Steinbeck’s tough yet charming portrait of people on the margins of society, dependant on one another for both physical and emotional survivalA Penguin Classic Published in 1945, Cannery Row focuses on the acceptance of life as it is: both the exuberance of community and the loneliness of the individual. Drawing on his memories of the real inhabitants of Monterey, California, including longtime … Monterey, California, including longtime friend Ed Ricketts, Steinbeck interweaves the stories of Doc, Dora, Mack and his boys, Lee Chong, and the other characters in this world where only the fittest survive, to create a novel that is at once one of his most humorous and poignant works. In her introduction, Susan Shillinglaw shows how the novel expresses, both in style and theme, much that is essentially Steinbeck: “Scientific detachment, empathy toward the lonely and depressed . . . and, at the darkest level . . . the terror of isolation and nothingness.”
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,800 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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I have a box of books I’d like to re-read, almost every Elmore Leonard book, for example, but I have come back to this one several times. There’s something about Steinbeck’s engaging style that draws you into his world and in Cannery Row the characters are so weird and likable, I’m totally immersed. Each time I’ve read it there’s something that makes it fresh and new. That’s why it’s a classic, it stands the test of time.
Bought this to refresh my memory. I had read this several years ago and it still haunts. The problem has become that since I am a voracious reader that I have forgotten the content of the story.
It is next up on my reading list.
An amazing and beautiful story that packs a punch. I loved it.
This is my favorite book of all time. I just loved Steinbeck’s character development. I felt like I knew them all and what a diverse group. A biologist, a Chinese-American grocer, a flophouse full of bums, a bawdy house full of ladies of the evening, and even more. Each character unique and struggling in their own way to get by.
I’ve read this book several times. The first time I was in my twenties and the last time in my sixties. I just may look for it and read it again. I even visited Cannery Row when I was in California, but there wasn’t much left, only some of the sardine cannery buildings turned into the Monterey Aquarium and a row of restaurants.
Lost Interest
This is one of the easiest of Steinbeck books to read. As always there are well developed characters and a sense of place, bu this one also combines the humorous side of the character’s lives. A wonderful picture of the rough edges of life on the waterfront of Monterey prior to the end of the canneries.
If high school students were allowed to read Cannery Row for English class, more kids would learn to love Steinbeck. Unfortunately, bums, winos, and whores aren’t considered appropriate characters for “children.” One of the best and funniest books written by an American author
Brilliant book. One of the best.
“Early morning is a time of magic in Cannery Row. In the gray time after the light has come and before the sun has risen, the Row seems to hang suspended out of time in a silvery light. The street lights go out, and the weeds are a brilliant green. The corrugated iron of the canneries glows with the pearly lucence of platinum or old pewter. No automobiles are running then. The street is silent of progress and business. And the rush and drag of the waves can be heard as they splash in among the piles of the canneries. It is a time of great peace, a deserted time, a little era of rest. Cats drip over the fences and slither like syrup over the ground to look for fish heads. Silent early morning dogs parade majestically picking and choosing judiciously whereon to pee. The sea gulls come flapping in to sit on the cannery roofs to await the day of refuse. They sit on the roof peaks shoulder to shoulder. From the rocks near the Hopkins Marine Station comes the barking of sea lions like the baying of hounds. The air is cool and fresh. In the back gardens the gophers push up the morning mounds of fresh damp earth and they creep out and drag flowers into their holes. Very few people are about, just enough to make it seem more deserted than it is. One of Dora’s girls comes home from a call on a patron too wealthy or too sick to visit the Bear Flag. Her makeup is a little sticky and her feet are tired. Lee Chong brings the garbage cans out and stands them on the curb. The old Chinaman comes out of the sea and flapflaps across the street and up past the Palace. The cannery watchmen look out and blink at the morning light. The bouncer at the Bear Flag steps out on the porch in his shirtsleeves and stretches and yawns and scratches his stomach. The snores of Mr. Malloy’s tenants in the pipes have a deep tannelly quality. It is the hour of the pearl — the interval between day and night when time stops and examines itself.”
a classic
One of my favourite books of all time. The tale of bums and The Doc in California in the 1930s. Real characters, written with a simplistic style. The model for every book I have ever written.
Out standing Steinbeck is one of my favorite
Steinbeck masterfully creates a wonderful little world in this book, not to be missed
It’s such a shame that elements of this book have not aged well. Steinbeck racial attitudes weren’t very enlightened, and here Chinese people particularly get a bad deal. Doc, though, is one of the best characters in American fiction, and his exploits very memorable. Yes, such a shame….
This is the very first book I ever read cover to cover. It kept me entertained, ( also passing english class) and made me a life long lover of books.
Great historical novel.
My favorite classic book with quirky characters and a snapshot of Monterey CA before WWII
This is my favorite book of all time. I just loved Steinbeck’s character development. I felt like I knew them all and what a diverse group: a biologist, a Chinese-American grocer, a flophouse full of bums, a bawdy house full of ladies of the evening, and even more. Each character unique and struggling in their own way to get by.
I’ve read this book several times; the first time in my twenties and the last in my sixties. I just may look for it and read it again. I liked it so much, I visited Cannery Row when I was in California, but there wasn’t much left, only some of the sardine cannery buildings turned into the Monterey Aquarium and a row of restaurants.
With “East of Eden” Steinbeck’s other best novel. This is story at its best in every aspect of literary fiction. Read it once and it will stay with you forever. Read it again and Steinbeck’s mastery will render you eternally dissatisfied with most lesser writers.
One of my all time favorites. Came to mind recently, because I just learned that Red Robin restaurants serve a beer milkshake. Actually that was in the sequel Sweet Thursday, but nonetheless made me think about how much I enjoy Steinbeck’s lighter novels. Though they don’t get as much notice as his other work, they are just as finely written and finely crafted as his blockbusters.
I love this book. The characters are wonderful and well developed. The story is by one of our greatest writers.