Cannery Row (Penguin Drop Caps) Hardcover – April 23, 2014

I read Cannery Row for the first time at the beginning of my teens -- I'm guessing I was thirteen years old, but who knows? Cannery Row and the sequel Sweet Thursday became two of my favorite comfort reads. I read them over and over in high school. I just bought them for kindle and am planning to revisit and see how much difference 50 years perspective makes.If you're used to such John Steinbeck classics as The Grapes of Wrath or Of Mice and Men, you may find Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday surprising. They are far more upbeat and fun than most of Steinbeck's other works. The characters are still the lowlifes of his other works, but the stories are more about their joys than their sorrows.I just finished the reread. It is always a scary thing to do, to read an old favorite after fifty years. That is especially true when it was written in the first half of the twentieth century. We definitely raise an eyebrow. However, I was pleasantly surprised. The reason for this, I think, it that Steinbeck reports, usually without judging. Much of what he reports is horrifying, but he doesn't try to pretend that it isn't. If you want to know what the world was like in 1945 (and I do), then it is good to be able to read about it. As always, YMMV.I have to modify one thing I wrote above. I said, "the stories are more about their joys than their sorrows". While I will stick by that, the difference is not as large as I remembered. There is a lot of sorrow in Cannery Row. There is death, and worse than death. Even with that, it is still a comfort read for me.

Steinbeck resists the pessimistic strain that runs through much 20th-century literature of alienation and despair. His is essentially a positive, "comic" vision in that he affirms the human community, all the more so if it comprises outcasts and eccentrics who reject the conventions and materialist values of the dominant culture in favor of the more "natural" as well as mystic order represented by Doc. Mack and the boys, along with most of the other inhabitants of Cannery Row, embody a democratic, inclusive social order founded on genuine diversity--of character and lifestyle more than color, ethnicity, or religion. In fact, they have much in common with the lovable and vital mischief makers of Shakespeare's King Henry IV plays, though Steinbeck's Doc cannot bring himself to be as heartless as Shakespeare's Prince Hal. Falstaff and company are allowed to remain in Steinbeck's version. They're as essential to the vitality and strength of the human community as the debris that contributes to the cycle of life represented by the tide pools.One striking example of Steinbeck's worldview is the automobile. Unlike Fitzgerald's symbol of American aspiration and status, of danger and tragedy, Steinbeck's machine is distinguished by the working symmetry of its parts and by its relation to resourceful, inventive human beings capable of adapting and modifying it to their own purposes--which aren't primarily selfish but directed toward the survival and celebration of the community which it serves. Gay's mechanical expertise inspires the narrator in Chapter 11 to proclaim: "Two generations of Americans knew more about the Ford coil than the ..., about the planetary system of gears than the solar system of stars. With the Model T, part of the concept of private property disappeared."Chapter 18, it strikes me, contains some of the best writing in all of Steinbeck. Doc, like Steinbeck, is a collector of specimens, but the sight of a dead girl that confronts him here discourages any action associated with acquisition or even representation. It's an expanded, mystical moment in which the author manages to suggest the inextricable relation between life and death, the suspension of the narrative matching the reader's wonder and amazement before a universe that surpasses human understanding.It's a rather utopian view, or cosmos, but Steinbeck makes it work while aligning himself with forbears like Whitman, Twain, and Sandburg--all of whom drew inspiration from the American community as a microcosm of life and nature, rooted in a deep belief in the sanctity of life and the inherent capacity of human beings for kindness and tolerance. "Our Father who art in Nature" is the narrator's invocation in the second chapter, and the story that follows reveals this Creative Spirit's unlikely incarnations in everyday experience and the natural world.Throughout the final chapters, the theme of community counterbalances an equal emphasis on the tragic and the elegiac. Even as Mack and company finally throw a successful party for Doc, the guest of honor keeps coming back to the haunting ancient poem, "Black Marigolds." In a universe that can be ruthlessly impersonal, taking away as much as it gives, it is the spirit of poetry, Steinbeck seems to be saying, that helps us share and even repair loss, linking us to one another in our tears as well as our laughter.

Fun book to read. Times have changed but Cannery Row sounds like it used to be a very interesting place to live. I loved all the descriptions of the sea shore and the sea life in the tide pools near Monterey Bay.

What a perfect follow up to _Tortilla Flat_!While not borrowing all the characters from Tortilla Flat, we are obviously in the right place, Monterey. The times are the same, and they are not easy. People are poor, and everyone does what they must to get by. If that means they rent abandoned boilers and pipes as homes, so be it. Every opportunity is seized for the reward it may provide the finder. A lost rooster is someone's dinner, and someone else's truck, their ride. The shocking reality is that for most, a scam is a scam, and in the long run, all is usually forgiven by the victim. Opportunity is their credit card, and tomorrow's guilt, the interest due. The beauty of it is that for most of them, this was enough. Yes, they could see some had it better, but dwelling on this was not a pastime done. And for those women living in pipes and abandoned boilers it was a fact that now and then they longed for lace curtains, even though they had no windows. This could spark a temporary crying jag, and many walking by the boiler hut could hear them sobbing, causing an echo like wail. A particularly sensitive or desperate husband may soothe her with thrift store curtain rods, but be unable to figure out a way to attach them on the metal walls. These suggestions may not rectify the problem, but it does well to allude to it's solution. In these techniques, their strength was evident by getting through hard times and staying alert to any situation that can be manipulated, or favor that can be called in.Presenting, Cannery Row. On the main street, we have Lee Chong's grocery store open for buisness, and if you don't abuse the credit too much, he will allow you a tab. A sharp man who stations himself in front of the Booze Booth, he will maintain a military position there all day, careful to protect the expensive and coveted alcoholic beverages. Ever sharp to those trying to tempt him from his station, he is alert to those trying to distract him away from the shelves and bargain their way into his favor for a cheap bottle of booze they think he would never miss.Across the street is the popular bordello, run by Dora Flood. She runs a tight, efficient buisness. Her ladies are well fed and cared for and never thrown into the streets because they get a little long in the tooth. While targeted at least once a year by the proper ladie's groups, she never the less hangs on by being the top charity donor in town, otherwise known as political and civic blackmail.I can not conclude this review without mention of the beloved, Doc. He is a marine biologist, often confused on Cannery Row as a full fledged doctor. Therefore, being a kindly man, he is sought out by anyone for any cause that remotely relates to a living organism and illness, birth, death or advice. Not a man that indulges in luxury, he appreciates beer, food and music. He has done many favors for these people and asks nothing in return. For a group of local men, they decide to thank him and deliver unto him a party that will be the talk of the town.The skill is which these characters construct this party is pure Steinbeck poety and hilarity. I will not spoil one word of it's majic. Do yourself the favor to find out all about it!

Una bellísima obra con unos personajes entrañables e inolvidables que se lee con gran placer.

I would give 5 stars several times over for Cannery Row. I have read and reread it many times. I finally decided to purchase this because I had lost my old copy.BUT !!!!! this physical printed edition which I have received is one of the most disappointing books I have ever held in my hands. The paper is of very poor quality and the font is too small for comfort. In contrast, the font of "Sweet Thursday" is much much better.

A fun group of blokes who have few worldly gods but have friendship comraderie and know how to have fun. They live life beyond constraints no women enter their thoughts beyond those at the local house of ill repute. They earn money when need be but have highly honed trading skills and win against pros. They are honorable but events often lead to unexpected outcomes sometimes with disastrous consequences. A rollicking yarn written between the Depression and WW2.

Amazing product

Classic literature deserves better proofing. There where many paragraphs with odd word spacing. Also the size of the book was ridiculous being a large and thin A4 paper size.