Steinbeck's last full-length work is an exploration of the country he had become famous for writing about. Suspecting that he might have lost touch with America, his subject for the previous 20 years, he set out at the age of 60 on a 10,000-mile journey of rediscovery, travelling from coast to coast and back again in a specially converted pick-up truck, with only his dog, Charley, for company. This travel book describes his search for the American identity.