To a God Unknown

Typical Stienbeckian dispair of the human condition.

This is a pretty typical book from John Steinbeck. It is the story of Joseph Wayne and his three brothers, working the family ranch in the west. What I liked about it is that each brother represents characteristics that we often see in people. One is lazy and seeks only pleasure. Another is deeply religious in the traditional sense. A third brother is in tune with nature and finds companionship amongst the animals more natural than with humans. Lastly, the fourth brother, Joseph, is filled with ambition and control. He seeks to not only make the ranch prosperous, but to understand the ebb and flow of the natural cycle.

As the brothers attempt to control their ranch, they are caught with dealing with the natural cycles of the earth and each attempts to understand it and control it. The interactions between the brothers shows the human tendency to attempt to understand that which may not be completely understandable by man. In the end, the author doesn't attempt to persuade you to a particular worldview, but instead simply offers a tale about our own perspective and how we act upon them. I think that all readers will see themselves as one of the characters.

The final question that I believe that Steinbeck is trying to get the readers to answer is this:
How does your worldview shape your view of the events taking place around you?

Great read. Loved it. Imagery created was so vivid. Memorable.

A tale which highlights that we as humans are but mere mortals on this eternal earth. Each of us has a truth which we cling to, but that truth is not only personal to us, but also so insignificant in the grand cycle of life.

Never even knew this book existed until I came across this 1955 paperback edition at a used book store, priced at $1, up just bit from its original thirty-five cent cover price. It's hawked as the progenitor of East of Eden, the story of a family and the land to which they have tied themselves, but is mostly an overwritten turd. The theatrical dialogue made me cringe from start to finish.It did amuse me to start thinking of it as dark magical realism and even a full-on horror novel, rife with Lovecraftian dread, a haunted tree, Native American sacred ground, pagan offerings, two (!) dance orgies, and blood and human sacrifice. The WTF elements couldn't pull it out of its long, slow and inevitable crash and burn though.My least favorite outing with one of my favorite authors.

Belief in things seen and unseen is different for everyone, yet how one acts on that belief has ramifications to others and yourself. To a God Unknown by John Steinbeck follows newly arrived Joseph Wayne has he begins a family ranch believing his father’s spirit inhabits a tree that protects the land which scares religious individuals in and around the ranch.Joseph Wayne receives the blessing of his father, John, to leave Vermont and go to California. Upon arriving and purchasing land, Joseph receives a letter from his religious brother Burton about the death of their father but after reading the letter Joseph feels his father in a huge tree next to the house he’s building. Joseph’s three brothers and their families arrive months later and start a growing cattle ranch with Joseph always interested in the fertility of the land and his cattle while giving reverence to the tree which gets noticed by Burton. The nearby town receives a new teacher which gets every single male’s attention, but Joseph somehow gets her to be his wife and the two have a “interesting” marriage that results in a son, young John, and ends with his wife’s death at a sacred rock that is on Joseph’s land. After the ranch hosts a fiesta in which Joseph’s behavior towards the tree alarms the local priest and Burton. Burton decides to leave for a safely Christian town but removes a ring of bark around the tree leading to its death. Almost immediately the weather turns and over the next year drought devastates the ranch leading to Joseph’s brother leading what cattle he can to greener pastures while Joseph’s stays with the land. Then as he watches the last water dry up from around the sacred rock. Joseph cuts himself and sees his blood moisten the ground then thunder in the distance. He then sacrifices himself for the land and feels the rain in his dying moments.Belief and how it affects people is the central theme of the novel, though the connection between farmer/rancher and the land goes hand in hand with it. There are also clashes of belief, from Joseph’s paganism to the Christianity of Burton and the local priest who is also in conflict with local Indian beliefs. This theme is the essential to the entire book as every character has their beliefs which make them unique and how they relate to everyone else. But while Steinbeck goes into character beliefs, it doesn’t mean they’re all well rounded characters especially the women though Joseph’s sister-in-law Rama comes close.To a God Unknown is the last of Steinbeck’s early works before his commercial and critical success but gives a glimpse of his later more well-known works. As my first non-school related (The Pearl) Steinbeck work, I found this thought-provoking and intriguing but still a tad “rough” in style. However, if you’re interested in getting to Steinbeck try this book and see if like myself, you’re figuring out which other Steinbeck books you’ll want to read.

