Literary quarterlyThe Strand Magazinejustpublisheda late unearthed John Steinbeck short level that is so charming it ’ll have you asking yourself “ Did John Steinbeck unquestionably write this ? ”
He emphatically did . The 1500 - word piece , title “ The Amiable Fleas , ” was part of a 17 - story series he penned for the French newspaperLe Figaroin the mid-1950s , but it ’s never been release in English until now . In it , Mr. Amité , an anxiety - ridden chef at the fancied restaurant The Amiable Fleas , seeks his 2nd Michelin star with the help of his appreciation - testing cat , Apollo . The kitchen is fraught with small calamities on the twenty-four hour period of the Michelin examiner ’s repast , which culminates in a fight between Mr. Amité and Apollo , after which Apollo leaves . Without the cat ’s culinary instinct to guide him , the repast is dreadful . allot toThe New York Times , “ then comes a plot of ground twist , a second chance , and a revelation about a secret factor . ”
The Strand Magazine ’s managing editor , Andrew F. Gulli , hired a researcher who uncover the story among the rare rule book and manuscripts at the University of Texas at Austin ’s Harry Ransom Center . “ From the perspective of a short story editor program , this one really interest me , ” he toldThe New York Times . “ There was something ecumenical about it with the gourmet , the khat , the phratry conflict , and the tension . ”
The level also includes a witty delineation of the intellectuals who frequented The Amiable Fleas , whichThe New York Timesposits may be establish on the real - living Parisian café Les Deux Magots , where artists and generator used to congregate in the early 1900s . There ’s a mountain lion who paint with invisible ink , an architect who detest vaporize buttressing , and a poet who writes such obscure poetry that he himself does n’t understand it .
Though such a whimsical shade may seem out of character for an author applaud for cloggy works likeThe Grapes of WrathandEast of Eden , one Steinbeck bookman call up otherwise . Susan Shillinglaw , a San Jose State University English prof and former conductor of its Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies , toldThe New York Timesthat Steinbeck “ liked to spin up funny stories and he had a great sense of sense of humor … What ’s important about this is his range — that he could spell something airheaded as well as be fundamental . I call up that sort of effortless charm is characteristic Steinbeck . ”
[ h / tThe New York Times ]
