Rating: 
Summary: A Little Pointless At Times, But Also Very Touching
Review: I would have rated this book a little higher, but John Steinbeck's reputation precedes him, so you have to hold this novel and this author to a higher standard. Though it's a pretty good book, it certainly isn't Steinbeck's best work.There really isn't a tremendous amount of plot in this novel. It's about a man who enherits some money and real estate from his dead grandfather, and how he and his friends all happily live together in a state of poverty of which they are not aware. They drink, they play around, and they generally have a good time living with the minimal material possessions bred from their minimal ambitions. Their nieve lifestyle is pathetic, yet charming. The novel really isn't a story as much as it is a commentary. What exactly is the author's opinion about the "blissfulness" of poverty? That's debatable. I tried to find a deeper meaning in the miniscule amount of plot that the book contains, and I'm having a hard time doing it. So, I have to conclude that while the book is funny and even touching at times, it's largely pointless. This book really isn't the best way for a reader to be introduced to Steinbeck's work. I recommend that the reader consider reading "Of Mice And Men" or "Grapes Of Wrath" before reading this novel. Having a little background on the author's style is the only way to enjoy this book.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting group in interesting situations
Review: Steinback does something very few people could do. He writes an interesting novel with some uninteresting people. He starts off with Danny, a man who fortunately or unfortunately inherits two houses. A fire by his friend leaves him with only one house, and eventually a multitude of friends finds themselves staying with him. I'd like to consider Danny and his friends the original slackers, the pre-cursors to Beavis and Butt-Head. The sole purpose of Danny and his friends' life is to drink wine and leave all their cares behind. They go through, talk about, or hear about all sorts of little adventures. Some of these adventures revolve around getting drunk, some are more serious, and some are even more hilarious. Through this series of time, Danny and his friends foster friendship and camaraderie, and even at points seem to develop a conscience. Heartwarming, funny, and in the end, tragic, this is a decent novel. Unfortunately, this novel just didn't have the pace of which a good book should. Also, the characters, with the exception of the ending and of the Pirate, didn't elicit much emotion, sympathy, or intrigue. In the end, this book is about those characters, and could have delivered more. I would marginally recommend this tale about some poor paisanos in a poor area called Tortilla flat. Though not captivating, it is interesting and original.
Rating: 
Summary: "Tortilla Flat"
Review: John Steinbeck creates a unique novel that describes a friendship between a group of friends. This circle of friends revolves around the main character, Danny. Danny inherits two houses and he shares them both with all of his friends. His sense of friendship and kindness to his loyal comrades helps them all to escape their toil in poverty. Friendship gives everyone the support that they deserve in a time of need; in "Tortilla Flat", John Steinbeck shows how important friendship is in a small circle of friends. Tortilla Flat is full of setting from front to back. The story is set above the town of Monterey on the California coast, in the poverty stricken district of Tortilla Flat around the early 1900's. Danny and his friends are unemployed drunks who live to find another dollar so they can salvage a gallon of wine from the local tavern. They share with everyone, and their loyalty to each other makes every stranger become a companion. The unique setting of homelessness and lack of money forces the characters to unite in friendship and share their possessions with one another in order to meet their psychological needs. In the book, Danny speaks of sharing his shelter with his old friend Pilon, 'Pilon, I swear, what I have is thine. While I have a house, thou hast a house. Give me a drink.'(pg. 11) Steinbeck successfully paints a beautiful picture of the whole culture, as well as the surroundings. His incredible talent is reflected on every page of this book to keep you itching for more about this heart-warming tale of friendship.
Rating: 
Summary: An Arthurian Marvel
Review: Tortilla Flat was an actual place in Carmel that John Steinbeck placed in Monterey. He took some stories about the paisanos (a mixture of Spanish, Indian, Mexican and Caucasian bloods) that lived in this marginal place consisting of shacks and, using the style of the Arthurian legends, spun these tales about Danny and his friends. They are meant to be humorous and serious at times, and the characters are larger than life. Certainly, no one could live as Danny, Pilon, Jesus Marie, Big Joe Portagee and the Pirate, consuming wine by the gallon, eating whatever they can steal and taking up and whoring with any woman they want, but this is hardly the point. The tales have an epic proportion to them like Malory's knights of yore but from the vantagepoint of the New World. This makes Tortilla Flat an entertaining and cleverly written book. Danny is the central character of the book and the anchor that holds his group of friends together. They may be vagabonds but they have a moral code. An example: the Pirate lives with five dogs in a chicken coop. He takes some kindling wood into town each day and receives a quarter for it. He does not spend the money but hoards it. The paisanos estimate it to be $100 and think of stealing it, but are unable to follow the Pirate to where he has hidden the money. To get around this problem they invite the Pirate to live with him and try to discover the whereabouts of the money by suggesting it could be stolen quite easily. The Pirate eventually brings the money to the paisanos and discloses why he is saving it: the money is to fulfill a promise made to St. Francis to present a golden candlestick to a church in the saints honor. Why? Because the saint cured an illness one of his dogs had. Once the paisanos know the money is for a religious purpose they guard it diligently. The chapter in Tortilla Flat when the Pirate's vow is fulfilled is one of the most beautiful and memorable in the book. This is a beautifully written book filled with humor and pathos. Mr. Steinbeck was criticized in writing this book by some readers who could not enter into the spirit of the book thinking he was glorifying the free and easy lives of Danny and company. This was not his intention; he was only telling stories inspired by the free spirits of the paisanos. Unfortunately for us, this criticism was bitter and Mr. Steinbeck never undertook such a book again. It is our loss that he could not give us another Tortilla Flat.
Rating:
Summary: You can't be too serious . . .
