The “Play Novelette” format is discussed in the foreword to Burning Bright.
Steinbeck says he experimented with the Play Novelette form in three works -
Of Mice and Men
Burning bright
The Moon Is Down
He said he finds it hard to read a play in the traditional play/script format. He prefers to write Play Novelettes that are easy to read in story format, but can easily be turned into a play (or film) by utilizing the dialogue. These are very short books.
The Moon is Down selection was quickly available on Libby. I believe it was both a book and a film. I found it listed under Steinbeck’s list of plays (bottom of this post).
There were two people waiting after me, so I finished it quickly, an easy task since it was only four hours long. The 1.2 speed did not distort the narrator’s voice (4/1.2 = 3.333).
Reading The Moon is Down (1942), a propaganda piece about a realistic invasion, I immediately thought of Lampasas, Texas and their mock invasion mentioned in the novel The Briar Club.
https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/how-one-texas-town-fell-to-communist-rule-in-the-1950s/
I liked this unusual piece. The Moon is Down is well written and thought provoking. There is a very good essay at the end of the audio book, explaining the history of the novel, The Moon is Down.
Burning Bright was listed under Steinbeck’s novels (bottom of this post). But it is actually “a play in story form”. It was also short at just under 3 hours. I had to buy from Audible, it was not available thru any of the library systems.
This was not my favorite, but was interesting. The story is centered in the infertility of the man in a happy marriage.
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I maintain accounts on GoodReads and StoryGraph, thanks to youngest getting me organized.
StoryGraph -
In each book post, I utilize https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/
This is a wonderful website that helps clarify the publication order of books and verifies book series. I use this website because there are no spoilers. But if I need a description, I can click over using the links, easily. There are also author bios.
