The lead character, Danny, suddenly inherits two houses up in the part of town known as Tortilla Flat and, in a parody of the story of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, he invites his various outcast friends one by one to come and stay with him. Set in Monterey, California, the book tells the story of a group of out-of-luck and out-of-work ‘paisanos’ – men of mixed Mexican-Native-American-Caucasian descent – settling back into the swing of everyday life after World War I. Written in 1935, Tortilla Flat is Steinbeck’s fourth novel, but first to gain any kind of mainstream attention. We tend to remember him for his tragic endings - George being forced to kill his only friend, or Rose of Sharon breastfeeding a starving man in a barn – but little is said about Tortilla Flat, the novel with preceded Of Mice & Men and one of the most understated and completely joyous masterpieces of literary history. With a stunning eye for small details within nature and people, few have been able to depict the downfall of The American Dream in a way which is as equally touching as it is disturbing. ![]() After becoming a mainstay of school syllabuses across the world, thousands have fallen in love with his quintessentially simple writing style, and his ability to weave out the lives of real working people cast in the shadow of The Great Depression. Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962, the works of his that first spring to the minds of most would be Of Mice & Men and the devastatingly brilliant The Grapes of Wrath. ![]() ![]() John Steinbeck is one of the most celebrated authors of the 20th century.
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