Danny's Houses

The focus of much of the action in Tortilla Flat, Danny's house is a shabby wooden structure covered with flaking whitewash overgrown with an untrimmed rose of Castile, a rickety porch with rocking chairs, and an overgrown, garbage-strewn back yard. Nevertheless, this property in the poor Tortilla Flat section of Monterey, CA, is, according to the Preface, a place of "sweetness and joy, philanthropy and, in the end, a mystic sorrow," not unlike the mythic Round Table. The narrator tells the story to prevent future generations from thinking that Danny, his friends, and the house itself are unreal legends.

Danny's house is one of two identically-laid out houses that he inherits after World War I from his late grandfather. Originally, he rents the smaller house to his friend, Pilon, but it accidentally burns down, so Pilon and two friends he has taken in as tenants all...