To a God Unknown by John SteinbeckTo me this book is about the path of Joseph and Mary but placed in CA valleys rather than in Bethlehem.Lots of reference to things going on in the valley, workers, etc which is typical Steinbeck descriptions and details.I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).

This was the first Steinbeck novel that I have read and it is fantastic. I read that he struggled to finish this book, and that it took much more time than his later, and larger novels, Of Mice and Men and Grapes of Wrath. I think that Steinbeck's struggle to produce a novel is paralleled in the struggles that the protagonist in trying to make the land produce. I've not read any other Steinbeck novels, but the engaging themes of the cycles of the land, the interplay between Christianity and pagan animism, and the conflict between carving out one's own destiny and succumbing to forces greater than oneself made it difficult to put the book down. It was earthy, and gritty, but also spiritual and ethereal.

To a God Unknown, John Steinbeck’s second novel, uses a theme that often appears in his work, one that I’ve come to call the “broken dreams” theme. The short novel also examines closely the deep attachment that farmers and ranchers have to their land and how the same religious superstitions that can so easily comfort some will cause great stress and pain to others.Young Joseph Wayne is the third of his father’s four sons, and he is not at all satisfied with his status as third son. Joseph yearns for a place of his own where he can create a homestead capable of comfortably supporting him and his offspring for generations to come. He has a clear vision and he is determined to make it a reality, so with his father’s reluctant blessing, Joseph leaves Vermont in favor of starting a new life in California. With no firm location in mind, Joseph wanders until he reaches central California’s long valley known as Nuestra Señora. And in Nuestra Señora, with the help of a proud Castilian sidekick, Joseph begins to build his dream home.Things go so well for Joseph that upon his father’s death, he easily convinces his brothers to bring their families to California to join him on the land that he believes will forever be home to the Wayne family. But, as Joseph and his three brothers will learn the hard way, not all dreams come true, and Joseph’s does not even come close to becoming reality. To a God Unknown is a novel filled with mysticism, paganism, and the deeply felt Christian beliefs of a simpler people living in simpler, more isolated times. At times it takes a combination of all three belief systems to bring Joseph any comfort, but in the end, nothing is strong enough to save him and his family from the despair and destruction toward which they are inevitably headed. It is life itself that finally breaks Joseph Wayne, once and forever.To a God Unknown is filled with characters: the many members of Joseph’s immediate family, their spouses and children, and numerous locals of Anglo, Mexican and Spanish descent. Unfortunately, almost none of the characters have much of a ring of authenticity about them, and the tragic plot of the novel loses much of its impact because this. This is not one of Steinbeck’s finest efforts, but it was another good step for him toward becoming the excellent writer that he would ultimately be. Even if for that reason alone, Steinbeck fans will want to give this one a look.

As a confirmed admirer of Steinbeck, perhaps hard to objectify. Early short novel, familiar motif of early California settlement, here by eastern brothers come to find their way. Paganism v Christian tenets is a major theme. Tragedy. Evocative descriptions of landscape. Novel is part of LOA collection, would like to own. Early 2013 read.

Wow! In his book "To A God Unknown" John Steinbeck has created an unforgettable character. Joseph Wayne is a man who comes to feel so close to the earth and all that is thereof, that one might think him to be a native American, but not so. He is the patriarch of a family of brothers who, upon the death of their father, follow him to a valley where, with their help, he builds a fairly self contained ranch. Each brother is married or does marry including Joseph and though he is but the 3rd eldest of the 4 brothers, they all look up to him for decisions. When Joseph first comes to the valley and overlooks it, he sees a huge oak tree and decides to build his house at that site with the tree overshadowing the house. He is fascinated by this tree. He talks to it, he pours wine over it, he places meat in it and over time the tree comes to overshadow everything within Joseph's life. When his son is born, the scene which played out in my mind was that of Kunta Kinte in "Roots" when he held his newborn son up to the sky to be blessed. Joseph does exactly the same thing with his newborn son, but holds him up to the oak tree instead of to the sky. It is as if he were thanking the tree and giving over the nurturing of his son to the tree. When the oak tree dies, things begin to go awry. Deaths, lack of water, feed shortages for the animals, a murder occurs, among many other things. Joseph turns his fixation to a pine grove on the ranch where there is a large moss covered stone with a small but constant spring of fresh water emerging from it. Joseph remains with the rock and while he attempts to keep the moss covering it moist and healthy, eventually the spring dries up as well and the moss dies also.This is not a happy book. But it is a fascinating and thought provoking book. It is a book full of symbolic challenges and a very dark book . I was unable to put it down. I highly recommend it for those not in need of a happy, joyful book. If that is what you are looking for you will not find it here. What you will find is something (if you are like me) the likes of which you have never read before, excepting perhaps in the Bible. This will most likely be one of my top ten of the year. It is, in my mind, a masterful piece of work.

