Book Review: Tortilla Flat | The Beachside Resident

By: Mark James

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TORTILLA FLAT
By John Steinbeck
Penguin Classics; 208 pages; $13

John Steinbeck is one of a handful of American authors awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in the last century. He is perhaps best known for “The Grapes of Wrath,” and to a lesser extent, “Of Mice and Men.” While those novels are dramatic in nature, the lesser-known “Tortilla Flat” features a cast of lovable losers even Tom Joad could both laugh at and relate to.

The novel revolves around a group of men who spend most of their time looking for wine and two or three dollars rent to pay their friend Danny, who inherits two houses in the Tortilla Flat area of Monterey, California. Danny allows his friends to live in one — at least until they burn it down and move into the remaining house with him. Pilon, Pablo, Big Joe Portagee, and Jesus Maria are all ne’er-do-wells looking for an easy buck or gallon of wine, but their interest always lies in the well-being of others, particularly Danny.

“Tortilla Flat” is not so much a novel as a collection of stories. In one episode, Dolores “Sweets” Ramirez, a woman “whose eyes could burn behind a mist with a sleepy passion which those men to whom the flesh is important found attractive and downright inviting,” takes an interest in Danny. Danny succumbs to her wiles and “assaulted her virtue with true gallantry and vigor.” He “procures” a vacuum cleaner for her, even though she has no electricity, never mind that the vacuum cleaner has no motor. Sweets is proud of her appliance and can be seen sweeping her floor every day. She “did not neglect Danny,” who now spends every night at her house. His friends grow worried about him, and “reprocure” the vacuum cleaner to save Danny from this selfish woman.

Danny is the lone Caucasian, and a revered figure to the others. In their eyes, he has suffered much through the war and the bad luck that always befalls them. The story collection finally comes together as a book in the end when Danny falls into depression and his friends organize a party in his honor to cheer him up. Danny grows to superhuman size through the night, walks outside in the early morning, and engages in what is described as a monumental fight with an unknown being. No one witnesses the fight that he loses, but all the friends seem to recognize it as a fight for each of them. The story is set in the years immediately after World War I, and the characters are all veterans. Their daily grind is to find wine, but Steinbeck infuses his characters with a certain nobility by using Shakespearean dialogue: “where hast thou been?”; “art thou thirsty?” etc. Doth thou understand? It can be read on many levels — as an indictment of the treatment of war veterans, as a social commentary that is a ubiquitous Steinbeck theme, or as a simple tragicomedy.

“Tortilla Flat” was Steinbeck’s first critical and commercial success. It’s difficult on the surface to find any redeeming qualities in the characters, but the noblesse oblige that would come full force in Tom Joad and George are beginning to emerge. It’s a book that can be put down for a few months and picked up again without losing any of the flow — and one that should never be considered for a yard sale. — Mark James