Tortilla Flat

So you start out with a bunch of despicable characters who couldn't possibly have any stories worth telling as their lives are seemingly empty except when they happen to have some wine. Steinbeck proves us wrong. How many times have you seen a homeless drunkard sitting by the road staring at nothing and felt sorry for the guy? Steinbeck teaches us that there is no need to be, because that man is staring at the world in its entirety, and that man has more time than you'll ever have to tell the stories of the world.

It is difficult to stop reading this book no matter how painful it is at times, but it ended well and I wouldn't have preferred any other ending. I would say this is one of Steinbeck's best.

I really enjoyed this book because of its parallels to King Arthur and his court, and the idea of group friendships needing a lynchpin, so to speak; the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I found the stories to be comical, sorrowful, sensual, silly, and at times quite serious.

Beloved scoundrels
stealing what isn't nailed down,
quenching endless thirsts.