Tortilla Flat (original 1935; edition 1958)

"This is the story of Danny and of Danny's friends and of Danny's house."

And with that first line, I realized why Steinbeck is one of the greatest American writers. His stories are direct, no pretenses, to the point, yet he manages to capture a snapshot of life that sucks you into the story. He did this with Grapes and East of Eden remarkably and he did it with this story as well. So that even though you have no clue about what sort of people lived in Monterey CA in the 30s or even care, you will after reading this. If you met these characters under normal circumstances, you would most likely be disgusted, but Steinbeck makes the reader fall in love with them. Just when you think they can't possibly sink any lower to score a jug of wine, which is their primary focus of life, one of them does something that is so sweet and you realize the depth of the human condition, that inner struggle between good and evil.

But that's almost going too deep, because if nothing else, this story is funny. Laugh-out-loud, read-passages-to-whoever-happens-to-be-in-the-room-with-you-and-is-patient-enough-to-listen funny. And again, Steinbeck has this ability in his humor to make the reader pause and take it in. It's not an in-your-face kind of humor, but more subtle and non-assuming. Sometimes you just want to read a good, old-fashioned story and Steinbeck is the master storyteller. ( )

this is definitely an enjoyable read (humorous and replete with lessons on morality/good and evil) but not quite up to the caliber i've come to expect from steinbeck.

"This morning the fog covered the sky. The sun, after a number of unsuccessful skirmishes, gave up and retired behind the gray folds." ( )

Although it was initially rejected for publication on a number of occasions, this work – a short story cycle - was Steinbeck’s first real critical and commercial success,. He wrote it during 1933 and early 1934, when he was heavily involved in caring for his elderly parents, who were both were very ill. Steinbeck was inspired to write the book by a high school teacher friend, who was partly of Mexican descent. She had been studying the paisanos, poor people of mixed Mexican, Native American and Caucasian ancestry, who lived in a shantytown in the hills above Monterey. Steinbeck's friend told him a number of stories from that community, which was referred to as Tortilla Flat.

One of Steinbeck’s abiding literary passions was Thomas Malory’s [b:Le Morte d'Arthur: King Arthur and the Legends of the Round Table|672875|Le Morte d'Arthur King Arthur and the Legends of the Round Table|Thomas Malory|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1309288301s/672875.jpg|1361856]. He aimed to recreate the spirit of the adventures of the Knights of the Round Table in linked stories about Danny and his friends Pilon, Pablo, Jesus Maria, the Pirate and Big Joe Portagee. Living together in a house inherited by Danny, the friends develop a strong moral code which governs their relationship with each other. This code does not involve sobriety or other indicia of bourgeois respectability, such as respect for private property. While stealing from a friend is punished severely, stealing from those outside the group is not only accepted, it’s encouraged.

There is a lot to like about this work. The satirical, mock-heroic tone is clever, the characters of Danny and his friends are well-realised and sympathetically drawn, there's plenty of humour and Steinbeck’s prose is wonderful. On the other hand, to a modern reader the depiction of the paisanos as heavy drinking, thieving no-hopers – albeit with a strong code of friendship and mutual support – is disconcerting. And the sexual politics of the characters is questionable to say the least.

This is not my favourite Steinbeck. Although I appreciate Steinbeck’s achievement in recreating a version of the myth of the Knights of the Round Table and I love the characters and the writing, the work feels dated, which cannot be said of Steinbeck’s major novels. I listened to an audiobook which was very well narrated by John McDonough. It gets 3-1/2 stars, because anything Steinbeck wrote is worth reading.
( )

Laugh-out-loud funny in many parts for me. The characters are real; they will take up physical space (one of Steinbeck's gifts to his readers). Anyone who has friends, faithfully-flawed and honestly-opportunistic or otherwise, will be able to appreciate the subtlety displayed in the interaction between the inhabitants of Tortilla Flat. ( )

Steinbeck definitely has a way with words making even a group of drifting, purposeless characters appealing in a strange way. Set shortly after the First World War Danny returns to Tortilla Flat to discover that he is now the owner of two houses. For someone who has spent his life basically homeless, spending his days drinking and maybe finding a woman to pass some time with this is a big change, or is it. "Renting" one of the houses out to a friend leads to more and more of Danny''s friends ending up under Danny's roof.

This is more a series of short vignettes of life among this group of characters. Most of whom have a similar lifestyle to Danny. It is a short book, only 176 pages, and doesn't have the depth of some of Steinbeck's other work but there are still instances of Steinbeck's masterly descriptions of nature and people's lives. Not his best work but still worth reading. ( )