Rating: 
Summary: A Quick and Wonderful Read
Review: After reading the Grapes of Wrath recently, I became an instant fan of John Steinbeck. So much that while at the used bookstore last week I bought several more of his novels. It would be strange to call his writing a breath of fresh air since he's hardly current but that's the best way that I can describe it. After reading his work you feel like you truly know his fictional characters. You also feel like you've been exploring a wonderful new region. And if you've actually been to the region he's writing about, the memories and thoughts that are rekindled are so amazingly vivid. Could anything be better. Its like a breath of fresh air! This book was a great collection of short stories that focused certain events in the lives of the residents of the Pastures of Heaven. Each short story focused on only one resident or family but main characters from each of the other short stories would show up in supporting roles. It was an interesting structure that I'd never seen before and I loved it. As usual Steinbeck focused on painting a picture of a region and he did a great job of it here. I've actually been to the Pastures of Heaven at Salinas and I'm sure that I've stood in the very same spot in the hills between Carmel and Salinas where John Steinbeck described the awesome view of the valley. I remember looking over the valley with the same awe when I was there. This isn't a gripping and moving tale like Grapes or Wrath. It's much lighter. But its such a fine piece of writing that I'd recommend it to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: A Quick and Wonderful Read
Review: After reading the Grapes of Wrath recently, I became an instant fan of John Steinbeck. So much that while at the used bookstore last week I bought several more of his novels. It would be strange to call his writing a breath of fresh air since he's hardly current but that's the best way that I can describe it. After reading his work you feel like you truly know his fictional characters. You also feel like you've been exploring a wonderful new region. And if you've actually been to the region he's writing about, the memories and thoughts that are rekindled are so amazingly vivid. Could anything be better. Its like a breath of fresh air! This book was a great collection of short stories that focused certain events in the lives of the residents of the Pastures of Heaven. Each short story focused on only one resident or family but main characters from each of the other short stories would show up in supporting roles. It was an interesting structure that I'd never seen before and I loved it. As usual Steinbeck focused on painting a picture of a region and he did a great job of it here. I've actually been to the Pastures of Heaven at Salinas and I'm sure that I've stood in the very same spot in the hills between Carmel and Salinas where John Steinbeck described the awesome view of the valley. I remember looking over the valley with the same awe when I was there. This isn't a gripping and moving tale like Grapes or Wrath. It's much lighter. But its such a fine piece of writing that I'd recommend it to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: A Patchwork of Stories
Review: Because I am such a fan of John Steinbeck's writing, I feel I am able to say that this is not among his best work. "The Pastures of Heaven" is centered around a beautiful valley in California. After its discovery by a Spanish Corporal, the book goes into the stories that happend on this land. While some of the characters recur, most of the characters are forgotten after their story is told. Steinbeck's character descriptions are the masterwork that is expected of him. However, since there is no running theme aside from the land itself, the reader may have difficulty maintaining interest. Without a main character, it is difficult to be drawn in to the story. Each chapter in the book starts a separate story. Some of the stories are amusing. I found the story in Chapter IV to be the best. Other stories such as Chapter IX seem to lack any coherence with the rest of the stories, but serve only the purpose of forwarding an opinion on a social issue. In the case of Chapter IX, Steinbeck is discussing the ethics of the death penalty. While fans of Steinbeck are certain to read this book, casual fans are unlikely to enjoy it. The Steinbeck fan who reads all of his work is likely to find some of the stories enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: A Patchwork of Stories
Review: Because I am such a fan of John Steinbeck's writing, I feel I am able to say that this is not among his best work. "The Pastures of Heaven" is centered around a beautiful valley in California. After its discovery by a Spanish Corporal, the book goes into the stories that happend on this land. While some of the characters recur, most of the characters are forgotten after their story is told. Steinbeck's character descriptions are the masterwork that is expected of him. However, since there is no running theme aside from the land itself, the reader may have difficulty maintaining interest. Without a main character, it is difficult to be drawn in to the story. Each chapter in the book starts a separate story. Some of the stories are amusing. I found the story in Chapter IV to be the best. Other stories such as Chapter IX seem to lack any coherence with the rest of the stories, but serve only the purpose of forwarding an opinion on a social issue. In the case of Chapter IX, Steinbeck is discussing the ethics of the death penalty. While fans of Steinbeck are certain to read this book, casual fans are unlikely to enjoy it. The Steinbeck fan who reads all of his work is likely to find some of the stories enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: A pleasant surprise, yet unlike Steinbeck's other works
Review: For me, reading Steinbeck is a hit-and-miss endeavor. So "The Pastures of Heaven," undeservedly one of Steinbeck's least-known works, is a pleasant and affecting surprise--a volume of interlinking stories (simply called "chapters") whose mature style and semi-mystical themes remind me, oddly enough, of Garcia Marquez. This collection is not your typical Steinbeck, but it's memorable and astonishingly elegant nonetheless. Although every story in the book has something to recommend it (I can't imagine any reader not liking at least several of them), I especially enjoyed one, labeled Chapter VI. (The story must have had particular resonance for Steinbeck as well, since he later published it separately in a private edition entitled "Nothing So Monstrous" and added an epilogue.) About a widower who faces the community's disapproval of the unorthodox way he raises his son, this edisode will haunt me for some time. The price of the book is worth this "chapter" alone.
Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating stories about people and their problems
Review: More a book of short stories than a real novel, The Pastures of Heaven is one of my favorite of Johnny Steinbeck's. The book consists of ten stories centered around the very different and very realistic groups of people living in the California valley. Bittersweet is a good way to describe most of the stories as most seem to end tragically and hit where it hurts.
Steinbeck, as always, tells the stories as a passive observer with a great eye for detail and leaves it to us to form our own opinions on the characters and events. Each story will have you debating the characters' motives and actions. Easy to read and hard to put down.
Rating:
Summary: Unforgettable.
Review: My mother, not a reader herself but certain that anything sold by the Baptists & titled "The Pastures of Heaven" had to be OK, bought this book from a clearance table at the Baptist Book Store in Dallas TX as a Christmas present for (then) 8-year-old me. I devoured it at 8 and--except for "Travels With Charley"--still love it more than anything else Steinbeck wrote. The crystal-clear (to a grownup) allusions to prostitution & incest went right over my innocent head, but the utterly believable characters, their names, their haunting stories, the image of how that beautiful green valley must have looked to the pioneers after their ordeal of mountains & desert, have stayed with me for almost 60 years. I'm now going to order a copy to replace the barely-hanging-together one still inscribed "From Mom & Dad, Christmas 1944". In fact I'm going to order one for all my 5 children's family libraries.
Rating:
Summary: Next-best Steinbeck?
Review: Pastures of Heaven and The Long Valley are a matched set in the Steinbeck library. The two should probably be included together as a single work. It's difficult to separate the two books because they overlap so. With a writer of the Steinbeck sort a reader might experience difficulty declaring, "This is my favorite." I agree completely. However, if John Steinbeck had never written Of Mice and Men, Tortilla Flat, Cannery Row, Sweet Thursday, and Travels with Charlie, I'd probably have to say Pastures of Heaven and The Long Valley were my favorites
Rating:
Summary: the pastures of california
Review: steinbeck captures the essence of the areas of california that he so much likes to descibe--and all the characters often somewhat described in other novels are here as well
Rating:
Summary: Pastures of Heaven
Review: The novel's structure is a pattern of repetition, but, unlike some things that are repetitious, "The Pastures of Heaven" is by no means boring. Each chapter tells the individual story of an inhabitant of the valley town of Pastures of Heaven. Although each character and situation is different, each chapter follows the same story-line. A Common factor shared in these chapters is the involvement of one man by the name of Burt Munroe. The novel has a general lack of irony (ability to guess the outcome) but this is necessary in order to really understand Steinbeck's intended meaning. Steinbeck is very successful in making the reader experience the feelings of the characters. An emotional connection is built with the reader to the character. When a character is happy, so is the reader. When character is hopeless or empty, the reader is also. At one point in the novel a character is described as being left with "the ghost of a fire" (153), or a former motivation. The reader feels the same dejection as the man. One also developes a strong dislike toward the antagonist in the novel. "Pastures of Heaven" is somewhat depressing and melancholy, but it is a great novel. It's not that long, which is really nice, yet it contains a lot important literary aspects such as a very unique structure and style. I recommend "The Pastures of Heaven" to everyone.
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