Steinbeck Book Club: Tortilla Flat Introduction Part I

This month, we are starting our third Steinbeck novel for this year. I am dramatically behind my intended reading schedule, but we’ll keep moving at a moderate pace and making our way through his books.

Tortilla Flat represents a major pivot point in Steinbeck’s career. It’s his first novel to garner him literary acclaim and recognition. If the book hadn’t attained the success that it did, it is not inconceivable that Steinbeck would have abandoned writing as a career trajectory. Their financial situation was not great, relying on support from his parents. They lived in a small house in Monterey near the Cannery Row area and adjacent to the woods, both settings featured prominently in this book.

This book was written during the Great Depression, complicating the humor present in the work. Steinbeck admired left-wing populism of the time and the novel seems to oscillate between romanticization of the poverty and critique of the lives and choices of the poor featured here.

In terms of the writing of the book, the novel was intended as a kind of menagerie of poignant and absurd vignettes of life in a specific place. Carol Henning, his first wife, played a major role in the editing of the novel. She also encouraged Steinbeck in certain directions with the tone and style of the novel.

A friend of Steinbeck, Pascal Covici, had recently joined the publisher Viking Press. Steinbeck sent him the manuscript and Covici immediately recognized its potential. Covici’s clairvoyance was confirmed as the plaudits and praise began pouring in from the California Commonwealth Club to the New York Times. Steinbeck initially basked in his first major success before growing frustrated with interpretations of the novel. The perception that the novel was a comedy or satire did not sit well with his more complicated views of poverty. After this point, Steinbeck would adopt a more staid tone in his next three novels.

In the next post, we will discuss the characters, structure of the novel, the plot, themes, and offer some guidance for reading.