Mad at the World Audiobook By William Souder cover art

Mad at the World

A Life of John Steinbeck

Preview
Try for $0.00
Access a growing selection of included Audible Originals, audiobooks, and podcasts.
You will get an email reminder before your trial ends.
Audible Plus auto-renews for $7.95/mo after 30 days. Upgrade or cancel anytime.

Mad at the World

By: William Souder
Narrated by: David Colacci
Try for $0.00

$7.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $21.49

Buy for $21.49

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

The first full-length biography of the Nobel laureate to appear in a quarter century, Mad at the World illuminates what has made the work of John Steinbeck an enduring part of the literary canon: his capacity for empathy. Angered by the plight of the Dust Bowl migrants who were starving even as they toiled to harvest California's limitless bounty and appalled by the country's refusal to recognize the humanity common to all of its citizens, Steinbeck took a stand against social injustice - paradoxically given his inherent misanthropy.

A man by turns quick-tempered, compassionate, and ultimately brilliant, Steinbeck could be a difficult person to like. Obsessed with privacy, he was mistrustful of people. Next to writing, his favorite things were drinking and womanizing and getting married, which he did three times. And while he claimed indifference about success, his mid-career books and movie deals made him a lot of money. And yet Steinbeck also took aim at the corrosiveness of power, the perils of income inequality, and the urgency of ecological collapse.

Steinbeck remains our great social realist novelist, the writer who gave the dispossessed and the disenfranchised a voice in American life and letters. Eloquent, nuanced, and deeply researched, Mad at the World captures the full measure of the man and his work.

©2020 William Souder (P)2020 Tantor
Americas Art & Literature Authors State & Local United States Inspiring
adbl_web_global_use_to_activate_T1_webcro805_stickypopup
All stars
Most relevant  
Wow. What a life! All the investigation and research that went into the making of this story about one of the greatest authors of all time. Wives, friends, family, travel, houses, children, fame and fortune. Those topics just skim the surface!

Stunning Details

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Its written like Steinbeck novel, it takes hold of you, and you enjoy it in the same way

A comprehensive and in depth look at Steinbeck.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Steinbeck ate my grandmothers pasta. Did he like it? He went to Stanford with my uncle,a lawyer. Souder gets Steinbeck, great book.

Steinbeck prepares for the American Enlightment

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

got to understand Steinbeck as a flawed and great human being. The narrator really draws me into the story. enjoyed it a lot

impressed

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I'm a huge fan of Steinbeck, so I really enjoyed this book. It goes into terrific detail on the grand and tiny things that made him who he is. The author does inject his own philosophy about writing a bit more than is necessary for a nonfiction biography, but it is what it is. He did the work, he researched his butt off, and he wrote the book his way. Steinbeck would be proud.

The narrator is not great. He's also not terrible. He sounds like a bored high school astronomy teacher. The subject is interesting enough that you walk away learning something good and true, but you certainly weren't inspired by the lecturer. It never ceases to amaze me, with all the truly great narrators on Audible - and there are plenty - why an author would agree to go with one that's just ok. I just don't get it, and perhaps i never will.

Well Researched, Good for Die Hard Steinbeck Fans

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Love Steinbeck and fascinating book ! Unfortunately narration ruins the experience. Eeyore would have been more enjoyable..

Narrator mis-cast…

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.