The Long Valley

By: John Steinbeck, John H. Timmerman - introduction

Narrated by: Holter Graham

A Penguin Classic

First published in 1938, this volume of stories collected with the encouragement of his longtime editor Pascal Covici serves as a wonderful introduction to the work of Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck. Set in the beautiful Salinas Valley of California, where simple people farm the land and struggle to find a place for themselves in the world, these stories reflect Steinbeck’s characteristic interests: the tensions between town and country, laborers and owners, past and present. Included here are the O. Henry Prize-winning story “The Murder”; “The Chrysanthemums,” perhaps Steinbeck’s most challenging story, both personally and artistically; “Flight,” “The Snake,” “The White Quail,” and the classic tales of “The Red Pony.” With an introduction and notes by John H. Timmerman.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Critic reviews

John Steinbeck knew and understood America and Americans better than any other writer of the twentieth century. (The Dallas Morning News) A man whose work was equal to the vast social themes that drove him. (Don DeLillo)"

Distracting narration.

I usually listen to non-fiction, and, as a result, I have a hard time with the "performance" of some fiction audiobooks. The narrator's intonation of male and female voices was a distraction for me. I'd prefer either a straight reading, without vocal performance, or different narrators for different characters. I know it's my problem, but I wasn't able to continue with this book, one I've read a few times in th past.

Generally Good Stories, Some are Great

This is a selection of short stories about the California Salinas Valley. The collection includes The Chrysanthemums, The White Quail, Flight, The Snake, Breakfast, The Raid, The Harness, The Vigilante, Johnny Bear, The Red Pony, The Murder, and Saint Katy the Virgin. These stories all have at least a touch of the darkness common to much of Steinbeck’s work, yet almost all of the stories have a strange, subtle and almost mystical power. These stories are generally good, some are great, some are OK. I really liked the voice and tone of the stories and the narration was excellent. This collection pairs very nicely with The Pastures of Heaven.

GREAT

What did you love best about The Long Valley?

The varied stories

If you’ve listened to books by John Steinbeck and John H. Timmerman (Introduction) before, how does this one compare?

good as always

What about Holter Graham’s performance did you like?

his voice

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

unanswered questions

Any additional comments?

the stories ended sp abruptly that I was into the next before I knew it. I did not like that I had no time to process what I had just heard

includes The Red Pony stories

This one is difficult to review. I am a huge fan of Steinbeck -- he is my favorite author, by far. But I am not really a fan of short stories, making this book a hard one to assess for me. I found some of these stories wonderful and rich. I had previously read The Red Pony, and I find it a smart, sweet, emotional tale in the vein of The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. I also loved Flight, which had the perfect Steinbeckian ending. Truthfully, I hated The Snake, but that is an anomaly.

great narration to an excellent story

the narrator did an amazing job of capturing different characters without detracting from the story.