The more I read of Steinbeck, the more I like him.  These stories are uniformly good, with a couple that are excellent, notably The Chrysanthemums, The White Quail, The Raid, The Harness, and Johnny Bear.

All but one takes place in or near the Salinas Valley in Northern California, and there are few authors who are better at giving a sense of place.  Almost all of the stories involve characters who feel, in one way or another, like they are trapped.  They yearn for a freedom that should be in their reach, but somehow is not.  Steinbeck weaves his tales around this theme in a way that doesn't ever seem heavy handed or repetitive.

The heart of this book, I think, is probably The Red Pony.  I'm not sure if it's a novella, or whether it's a more intimately related series of stories involving the same characters.  It's a little difficult to see what The Great Mountains or The Leader of the People has to do with the other two stories, in a narrative sense.  On the other hand, as a series of stories about Jody's coming of age, they work fairly well together in terms of their themes, which center along false hopes, unhappy promises, and disillusionment.  All of that should be great, but I found this part to be a bit disappointing and not as rich as some of the earlier stories in the book.