP, or even the AARP.
I’m also a Conservative Republican. Actually, for Utah, I’m considered almost moderate. But, nationally, I’m part of the GOP. Up until yesterday, the person with my party affiliation was in the Whitehouse as well as had control of the United States Senate. “We” were in control.
Except it’s hardly a “we.” I had disagreements with the man at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. I even have issues with the group of leaders in the Senate. So, it was challenging at times to discuss politics. Especially when I agreed with my party’s principles, but not necessarily with the leader’s actions.
We could be seeing a leadership change in the United States over the coming week. If so, I will no longer share the same political party with the president. I will be part of the minority party. So, now it’s my turn to rage against the administration, right?
In 1998 the Chicago Bulls NBA team travelled to Salt Lake City to play the Utah Jazz as part of the NBA championship series. Dennis Rodman played forward for the Bulls. He was asked what he thought of Utah? He replied,
There’s too many [censored] Mormons.
Mormon’s are not the most liked group of Christians. But, it’s been decades since we were attacked in any sort of public forum. (Back in the nineteenth century, there was a law in Missoury allowing Mormons to be shot on sight. Yeah, that’s crazy.) Anyway, here I was now part of the offended party.
It caused a crisis for the NBA. And they pressured Dennis Rodman to apologize. And who was he supposed to apologize for? Me. I got to be the offended person.
Did I want Rodman’s apology? Did I care if he said the words, “I’m sorry for what I said”?
I realized that it literally didn’t matter to me. I not only would not feel less offended if Rodman apologized, but I didn’t feel offended at all.
I thought about that today as I watched the election results and contemplated a change in political leadership. If the Oval Office has a new occupant in January will I take my turn to rage and protest the actions of the leader of the other party? After all, they did it to our guy, right? Fair is fair.
Like those years ago thinking about the babbling of a guy named “The Worm,” I realized I don’t have to be offended. I don’t have to be opposed and oppositional.
Many of my friends and I disagree about politics. But, we love to discuss it. Observers ask, “Why do you put yourself through this torture?”
“Easy,” I tell them, “These are my friends.”
Now that the baseketball shoe is on the other foot, I realize that I don’t have to think, act or believe a certain way, just because I’m part of the minority.
I don’t have to, and neither do you.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
Every year we have sports championships; NBA Championship, The Super Bowl, The World Series. (Lord Stanley who?) But, the really big events happen every four years: Olympics, World Cup, World Baseball Classic.
A regular sports fan will watch the yearly championship, but it’s the quadrennial events that really grab people’s attention.
Today is one of the quadrennial championships. Unfortunately, the scoring is so crazy that we not only didn’t know the winner at the end of the game. We didn’t know it even later the same day. It’s estimated that the final score won’t be posted and a winner declared until possibly the end of the week.
In fairness, there are 50 different score keepers and they are counting over 120 million runs. The final winner needs a score of 270 or better out of 538 possible.
The teams have pretty stupid mascots. One is a blue donkey, the other a red elephant. (Who picked these and who has to wear the donkey costume?)
Unlike baseball, basketball, football, or any sportsball, everyone is interested in today’s competition. And everyone has their favorite.
Here in the USA we typically don’t have to worry about violence around sports events. Oh sure, the fans in the winning city typically burn a few stores and flip some cars, but I mean, who wouldn’t, right?
But, today’s competition has sparked violence for months. And regardless of whether the donkeys or the elephants win, the country is worried about violence. In fact, several states have called out the National Guard.
The NBA Team, the Oklahoma Thunder have the highest payroll in professional sports. They paid $134M in salaries in 2020. The race that is happening today cost an estimated $14 billion dollars.
You would think that for that amount of money they would do a better job of knowing the winner sooner than a week.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
I like Steinbeck novels. Ironically, it’s because I had to read one of his worst novels in high school. We spent months analyzing “The Winter of Our Discontent.” I hated it. And because I was going to write a negative review (we called them Book Reports in school,) I did a lot of research. I found reviewers who described “The Winter of our Discontent” as Steinbeck’s worst book. I featured that quote quite prominently in my report.
But, a funny thing happened on the way to the forum. I learned so much about John Steinbeck, his writing and his history that I came to love his work. (Except “The Winter of Our Discontent.” I still hate that book.)
When I picked up “The Pearl,” I thought I was familiar with the story. Wasn’t it about a bunch of farmers? Just a few pages convinced me that I was misremembering. I was actually thinking the “The Good Earth” by Pearl S. Buck.
The Pearl, at 118 pages is not a long book. In fact, it’s barely longer than some short stories I’ve read. But, like typical Steinbeck stories, it’s about people, at it’s heart. The “pearl” referred to in the title is a magnificent speciman that the main character, a poor pearl diver, finds.
Steinbeck manages to show us the hopelessness of the very poor. Kino, the diver, hopes to use the proceeds from the pearl to lift his family out of poverty. But, ironically, he’s too poor to get rich. His options are limited not by the value of his prize, but by the limitation of his opportunities.
Steinbeck is writing about a pearl, but he’s really talking about those who remain on the bottom of the economic ladder, literally through no fault of their own. It’s a tragic tale.
What I Liked
It was a wonderful surprise to realize I didn’t know the story after all. And that suspense and surprise carried easily through the entire book. Even knowing, or suspecting the futility of Kino’s mission, each page was a treasure.
What I Didn’t
I think Steinbeck did it on purpose, but I had trouble placing the story, both in time and place. It adds to the universality of the story, but it still was distracting to continually try to decide what country, or even what continent they were on. Also, the sorry is ultimately sad. Again, the author did it on purpose, but, it was still sad.
What It Means To You
If you are a Steinbeck fan, you are most likely already familiar with this book. If not, this book would be a great introduction to his work. It’s a book you can consume in a long afternoon.
My Rating
Four out of four stars
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved