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I last read this as a young 'un, on my father's recommendation; it was one of his favorites. I can appreciate the language and writing now as I couldn't then, but I'm still meh on the story. I suppose I'm supposed to take away some message about the resilience of the human spirit and the kindness of those at the bottom, but it didn't seem real to me, and as a fable, it failed to enchant. The most real person in it was the poor fellow who lost his legs on the railroad track.
Another thing I didn't care for is the whiff of misogyny. Other than the aformentioned whores with hearts of gold, the women were loons. Curtains in a boiler! Tea parties with cats! At least the men in the book lived for themselves; the virtuous women (including the ones who tried to shut down the Bear Flag) seemed only to live through their menfolk.
Admittedly, it's not much of a sample, but so far in this thread we've got two yay votes from men and two nay votes from women. I wonder if this trend will hold?
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