"Tortilla Flat was, I believe, John Steinbeck's third novel first published in 1935, and it marked his first of many commercially successful novels. As with many of his novels it is set in Monterey, California. It tells the story of Danny and his friends, a group of paisanos - a word of Spanish origin referring to poor countrymen. At the start of the novel, in the preface, we see them leaving to join the military during World War I, but by the first chapter they have returned. ... Tortilla Flat follows the adventures of the friends, some rather extravagant, some essentially rather mundane, but even so this book is such a pleasure to read. It's fun and lighthearted, very comic at times, but above all else it was very warm and vibrant. It's a novel about friendship and we see how, in Monterey where people are poor and are possessions are few, friends and small communities are structured outside the more familiar class system. ... But it's a beautiful one, very simple and even honest to a degree (though one must acknowledge the reader may be uncomfortable with the portrayal of paisanos as layabouts), and yet again I am reminded that Steinbeck is one of the greatest authors of the 20th Century."
On Books
Guardian: John Steinbeck's Tortilla Flat is not for 'literary slummers'
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