Living in Steinbeck’s World

Save your drafts as you go! I lost a really long double review for these books due to my own negligence.  Ugh….

 

I moved to Monterey a year and a half ago, the home of Steinbeck and the setting for both of these novels.  Both take place at real locations in the greater Monterey area, though Tortilla Flat is a fictional neighborhood, which added to my interest.  Both novels follow a few main characters who live together and experience the effects of their shenanigans.  Both novels reflect the attitudes of the era in which they were written as well; that is not necessarily a good thing.  Tortilla Flat and Cannery Row both deal with language that would be considered racist and sexist today but was considered normal for the time in which each book was written.  I feel obligated to add that the language does not seem to be used maliciously, rather more like a product of the time.  That is not an excuse for it but a clarifier, if it helps.

I feel like TF was natural predecessor for CR which seems, to me, to have inspired works like A Confederacy of Dunces.  These are not as ridiculous or over the top as ACoD but I think the similarities are there.

If you like Steinbeck, both of these are worth your time.