 The Log is More Than Half The Story
If you intend to read Steinbeck's Sea of Cortez you can do it two ways. You can order the book Sea of Cortez and get the full benefit of Steinbeck and Rickett's exploration of the Gulf of California (Sea of Cortez), or you can order this book which only contains Steinbeck's observations and color commentary, leaving out Rickett's technical information. If you are a fan of Steinbeck, the log is both entertaining and informative and pure Steinbeck in that he exhibits that meandering curiosity that began here (1941) but was still evident in Travels with Charley twenty years later. This is non-fiction Steinbeck, so don't expect Mice and Men or Grapes of Wrath. Still, I read this as the whole Sea of Cortez more than two decades ago and had to come back and order both the Log and the entire Sea of Cortez, just to be sure I have it on my shelf again.
An unusual journey
This is a very unique book. It certainly is a travelogue, but not merely so. The complete volume, jointly written by Steinbeck and Ricketts, would contain more than 600 pages and have another part of cataloging of the marine animals they found on this trip, which the Penguin edition omits. It is a very enjoyable read, although the part of teleological vs. non-teleological thinking which occupies a whole long chapter (which reputedly was written by Ricketts) was dry and drawn-out and does not fit with the flow of the book. Other scattered ruminations throughout the book of man, nature, world view, etc. are a bit more tolerable. The descriptions of the species are uneven, the parts on Sally Lightfoot, tube worms, manta rays, etc. are quite vivid, but some other parts resemble catalog entries -- which I don't really view as a weakness as you cannot possibly describe all the species in great details. The description of the crew is especially funny and entertaining, and you can really see the personalities of the crew: Tony, Tiny, Sparky and Tex. I think this is really the highlight of the book.
Because the log was co-written by both men, there is not much mentioning of Ed Ricketts (as you read the book, you tend to read it through the eye of Steinbeck, so the absence of Ed Ricketts is a bit odd). And of course, as others pointed out, there is no mentioning of Steinbeck's wife who also made the journey (they divorced shortly after the trip), except a very vague hint after 200 or so pages.
There is also an appendix of a memorial/biography/obituary of Ed Ricketts by Steinbeck, shortly after Ricketts' tragic death. It is a very vivid and funny, even lighthearted account, but I suspect it is also somewhat fictionalized.
Despite its flaws, I still like this book very much. One only wish that Steinbeck had written more non-fictions, especially on travels and the nature. It is a pity that he didn't.
 Steinbeck's Template
A pen picture of Steinbecks close friend Ed Rickett's (Doc in 'Cannery Row' and 'Sweet Thursday') preceeds the absorbing log of their 1940 expedition to the Gulf of California, collecting the abundant marine life that dwells there along with Tony, Sparky, Tiny and Tex.
This is a book that will be appreciated by those who have read all or most of Steinbecks work. The thoughts and philosophies pondered over during the trip permeate all of Steinbecks great works-the way we straight jacket our reasoning by refusing to even consider ideas and discoveries that highlight nothing but flaws in our concrete beliefs, our constant state of denial, of how hope is mankinds survival tool (if we look at our past which is the same story over and over we would logically conclude that an aeon of exactly the same is to come our way,but hope convinces us we'll make Utopia this time! Without it we'd kill ourselves in dispair!)
Steinbeck sees man as part of the macrocosm of life that makes up the whole on Earth and our error in forgetting that we are a species with all the paradoxes that implies.
I've always loved Steinbecks open mind philosophy, that any explanation to something 'Might be so' as our knowledge constantly changes. This avoids the trap of dogma and keeps the mind creative.
A facinating book with Steinbeck at his philosophical peak when the log was made (shortly after 'Grapes of Wrath') The log also contains a precis of what became 'The Pearl' Great stuff for Syeinbeck fans.
The Abyss
The Log from the "Sea of Cortez" (Penguin Modern Classics)
The Log from the Sea of Cortez
"How deep this thing must be, the giver and the receiver again; the boat designed through millenniums of trial and error by the human consciousness, the boat which has no counterpart in nature unless it be a dry leaf fallen by accident into a stream. And Man receiving back from Boat a warping of his psyche so that the sight of a boat riding in the water clenches a fist of emotion in his chest.... This is not mysticism, but identification: man, building this greatest and most personal of all tools has in turn received a boat-shaped mind, and the boat, a man-shaped soul."
The Log from the Sea of Cortez by John Steinbeck
In 1940, fresh from the success of the publication of "The Grapes of Wrath" but in the throes of marital difficulties, John Steinbeck teamed up with marine biologist and friend Ed Ricketts for a six-week marine exploration of the Sea of Cortez, or Gulf of California. They chartered a 76-foot purse-seiner, hired a crew, stocked tons of provisions, and headed for the waters that separate Baja California from the mainland of Mexico. While the object of the trip was to collect specimens of marine life, it became a sort of Homeric voyage of self-discovery. It also preceded by several decades the ground-breaking environmental journalism of Rachel Carson, raising issues of commercial over- fishing and chemical pollution.
Steinbeck shows an impressive scientific knowledge and has a deft prose style. His non-fiction is worth reading.
 Buy it and read about Ed Ricketts--the rest is only worth a skim. Not Steinbeck's best
Buy this book and read the first part: the part about Ed Ricketts. Then read a chapter or two, from anywhere in the rest of the book. Then you're done. Steinbeck's story of his dear friend Ed is as moving a memoir as I know of. This is Steinbeck at his best--the prose is crisp and compelling, and salted with tangible things of the world. You are taken to Monterrey and to Ed's lab. You feel yourself present as the two buddies drink beer together, surrounded by aquatic specimens. You feel the love that the two men felt for eachother--two eccentric intellectuals living in a town more concerned with squid than Shakespeare. You sense from Steinbeck that Ed was a true brother and that he could see himself in his friend. It is a marvelous, short piece, perhaps 80 pages in all. As for their journey to the Sea of Cortez? A windy story, ruined by machismo speculations on life, evolution, boats, people, and the nature of things. The depictions of Mexicans are just awful, drawn from a real distance, and written from an ignorant and gringo point of view. Take the book for what it is, a creature in two halves, one lovely and true, the other a rambling set of notes better left unpublished and unread.
|
