First novels can be tricky things. They can be representative of an author's oeuvre, a great work and something they never quite obtain again or simply a step in the right direction on the path towards forging a career as a writer. Where exactly Cup of Gold appears on this spectrum is a good question. For sure John Steinbeck's debut is very much not like the works he is best known for, your Mices and your Mens, your Grapes, your Wrath and your Eden to boot. There's none of the beating heart of America here, nor its calloused hands or its very soul. What we have instead could probably be best described as historical fiction.
It's a tale of the notorious bucaneer Henry Morgan (he of the rum and Coke) and his sack of Panama, the Cup of Gold of the title. So is it any good? Well, Steinbeck's writing is fine and shows a lot of potential here. His succinctness, his grasp of language, his understanding of human emotions are all here, just turned to a different use. And it's worth bearing in mind that I don't think Steinbeck is just a great writer, I think he's a superlative writer.
So having buckled on my swash, it's not quite a straight-up pirate romp. There's plenty of the necessary ingredients – the lure of gold, the cruelty of the sea, and, naturally, a fair maiden at the heart of it. But at the same time, it's more than that. It's a history of Morgan and it really is his story, from start to end. He's a well-fleshed out character, learning of power, how to obtain it and what it is to hold it. And it is this sense of the mind, more so in his case than of the heart, which gives the book it's real quality. It's not his best book, but it suggests strongly that he wasn't capable of writing one that wasn't at least pretty darn good.
Book number: 33
Title: Cup of Gold
Author: John Steinbeck
Category: Books with colours in the title
No comments:
Post a Comment