Tortilla Flat
Novel by John Steinbeck, published in 1935. The first of his novels to be set in the Monterey peninsula of California, this episodic, humorous tale of the adventures of a group of pleasure-loving Mexican-Americans contains some of Steinbeck's most interesting characters. The men drink, steal, chase women, make music, and dance until they are eventually undone by a climactic fire.   --The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature