Book Review

By Derryll White

Steinbeck, John (1935).  Tortilla Flat.

“Nosotros somos paisanos. We are fellow countrymen. We come from the same soil.”  ― Kathi Appelt, The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp

John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California, in 1902.  Now the most populous city in Monterey County, it was a small agricultural town when Steinbeck lived in that area, and was obviously of real importance to him (read ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ and ‘In Dubious Battle’).

Steinbeck moved around, went to New York but finally returned to California and settled in to write ‘Tortilla Flat.’ This novel brought him his first popular success and opened the path to becoming “a giant of American letters.” Before his death in 1968 Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize for Literature and much deserved literary acclaim.

This is definitely a work of its time as it has none of the gender sensibilities demanded today.  It is perhaps a man’s book, written by a man.  Having said that, however, it is a work that speaks eloquently of the condition of man.  And it cuts to the heart of class in America.

Danny is a free-spirited paisano living happily hand-to-mouth.  He sleeps in the welcoming Monterey forest in the summer and in barns with haystacks in the winter.  Tortilla Flat is a community of working poor that accepts Danny and his friends. Danny is bequeathed property and this largesse becomes his downfall. Danny speaks directly to today’s conditions in North America where ready commodities and superfluous image are plunging many into debt and disaster.

The novel is aged but the message is for our times.

********

Excerpts from the novel:

DUSK – It was purple dusk, that sweet time when the day’s sleeping is over, and the evening of pleasure and conversation has not begun.  The pine trees were very black against the sky, and all objects on the ground were obscured with dark; but the sky was as mournfully bright as memory.  The gulls flew lazily home to the sea rocks after a day’s visit to the fish canneries of Monterey.

MORNING – It is a time of quiet joy, the sunny morning.  When the glittery dew is on the mallow weeds, each leaf holds a jewel which is beautiful if not valuable.  This is no time for hurry or for bustle.  Thoughts are slow and deep and golden in the morning.

BELIEF – The treetops in the wind talked huskily, told fortunes and foretold deaths.  Pilon knew it was not good to listen to the talking of the trees.  No good ever came of knowing the future; and besides, this whispering was unholy.  He turned the attention of his ears from the trees’ talking.

GOOD AND EVIL – It is astounding to find that the belly of every black and evil thing is as white as snow.  And it is saddening to discover how the concealed parts of angels are leprous.  Honor and peace to Pilon, for he had discovered how to uncover and to disclose to the world the good that lay in every evil thing.  Nor was he blind, as so many saints are, to the evil of good things.  It must be admitted with sadness that Pilon had neither the stupidity, the self- righteousness, nor the greediness for reward ever to become a saint.  Enough for Pilon to do good and to be rewarded by the glow of human brotherhood accomplished.

– Derryll White once wrote books but now chooses to read and write about them.  When not reading he writes history for the web at www.basininstitute.org.

Article Share