I flipped my opinion on this one as we got to the halfway point. It’s my second Steinbeck after East of Eden and it didn’t disappoint.

It started off setting the tone of a bunch of burn out/petty criminals that found themselves in morally ambiguous situations that they always seemed to find just the right justification why doing the wrong or selfish thing was actually the moral thing to do. Steinbeck’s humor fits well with my own and I found myself laughing and smiling throughout the book. But it seemed surface level.

By the second half I know all the characters well and I became more and more attached to their friendship with each other and Danny (who on paper is not a good person) generosity and selflessness towards his friends.

I found the ending to be sticky

as it dealt with the themes of loss. Danny was the main connection all the friends had with each other and his home was their home. And as they could not attend the funeral, they held a funeral of their own and burnt down his home as a way of sending him off and then parting ways. It was a sad ending and it leaves you in a reflective mood.

  all in all, no one does that type of reflective atmosphere better than Steinbeck and even in his early novels, he is already a master. Good book