Tortilla Flat

With graceful pacing and grandfatherly tenderness John McDonough reads Steinbeck's tribute to the simple paisanos of TORTILLA FLAT. One imagines it a tenderness born of understanding. His voice breaks at the pain, shakes at the outrage, and smiles at the gentle mercies the paisanos render one another. TORTILLA FLAT, however, is no Camelot, as some critics have said. Danny and his friends are not Arthur and his knights, but their return from the war as heroes of a sort, Danny's inheritance of a house and the adventures they pursue are brightened by the quiet magic of McDonough's reading. P.E.F. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine


John McDonough's reading of this marvelous Steinbeck novel is not without its flaws, but they don't much diminish the charm of the performance. Tortilla Flat follows the exploits of Danny and his paisano friends, who live in squalid poverty and blissful idleness near Monterey, California. McDonough does not overact, and his gentle touch is well suited to the story. His accents and voices, however, are strangely inconsistent, as if he eventually tires of giving each character his own. Nonetheless, McDonough makes it work by bringing out the novel's humor and poignancy in all the right places. D.B. (c) AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine