The Winter of Our Discontent

Ethan Allen Hawley descends from one of the old families of New Baytown, but now works as a clerk in the grocery store his family once owned. His wife and children want the security and status that money appears to promise, while neighbours and business acquaintances suggest increasingly dishonest routes back to prosperity. Ethan begins to plan betrayals that he can disguise as intelligence, opportunity or justice.

Set around Easter and Independence Day in 1960, Steinbeck’s final novel examines how ordinary moral concessions accumulate within a culture that measures success financially. Ethan’s schemes involving his employer Marullo, his alcoholic childhood friend Danny Taylor and the local bank expose the personal cost of treating loyalty, law and reputation as assets that can be traded.