A little citation from Steinbeck

I just wanted to share a little quote from Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath.

A piece of music…

A harmonica is easy to carry. Take it out of your hip pocket, knock it against your palm to shake out the dirt and pocket fuzz and bits of tobacco. Now it’s ready. You can do anything with a harmonica: thin reedy single tone, or chords or melody with rhythm chords. You can mold the music with curved hands, making it wail and cry like bagpipes, making it full and rounds like an organ, making it as sharp and bitter as the reed pipes of the hills. And you can play it and put it back in your pocket. It is always with you, always in your pocket. And as you play, you learn new tricks, to pinch the tone with your lips, and no one teaches you. You feel around—sometimes in the tent door after supper when the women are washing up. Your foot taps gently on the ground. Your foot taps gently on the ground. Your eyebrows rise and fall in rhythm. And if you lose it or break it, why, it’s no great loss. You can buy another for a quarter.

I recommend this book, but be aware that —quoting again John Steinbeck—: “I’ve done my damndest to rip a reader’s nerves to rags, I don’t want him satisfied.” This is exactly how I felt after finishing this book.

Posted on 2021-01-09