Dobrodushnyy yumor i yazvitelnaya satira. Drama i melodrama. Gotika, parodiya na gotiku i dazhe grustnaya skazka dlya vzroslyh, — kazhetsya, zhanrovomu mnogoobraziyu istoriy, sobrannyh pod oblozhkoy «Rayskih pastbisch», prosto net kontsa. Etu knigu Steynbeka, vpervye opublikovannuyu v 1932 godu, mozhno, v suschnosti, schitat romanom tolko ochen i ochen uslovno, — v deystvitelnosti, pered nami kontseptualnyy sbornik rasskazov, obedinennyh mestom deystviya, — tihoy fermerskoy dolinoy v kaliforniyskoy provintsii, — i sudboy pereehavshego tuda «chuzhaka» Berta Monro, ne poboyavshegosya kupit zemlyu, kotoruyu vse obitateli doliny schitayut «proklyatoy». Idut gody. ZHizn v doline idet svoim cheredom. A mestnye zhiteli vse zhdut i zhdut, s zataennym zhguchim interesom, — sbudetsya li proklyatie?..
