1. The Moon Is Down
2. Cannery Row
3. Tortilla Flat
4. Of Mice and Men
5. The Pearl
6. The Red Pony
Since this book is really six novels, I will do a mini review of each one in the order that they are in the book (which is the order they were published in, not they order they were written in).
Tortilla Flat - I started this book with a little trepidation. Every time I start reading a book by a famous author, I feel slightly worried that I won't like it. How can I consider myself a good reader if I don't like famous author X? However, I was gratified when I liked this story. It is divided up into 17 bite sized chapters and they chronicle the adventures of a group of friends in the town of Tortilla Flat. It was an enjoyable read and the way the characters were written it seemed a little like br'er rabbit but with people.
The Red Pony - This book was really five short books. They all had the same characters but they wee relatively unrelated. It follows the adventures of a young boy on his family's farm. When I started it, I had hoped it would be similar to Shane. However, there was no such luck. None of the stories have the boy coming out very much the winner and that, combined with the less than happy ending of Tortilla Flat made me wonder if no Steinbeck story was going to end on a positive note. The end of Tortilla Flat was passable because it was one part of the whole story but The Red Pony just threw repeated trials and pains at the kid and it just kept getting worse for him. While it is certainly well written, it is hard to enjoy something where the main character's life just keeps going downhill.
Of Mice and Men - This is arguably the Steinbeck novel, either this or The Grapes of Wrath (which I haven't read yet). I was surprised at how short it was, clocking in at less than 60 pages. Perhaps that just shows how little space he needs to make his ideas known. The story was interesting and unique, certainly an artifact of its time. The lifestyle of his characters is uncommon in modern society. However, after reading the previous two stories immediately before it, the ending tone the ending was going to take was apparent from early on. I will admit that the ending was slightly spoiled by 11/22/63where they put on a play version of the novel. Despite this, the ending still had its surprises.
Tortilla Flat - I started this book with a little trepidation. Every time I start reading a book by a famous author, I feel slightly worried that I won't like it. How can I consider myself a good reader if I don't like famous author X? However, I was gratified when I liked this story. It is divided up into 17 bite sized chapters and they chronicle the adventures of a group of friends in the town of Tortilla Flat. It was an enjoyable read and the way the characters were written it seemed a little like br'er rabbit but with people.
The Red Pony - This book was really five short books. They all had the same characters but they wee relatively unrelated. It follows the adventures of a young boy on his family's farm. When I started it, I had hoped it would be similar to Shane. However, there was no such luck. None of the stories have the boy coming out very much the winner and that, combined with the less than happy ending of Tortilla Flat made me wonder if no Steinbeck story was going to end on a positive note. The end of Tortilla Flat was passable because it was one part of the whole story but The Red Pony just threw repeated trials and pains at the kid and it just kept getting worse for him. While it is certainly well written, it is hard to enjoy something where the main character's life just keeps going downhill.
Of Mice and Men - This is arguably the Steinbeck novel, either this or The Grapes of Wrath (which I haven't read yet). I was surprised at how short it was, clocking in at less than 60 pages. Perhaps that just shows how little space he needs to make his ideas known. The story was interesting and unique, certainly an artifact of its time. The lifestyle of his characters is uncommon in modern society. However, after reading the previous two stories immediately before it, the ending tone the ending was going to take was apparent from early on. I will admit that the ending was slightly spoiled by 11/22/63where they put on a play version of the novel. Despite this, the ending still had its surprises.
The Moon Is Down - In my opinion, this was the stand out novel in the collection. To be fair, this is the closest to the genre I normally read of any in the book. It is a story about a small town that gets invaded. The exact sides are kept obscured, though from some clues in the story (and the time it was written) it seems like it is a German invasion of a French town. The conversion of a normal people to guerrillas a bit at a time is fascinating to watch. In this story, the end is at least marginally more positive.
Cannery Row - This story is the majority of the book, pages-wise. It follows the inhabitants of a part of a town and their day to day trials and experiences. He makes the metaphor of the stories being like a flatworm crawling into a scientist's collection plate. They do add up to a coherent narrative, though there are some offshoots that don't really add anything. Because this story has so many characters, there are some likable characters for everyone. This novel closes out with for the most part, positive feelings, a first for this book. I am sure I will read the sequel, Sweet Thursday, at some point in the near future.
The Pearl - The final novel of the book felt a little like a letdown. After the (relatively) lengthy epic that was Cannery Row this shorter story that was very tight and concise had a very different tone and feel. As I prefer lengthy epics, this was somewhat less enjoyable. In addition, I found the characters and their situation somewhat hard to emphasize with, which always detracts from my enjoyment.
The book as a whole was very enjoyable. The two that I liked the least (The Pearl and The Red Pony) took up only about 20% of the book. However, the book would have been worth it even it was only those two stories and The Moon Is Down, which was superb. One complaint I had with the formatting of this book was that each page contained two justified columns of text rather than the normal full page. This was not really a problem it just made physically reading it slightly more awkward.
In the back of my copy of this book (which was from a used bookstore), there is a quote from Steinbeck, followed by "2:18:58". I don't know what the numbers mean. I considered date started or finished (the book came out in 1953) and also time started or finished but both of those seemed silly. Another option could have been the quotes location in the book but the quote is from another of Steinbeck's works and is not even found within the pages of this book let alone at 58 words into the 18th line of the second novel. The most logical choice seems to be time spent reading the book. It would be an interesting idea to time myself while I read but I feel like there are too many variables to get any meaningful data out of it.
The Pearl - The final novel of the book felt a little like a letdown. After the (relatively) lengthy epic that was Cannery Row this shorter story that was very tight and concise had a very different tone and feel. As I prefer lengthy epics, this was somewhat less enjoyable. In addition, I found the characters and their situation somewhat hard to emphasize with, which always detracts from my enjoyment.
The book as a whole was very enjoyable. The two that I liked the least (The Pearl and The Red Pony) took up only about 20% of the book. However, the book would have been worth it even it was only those two stories and The Moon Is Down, which was superb. One complaint I had with the formatting of this book was that each page contained two justified columns of text rather than the normal full page. This was not really a problem it just made physically reading it slightly more awkward.
In the back of my copy of this book (which was from a used bookstore), there is a quote from Steinbeck, followed by "2:18:58". I don't know what the numbers mean. I considered date started or finished (the book came out in 1953) and also time started or finished but both of those seemed silly. Another option could have been the quotes location in the book but the quote is from another of Steinbeck's works and is not even found within the pages of this book let alone at 58 words into the 18th line of the second novel. The most logical choice seems to be time spent reading the book. It would be an interesting idea to time myself while I read but I feel like there are too many variables to get any meaningful data out of it.
Overall, I would give this book an 89%.
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