The Winter of Our Discontent

The Winter of Our Discontent, John Steinbeck, Bantam, 1961

Ethan Allen Hawley used to own the grocery store in the Long Island seacoast town of New Baytown. Because of bankruptcy problems, he now clerks in the store for the new owner, an older Italian man named Marullo. The two get along, but they're not friends.

One day, Ethan is offered a bribe by a food distributor, wanting him to send some business their way, without telling Marullo. The head of the local bank wants Ethan to put money his wife inherited to work in a plan to revitalize the town, with the bank head, named Baker, and his cronies the main beneficiaries. Ethan gives $1,000 of the money, without telling his wife, to Danny Taylor. He is a childhood friend who was thrown out of the Navy and became the town drunk. This is despite Danny's assurances that he'll drink the money away. Before Danny drinks himself into a grave, he gives Ethan ownership of a piece of nearby land that is perfect for an airport, the central linchpin of the revitalization plan.

This is a quiet, but excellent, novel about concepts of morality that have become flexible in modern times. Steinbeck does his usual very good job putting the reader right in the middle of the story. Highly recommended.