Cheryl Hieber’s Reviews > The Short Novels of John Steinbeck > Status Update

Cannery Row. A small town with impoverished inhabitants who display commraderie to accomplish their goals. Somewhat humorous (a lot of alcohol gets consumed) with a bit of poetry thrown in.

The Moon is Down is a story about an invasion of a small town and how ordinary people will band together to stand strongly against authoritarian violence to preserve democracy.

Finished Of Mice and Men. The poem "There is a saying that the best laid plans of mice and men can sometimes go awry. That is exactly what happens in this story hence the title I presume. Could be that Lenny was the mouse and George the man. Surprised by the ending, but enjoyed the story.

Foregoing comments related to The Red Pony.

A series of four stories of a young boy's various stages of life. I thought there could have been another chapter or two, then I discovered there had been one entitled "Junius Maltby" that was omitted by the publisher and which had been taken from an earlier Steinbeck writing "The Pastures of Heaven. Going to seek that one out next.

Finished Tortilla Flat. This is a story of a man home from WWI who, with his group of friends that are all homeless vagabonds until he takes them in to his inherited shack, drink cheap wine by the gallon, and steal for most of their earthly needs. Often they did their illegal deeds only to help others and then rationalized it as being in God's favor. Kept you wondering what they were going to do from day to day.