I can't believe the average rating I see for this book (currently 3.91). I thought it was pretty bad and only of interest because Steinbeck wrote it. Unfortunately, it's Steinbeck in larval form. I can't believe he spent 4 years on this book. Great title, not much else.

A wonderful novel that could be called neo-mythology, it is about a family of homesteaders who go to California to establish a ranch. The family patriarch, Joseph Wayne, develops a profound love for the land, and he eventually associates a great oak tree on his ranch with the spirit of his dead father. After the oak tree is destroyed, the land begins to sour. Although more rigid, in terms of dialog and narrative voice, than Steinbeck's later prose, the novel nonetheless utilizes its mythological material to beautifully depict man's relationship to the land.

Steinbeck wrote a number of California novels. The early ones feature lyrical descriptive prose of the land, whether of the Salinas Valley or the Pacific Coast. Clearly Steinbeck loved the area, had a real passion for the valleys, the vegetation, the animals—and the people who lived there. But while almost all of his other California novels that focused on the land and the people who lived on it were gently affectionate, To A God Unknown is a very different bird. The title is taken from an adaptation of a hymn to the god Prajapati from the Hindu Rig-Veda. And while the hymn is innocuous enough, it really is a foreshadowing of what is to come.Steinbeck used his initial chapters and prefaces to set the emotional mood of his works. In To A God Unknown, practically from the first chapter, the mood is one of a foreboding, as Joseph Wayne takes leave of his father who blesses him in a vaguely described but clearly unusual way, deliberately meant, I’m sure, to evoke Hebrew Testament patriarchs. From there on, the mood just intensifies, as Wayne finds land that is his—so much so that there is a passage that can easily be interpreted as his copulation with the earth.From old-timers, Indian/Hispanic residents of the valley, Joseph learns of years when there was a terrible drought—when the land died and the cattle died and the people left. But Wayne is convinced that it will never happen again to his land. There is an old oak on the land, underneath which Wayne builds his house. One day, he feels a presence in the oak, and is convinced that somehow his father is there. He receives a letter from his brothers telling of the passing of the old man and how at the end there was nothing more the father wanted than to see John’s new land. The brothers, two of whom are married, come out to join Joseph in California, buy adjacent land, and jointly farm. One brother, Burton, is a fundamentalist Christian, and in his religious fanaticism lie the seeds of the outcome of this story.The years pass—Joseph takes a wife, Elizabeth—the farms prosper—but still there is no relief from the absolute certainty that disaster is ahead, that some appalling calamity awaits. Partially, Steinbeck achieves this in his dialogue, which seems perfectly natural to the characters but is “off”—somehow not right, strange. The tension becomes practically unbearable; the catastrophe strikes. And the resolution is both inevitable, satisfying, and unsettling at the same time.I did not find To A God Unknown an easy read—on the contrary, I had to put it down for a while because I just could not bear what I knew was coming. This is one of Steinbeck’s most powerful and disturbing works, and will throw off those who are used to his more affectionate books such as Tortilla Flat. Yet it is an outstanding example of how mood can be determined and sustained by great writing.

To a God Unknown is a book full of powerful images. Reading about the mossy stone in its lonely pine grove still makes me shudder, and I am not a superstitious or particularly spiritual person. To the protagonist Joseph, the land is god and god is everything, and it exacts great and terrible payments for the fertility and life that Joseph craves. Like almost of all of Steinbeck’s novels, it is beautifully written and full of vividly drawn people. However in other ways it is very unlike most of his novels. It isn’t funny, not even a little, and it isn’t quite about people. I can’t quite describe what it is about (the interconnectedness of all life? human longing for kinship with nature? fate?), or adequately explain the feelings it evokes in me.

A must read! Best novel, American or otherwise which exists describing the inner spirituality and turmpil of the human soul.

Steinbeck's mystical tale of two brothers,their beliefs, a huge oak, and how their choices affect each others lives. Classic Steinbeck.

Set somewhere in Monterey County, very spiritual, though pagan; intriguing.