Considering Steinbeck's undoubted and deserved reputation as one of America's greatest writers, some parts of the book are disappointing. Of course it is basically a travel diary and the descriptions of the towns, the people and the events Steinbeck meets along the way are such as many of us would include, probably in similar style in our own travel diaries. However there are two major exceptions to the above. First, Steinbeck's description of his desparate search for veterinary relief for his dog Charley when he gets ill. And second: his heart-rending description of the scenes he witnesses in segregated 1960's New Orleans, involving the women ("Cheerleaders") and their abusive treatment of a little black girl and her single white escort on her way to school. All too true historically, if impossible to imagine, some fifty years later.