Review: You can't be too serious if you expect to enjoy this book. Much of what is good about, and to some degree wrong with, Tortilla Flat can be explained by its origin. As a young reporter, John Steinbeck was in the habit of reviewing the local police blotters in Monterey. As a result, Tortilla Flat is based on seperate, unrelated, events that occured in an impovrished place, during an impovrished period of our history. Tortilla Flat can be described as a loosely woven tapestry of seventeen separate short stories set in post WWI to pre WWII Monterey. Each of the seventeen chapters is introduced by such subtitles as, "How Danny, home from the wars, found himself an heir, and how he swore to protect the helpless.", or, "How Danny was ensnared by a vacuum-cleaner and how Danny's Friends rescued him". These stories, taken from the police blotters, are woven together as a retelling of the Arthurian legends, with paisanos (Described by Steinbeck as ". . . a mixture of Spanish, Indian, Mexican, and assorted caucasian bloods . . .". Arguably every man, race or creed.) comprising the round table. Arthur is embodied by Danny, who to some degree serves as the groups "moral compass". Due to the episodic nature of the book, each of the seventeen chapters can stand on its own. Tortilla Flat is primarily comic in nature, but like much comedy the laughter often arises from painful situations. If taken litteraly this is a book about a group of scheming drunks. However, if taken as intended, Tortilla Flat is pure entertainment. It is a book that begs to be read out loud. I can remember a rainy weekend when my wife and I had a lot of fun taking turns reading this book to eachother. John Steinbeck describes Cannery Row as "... the gathered and scattered, tin and iron and rust and splintered wood, chipped pavement and weedy lots and junk heaps, sardine canneries of corrugated iron, honky-tonks, restaurants and whore-houses ...". Tortilla Flat is the poor neighborhood just up the street.
Rating:
Summary: Better Choices Abound
Review: Being a huge fan of the great works of Steinbeck (The Grapes of Wrath,Of Mice and Men, etc...), I was very excited to receive a beautiful old copy of this book as a present. On the whole, however, the story is somewhat dissappointing, especially compared to Steinbeck's later works. While Steinbeck's later works are marked by an exceptionally intricate and thorough examination of theme, Tortilla Flat was disjointed. I realize that the story is perhaps meant to be presented as a series of small vignettes, yet these vignettes occasionally contradict each other. While the theme of ownership vs. friendship is evident, Steinbeck never really accomplishes a complete and satisfying examination of the theme. The book still is of great value to Steinbeck fans. Being Steinbeck's first book, it really illustrates his progression as a writer. For example, where his later work expertly employed the common language of his characters, Steinbeck's characters in Tortilla Flat vacillate betwee a sort of Shakespearean old English and a more common, modern language. Another interesting aspect of the book is the "Communist" view that individual ownership corrupts friendship and humanity. Especially in light of the controversy over Communist themes in Grapes of Wrath, it is somewhat striking to see that Steinbeck was in fact exploring similar themes a decade earlier. Tortilla Flat is a good book for Steinbeck fans to study. For those just wanting to read a Steinbeck, something like Grapes of Wrath is a much more applicable, well-written classic.
Rating:
Summary: Best Book Ever
Review: I thought this was such a cool book, it is short but not too short. I usually take a real long time to read a book but Tortilla Flat only took me less then a week. This book was written in 1935 so I thoght it would be not interesting and written in a different style that would be hard for me to follow, but it wasn't at all, it was written just like modern books I read.
This is a story about Danny and his freinds who have wild experinces in Tortilla Flat a small village outside of Monteray, California.
I would reccomend this book to anybody that knows how to read. This is the best out of three John Steinbeck books that I have read, so go out and read this book.
Rating:
Summary: A puckish and picaresque little romp
Review: I used to have this book, years ago, and just re-got it and re-read it this weekend. The first time I read it, I thought it was racist and demeaning. Since then, I've lived with guys just like these, proving that slack has no color. I was able to put aside the earlier preconceptions and just enjoy reading about Danny and his band of friends, whose lives revolve around women, slacking off, and drinking. The book is a very loose retelling of Arthurian myth, loose enough that I didn't catch it upon first read, centering around Danny, who brings all his friends to live with him in the large, free house he's inherited (Danny's "throne" is his bed, which nobody but him is allowed to use). The work's only drawback is its looseness of narrative -- it reads more like a collection of short stories than a novel with any sort of overall plot. Even so, I do think it's one of the more accessible Steinbeck works. Definitely I'd recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Why would you read this book?
Review: This is by no means a bad book, but unless you are trying to read everything Steinbeck wrote, why would you read it? I am by no means a Steinbeck scholar and I can think of 6 books he wrote that are much better than this one. You have to be willing to stick with this one, which gets slow and goes off on tangents at some points, in order to get to the ending. The moral of the story, so to speak, is pretty apparant all along and the end is really not that much of a surprise. All in all, I would recommend this only to people who are either fanatics of Steinbeck or who are particularly interested in the history of Monterrey, CA. area.
Rating: 
Summary: A practice run for "Cannery Row"...
Review: We'll consider this a Steinbeck "practice" novel. It made a story he published some ten years later all the more better for telling. Tortilla Flat is a Monterey, California barrio that happens to house a few derelicts of society. Danny, the King of the eternally useless inherits his palace from his grandfather and shares it with his downtrodden pals. These princes of the lower-society gentry work hard every day in every way in a solid attempt to do absolutely nothing. And to the victor go the spoils as they succeed in surviving and celebrate with as much wine as can possibly be consumed in a lifetime. Steinbeck attempts to tell a story whereby the nature of the characters make for the most interesting part of the story, but he can't quite pull it off. Dear reader finds that he must muddle through a lot of pages to get to a surprising ending. But overall, the real treat comes when years later he tells a similar story of a similar seaside berg with a host of interesting inhabitants in the hilarious story, "Cannery Row."
| 
