arkhaine's Full Review: John Steinbeck and John McDonough - Tortilla Flat
Paisanos are a funny bunch. They are a “mixture of Spanish, Indian, Mexican and assorted Caucasian blood.” They love wine, particularly when it comes in a gallon jug. Working is a somewhat negotiable affair, with the negotiations often working in the Paisanos' favour. They like to steal, though they consider it more of a judicial sharing, and they love a good fight. A group of them also happen to be the protagonists of John Steinbeck's early novel Tortilla Flat, which helped gain him national awareness. It is something of a picaresque novel, a collection of loosely connected stories concerning Danny, Pablo, Pilon, the Pirate and others as they drink, carouse and get into adventure.
The novel opens with a short preface describing paisanos and their habits, and then introduces us first to Danny and Pilon, and then the rest. Upon returning from serving in the Great War, Danny has the good fortune to inherit two houses, which means that he and his friend will no longer have to sleep out in the open or in tree trunks. Danny decides to rent the second house to Pilon for fifteen dollars a month, which is a wonderful bargain except Pilon has never had fifteen dollars before in his life. Nonetheless, he accepts, and while he feels guilty for never paying his friend, it certainly doesn't stop him from drinking Danny's wine and eating his food. Soon, though, he encourages some of their other friends to live there, charging each one fifteen dollars a month to cover his own rent. None ever pay, of course, and eventually they decide to 'let' the house burn down so that they don't have to worry about it. Danny is pleased, because it relieves him of half the burden that comes with being a landowner, and it also disentangles him from the increasingly amorous Mrs Morales, who was interested in him purely because of his landed wealth.
And so it goes. The characters are ignorant and stupid, but crafty, and their schemes never really seem to hurt anyone – if stealing, arson, whoring and general ribaldry could be considered harmless behaviour. They have a larger than life quality to them, and their antics are anything but realistic. Steinbeck is revelling in the freedom and lawlessness of California in the post-WWI and pre-prohibition times, spinning tales purely for the enjoyment of the telling, and the reading. Coming straight after the much weightier and serious To a God Unknown, this is a work in which Steinbeck has very much let his hair down.
Tortilla Flat employs the not always successful literary technique of having the characters function as ironic commentary on a prior work. In this case it is Arthurian legend, specifically Le Morte D'Arthur. At significant junctures in the tale a character will speak with thee's and thou's, and the others will respond in kind. Their stories are large and expansive, and there is a sense that their personalities fill the town of Tortilla Flat to the very brim. When Danny gives a woman he admires a vacuum cleaner (never mind that the town has no electricity) the whole town is abuzz with thoughts of – not marriage, no! - envy, outrage, and concern that someone is giving themselves airs. And Dolores Engracia Ramirez, it is true, goes to extremes – she vacuums her house every day, after sweeping it of course. Her conversation revolves around the use of her vacuum cleaner, “Louise Meater cut her hand this morning, not three hours after I had been pushing the sweeping-machine.” Danny's friends come to the rescue, stealing the vacuum cleaner and selling it for a few gallons of wine. He is happy, because he was getting sick of Dolores' belief in her own self-importance. Again, and so it goes. Things happen, but nothing really changes.
The strongest character in the novel is not in fact Danny, who fades into the background while his friends cavort, or Pilon, who is the probable leader of the group, but the Pirate. He is a simple man, less intelligent than the rest, and possesses a heart absent of guile. He shares his portion of Danny's house with his dogs, whom he loves dearly. He is the only one of the paisanos who regularly works, and all of his money is saved toward buying a thousand dollar gold candlestick for San Francisco. At twenty-five cents a day, he has been saving for some time. At first, the paisanos want to steal his money, but soon they are helping him (not with money, of course...) to achieve his goal. When the Pirate finally manages to purchase the candlestick and presents it to the Saint, there is cathartic release. Here is friendship at its very best, wholesome and selfless and true. After the ceremony, the Pirate's feelings are strong. “That day his memory was inspired. The sun found interstices in the foliage and threw brilliant patterns on the pine-needle carpet. The dogs sat patiently, their eyes on the Pirate's lips. He told everything the priest had told, all the stories, all the observations. Hardly a word was out of place...The dogs leaped up at his tone. Their mouths opened and their tails threshed joyfully.”
Tortilla Flat won Steinbeck the California Commonwealth Club's Gold Medal, and while it helped make his name, it would not be until Of Mice and Men a few years later that he would become a critical and commercial success. It is something of an oddity within his oeuvre, a rollicking tale by a man who was almost always serious and concerned for the social well-being of the poor and downtrodden. At times Tortilla Flat is funny, and it is certainly never dull. But, there is a lack of weight to the novel. Nothing really comes of it, and the medieval language feels unnecessary and forced. There isn't much too Tortilla Flat, and while the paisanos are enjoyable creations, and while their larger-than-life antics are fun to read, the novel itself feels unsubstantial. To my knowledge Steinbeck never returned to the picaresque, though his fascination with Arthurian legend remained strong, culminating in the (unfinished) collection, The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights.
Like the knights of the Round Table, the dreamers who gather at Danny s house share joy and fellowship, triumphs and sorrows.More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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