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Jay Parini. John Steinbeck: A Biography. New York. Henry Holt. 1995. xxi + 536 pages + 16 plates. $30. ISBN 0-8050-1673-2.
Those who have read Jackson J. Benson's True Adventures of John Steinbeck, Writer can safely ignore Jay Parini's book and, for that matter, the rest of this review. Except for interviews with people who for the most part knew Steinbeck relatively late in life and for another decade of scholarly commentary--both of minor significance--Parini does not present many new facts or insights.
In fact, Parini does not pretend to do either. His announced purpose is "to summon the honest spirit of John Steinbeck as embodied in the man and his books to make him live and breathe again, to invoke and animate...