As the son of a celebrated literary icon, John Steinbeck IV grew up in a privileged world peopled by the literati and the intellectual elite. Sadly, it was also a world of alcoholism, bitter divorce, estrangement, and abuse, on the part of both his mother and father. In this fascinating memoir, the late son and namesake of John Steinbeck writes with great insight and a gift for lyrical expression about his often painful youth. Left unfinished at his untimely death, this testament to his life is here reconstructed by his wife of twelve years. Interweaving her own reminiscences of her life with John Steinbeck IV, Nancy Steinbeck has created an engrossing account from two perspectives: her husband's memories of his chaotic and adventurous upbringing and her own thoughts on their journey together to make a new life apart from the long shadow of a famous father and a troubled past. Nancy Steinbeck writes here about her father-in-law, the celebrated American novelist John Steinbeck, and about his son, her husband of 12 years, the late John Steinbeck IV. Her narrative frames her husband's memoir of life with his father, which was left incomplete at his death in 1991. John Steinbeck IV, a soldier, correspondent, and junkie who at one time lived "on the dregs of his substantial biannual Steinbeck royalty check," writes of his bitter resentments (family and country) amid the landscape of the 1960s and 1970s. His wife, a former therapist, writes of her role as a codependent and describes herself and her husband as tortured "inner angry babies." Squandered privilege, legacy, medication, and intimacy abound, and irresponsibility and bad choices commingle with na vet , delusions, transcendental meditation, and self-absorption. John Steinbeck IV's essays might appeal to readers interested in the the political era and post-traumatic stress syndrome experienced by veterans of the Vietnam War. But all in all, this is writing from a self-imposed trap.DScott Hightower, Fordham Univ., New York Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. Addiction, abuse, and alcoholism all figured in the life of Nobel laureate John Steinbeck, and John Steinbeck IV (1946-91) followed in his father's footsteps. Not as a soldier in Vietnam in 1966--the accident of birth kept his father out of combat in both big wars--but as a writer who returned to Vietnam in '68 as a freelance journalist--experience that accounts for some of this memoir's most interesting chapters. He won acclaim for a Vietnam memoir, In Touch , as well as an Emmy for his work on the CBS documentary, The World of Charlie Company . And he became alcoholic and otherwise addicted, just like his parents. He kept mum about the family secrets almost to the end, starting to acknowledge them only shortly before his death following back surgery. His widow, Nancy, completes this insightful account of a chaotic upbringing and its consequences, rounding it out with her memories of life with him and her thoughts on the truncated journey with him toward a new life. Whitney Scott Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved "...a hopeful and even somewhat spiritual story." -- January Magazine, July 19, 2001 "...adds an interesting voice to an already fascinating story." -- The Writer "...rich with imagery...devoted Steinbeck fans will feel compelled to read this dual memoir." -- Publishers Weekly, January 29, 2001 "It's must reading for anyone who has ever been inspired by John Steinbeck's works..." -- Monterey County Herald, August 3, 2001 "Brilliant, tragic, sad, pathetic, poignant, and powerful indeed. It's hard to come up with modifiers to fit the extraordinary story told in [this book], and the even more extraordinary way that story is told by a writer of tortured and torturing genius. John Steinbeck IV illuminates and transcends his famous father here in penetrating, poetic, and often devastating prose. Everywhere--in the barest facts of a brutally painful childhood and an adulthood marked by both awful self-destruction and stunning insights--the father's ghost leaks through. One steps away from this book in awe of the terrible struggles of this writer's son whose immense talents might have, under different circumstances, even surpassed his celebrated father's. Nancy Steinbeck, with skill and sometimes profoundly disturbing candor, fleshes out her husband's story until, in the end, one feels that nothing has been left out, neither joy nor horror. This book is impossible to put down once w! e pick it up." --Louis Owens, Ph.D., author "John Steinbeck IV illuminates and transcends his famous father in penetrating, poetic, and often devastating prose. Impossible to put down." - Dr. Louis Owens, author of Steinbeck's Re-Vision of America and Grapes of Wrath: Trouble in the Promised Land. John Steinbeck IV (1946-1991) wrote the highly acclaimed Vietnam memoir In Touch and received an Emmy for his work on the CBS documentary The World of Charlie Company .