#1592 Geert Mak and John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley

Listening to America

History, Politics, Unitedstates, Society & Culture, American

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 25 March 2024

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Clay Jenkinson’s interview with the distinguished Dutch journalist Geert Mak, the author of In Europe, and also In America: Travels with John Steinbeck. In 2010 Geert Mak and his wife retraced the entire Steinbeck journey in a rented Jeep. After he returned to the Netherlands, Mak wrote a 550-page account of his travels. Though Steinbeck isn’t the main theme of In America, Mak fulfills the mission that Steinbeck set out to accomplish—that is, to wrestle with the character and narrative of what Steinbeck called “this monster country.” Clay and Mr. Mak discuss the sheer size of America, Steinbeck’s occasional fibs about the exact circumstances of the journey, race relations in America, violence in America, and the current state of the American Dream. It’s an amazing and quite moving interview.

Transcript

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0:00.0	all I can say is wow. Wow, wow, wow. What I'm getting to do now is just so amazing.
0:06.7	I am going to be retracing Steinbeck's tour around the country, beginning on May 1st.
0:12.4	For the 15, 16, 17 weeks in three phases. I'm going to be taking
0:18.2	my air stream. I've been corresponding with people. Bill Steigerwald who wrote the most important book on Steinbeck's trip.
0:25.3	Dogging Steinbeck is a friend of mine. We don't always agree, but I think we both like each
0:32.3	other. Can't wait to have him in in in in Rosenante I'm going to
0:36.4	pour him a little cup of coffee if he drinks coffee or tea or whatever he likes and
0:40.7	then I'm going to say a Steinbeck did Bill Bill, may I sweeten that coffee just a little,
0:45.0	I'll take out some nice whiskey or something
0:49.0	and we'll have a long talk.
0:51.0	And the first question I'm going to ask him is
0:53.2	so how do you feel about being the bad boy of the Steinbeck world?
0:57.2	And he's going to laugh out loud and we're going to be off and running and
1:00.2	even though we're probably going to get into an argument and possibly even a heated one, I think we're going to get into an argument and possibly even a heated one.
1:05.0	I think we're going to wind up being friends.
1:08.0	But today, just now, just minutes ago, I finished an interview with Geert Mack.
1:13.7	Geert Mack is a Dutch journalist and non-fiction writer.
1:17.6	His book, In America, Travels at John Steinbeck,
1:20.7	is by far in a way the best book ever written about Steinbeck's
1:24.1	1960 journey even though the book isn't really that much about Steinbeck
1:28.1	it's really about America but it's a spectacular analysis of America in 2010 through partly through the lens of
1:36.1	Steinbeck's earlier journey and so getting a chance to interview Gert Mac is just like, you know,
	...

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