Book Review: The Pastures of Heaven, John Steinbeck

       The short story is a genre not easily captured by any writer.  Each story must have a design that appeals to the readers' interests to keep the focus from  beginning to end.   Some writers have been successful once, and then, never able to repeat the process.   John Steinbeck, the Nobel Prize winner in Literature, published a story collection in 1932 that received only  modest attention and acclaim.  Critics and readers alike were somewhat confused: is this a novel in and of itself?  Is it a collection of stories that normally would stand alone?  Are the stories linked by anything more than the region and its geography?   For years, these questions lingered and would remain unanswered until Steinbeck achieved super star status after publication of  The Grapes of Wrath.   This novel and several following identified the author as one who deserved further review.  Thus informed, critics and academics went back and examined The Pastures of Heaven(Las Pasturas del Cielo).
       In a recent Penguin Classics edition, the prologue examines in detail the structure and elements of each story in the collection.   At their most basic level, the stories are related by locale- the small valley in coastal California, about 100 miles south of San Francisco.  The time frame is constant: the late 19th century  before the industrial revolution altered America and the world forever.  Agriculture reigned over the citizenry, and the land and its husbandry identified the makeup of a man and his family.   The author selects individuals among the inhabitants and tells their own stories, and, as can be found in a small, tight knit community, contact is inevitable. 
      Some of the characters are blood relatives; some are lone individuals who have landed in the Pastures by chance.   Several are farmers, working the fertile land for their survival.  One is a school teacher; one is a mentally-challenged individual whose association with a certain family leads to their heart break and decline.  Steinbeck links these folks with elements of the landscape- farm houses of run down condition; farm houses of prosperity and success.  All are tinged with decline and fall, usually by forces beyond their control.   The author's skill as a writer was coming into its own.
5 Stars *****
worth the effort