Tells a story about the strange relationship of two migrant workers, who are able to realize their dreams of an easy life until one of them succumbs to his weakness for soft, helpless creatures and strangles the farmer's wife. Tragic tale of a retarded man and the friend who loves and tries to protect him. With illustrations from the movie starring John Malkovich and Gary Sinise.

Presents fifteen stories by twentieth-century American author John Steinbeck, set in California's Salinas Valley and capturing the experiences of the country farmer and the town laborer; includes such works as "The Murder," "Chrysanthemums," "Flight," and "The Red Pony."

Among the most memorable characters John Steinbeck created in his novels set in the farm country and fishing towns of central California are those who appear in the two works contained in this volume. Danny, Pilon, Pablo, Big Joe, and their disreputable buddies and sweethearts who live in the uphill district of Monterrey called Tortilla Flat (although it isn't flat at al) are in a strange way a kind of band of heroes, and Steinbeck portrays their...

The saga of three generations of the Trask and Hamilton families in the early 1900's in Northern California.