At the end of chapter eight, he notes “End Chapter 8 long son of a bitch too”, writes “halfway” as he reaches page 98, and scrawls END just below his final line. Despite this, his writing gets smaller and smaller as he races to his conclusion, missing commas, capital letters, full stops and quotation marks along the way. The author also notes “Big Writing” at the start, presumably to remind himself to keep his handwriting legible for his typist and proofreader, his first wife Carol Steinbeck. Steinbeck had already tried to write about the migrant experience in L’Affaire Lettuceberg, but had destroyed his previous attempt. Filled with Steinbeck’s tiny handwriting, it opens with the words NEW START, in capitals. Independent press SP Books will release the manuscript version of the novel on 7 October.
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