4.21

4

Jan 05, 2012

Man, I love Steinbeck. I love the simplicity of his characters and the humdrum feeling their lives evoke. I love the indigence of his settings and the candidness with which these characters accept their conditions. I love how quietly he frames his stories with comments on fatalism, while still revealing to us the potential for happiness that pushes at its surface, trying to elbow its way out. At its core, the Steinbeck novel want us to figure out how to embrace the cards life has dealt us. It Man, I love Steinbeck. I love the simplicity of his characters and the humdrum feeling their lives evoke. I love the indigence of his settings and the candidness with which these characters accept their conditions. I love how quietly he frames his stories with comments on fatalism, while still revealing to us the potential for happiness that pushes at its surface, trying to elbow its way out. At its core, the Steinbeck novel want us to figure out how to embrace the cards life has dealt us. It knows that the sooner we do, the sooner that happiness can become ours for the taking. It might be a fatalistic coin we’re being asked to pocket, but it’s a coin on which has been embossed a seal of optimism.

But he certainly doesn’t make it very easy. The characters in his books are so far down the economic ladder you need a pair of binoculars to find them. And when you do spot them, you discover they are haggling over nickels and frogs. You almost want to step in and give them a Lowe’s gift card, just to make things a little easier for them. But Steinbeck characters don’t need your damn Lowe’s gift card. The point is not to move up that ladder; it’s to find comfort with the rung you’re already on. If they can recognize that, why can’t you?

And that’s the thing about Steinbeckian characters: they often possess a deeper level of knowledge and understanding than their financial statuses—or their grammar—would otherwise suggest. There are also usually one or two who stand out from the rest for their capacity to grasp and relay human need. Where Ma Joad was just such a character in The Grapes of Wrath, it is Doc who lays it to us straight in Cannery Row.
“The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second.”
Ruminating on the contradictory nature of being human, wherein one’s needs are in direct competition with one’s moral goals, Doc reminds us what’s worth appreciating about Mack and his Flophouse friends. Sure, they manipulate a situation for an advantageous edge if they can, and sure their idea of a party would make Clarissa Dalloway scream in mortified horror, but when all is said and done, they are honest with their friends and true to themselves in their dealings, and that is what makes their lives—at least that part of it—worth emulating.

So keep your Lowe’s gift cards. They are not wanted here. ...more

4

Mar 18, 2011

“Doc would listen to any kind of nonsense and turn it into wisdom. His mind had no horizon and his sympathy had no warp. He could talk to children, telling them very profound things so that they understood. He lived in a world of wonders, of excitement. He was concupiscent as a rabbit and gentle as hell. Everyone who knew him was indebted to him. And everyone who thought of him thought next, 'I really must do something nice for Doc.’”


Cannery Row

Doc is one of those fictional characters that “Doc would listen to any kind of nonsense and turn it into wisdom. His mind had no horizon and his sympathy had no warp. He could talk to children, telling them very profound things so that they understood. He lived in a world of wonders, of excitement. He was concupiscent as a rabbit and gentle as hell. Everyone who knew him was indebted to him. And everyone who thought of him thought next, 'I really must do something nice for Doc.’”


Cannery Row

Doc is one of those fictional characters that never leaves a reader’s memory. This book is dedicated to a man by the name of Ed Ricketts who was a marine biologist with a lab, like Doc, on Cannery Row in Monterey, California. Whenever I discover that a fictional character is based on a real person, it seems to lend extra life to that fictional person. It puts bones under the skin and blood in the veins.

It becomes evident, very quickly, how much John Steinbeck admired Ricketts. The biologist has a profound impact on his writing and also on the writing of Joseph Campbell, who, like Steinbeck, lived in Monterey and spent as much time in Ricketts’s lab as possible. The influence of Ricketts on Steinbeck is palpable in The Pearl, Cannery Row, Sweet Thursday, The Log of the Sea of Cortez, The Moon is Down, and The Grapes of Wrath. Ricketts’ death, killed tragically young when his car is hit by a Del Monte Express Train just up the hill from Cannery Row, has a profound impact on many people. Steinbeck’s writing suffers after the death of his friend, and in the opinion of many critics, his writing after 1948 is diminished, except for his final epic East of Eden.


Edward Ricketts

It makes me wonder, would we know John Steinbeck’s name if he’d never met Ed Ricketts? Or what if he had never been influenced by what he experienced while living in Cannery Row?

It is a place at the right time tailor made to inspire a writer.

“Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream. Cannery Row is the gathered and scattered, tin and iron and rust and splintered wood, chipped pavement and weedy lots and junk heaps, sardine canneries of corrugated iron, honky tonks, restaurants and whore houses, and little crowded groceries, and laboratories and flophouses. Its inhabitant are, as the man once said, "whores, pimps, gamblers and sons of bitches," by which he meant Everybody. Had the man looked through another peephole he might have said, ‘Saints and angels and martyrs and holymen’ and he would have meant the same thing.”

Lee Chong runs the grocery store which is really a general store because you can find just about anything that you need and most things you never knew you wanted. Lee never discounts. Everything is the price it was when it was first carried in the door. He “rents out” a building he acquired as trade for an overdue grocery bill to a group of layabout guys who work when they have to, but choose not to work when they absolutely don’t need any money. It was interesting to see a bit into the mind of Lee as he ponders the universe and weighs the benefits and risks of any investment. He has an ongoing financial battles with the boys from The Palace Flophouse and Grill, which is the rather creative name the guys decided to use to refer to the Lee Chong storage shed, as they try to tempt him into their many doomed enterprises.

There is also Dora Flood who manages the Bear Flag Restaurant, but she is more accurately described as Madam Flood as the Bear Flag Restaurant isn’t a restaurant, but a whorehouse. She gives twice as much to charitable organizations as anyone else. She bends over backwards (Not so much over a bed anymore) to help people in need. She never turns a whore out when they get too old to be productive. "Some of them don't turn three tricks a month, but they go right on eating three meals a day." She is a whore with the heart of gold, but with an astute head for trying to not agitate the more conservative wives of the community.


Ed Ricketts’s lab on Cannery Row.

Doc is lonely, but he isn’t alone. He doesn’t have a John Steinbeck living next door or a Joseph Campbell living down the street, but he never seems to lack for female companionship. Whenever the Sistine Choir or Gregorian Chants can be heard coming from Doc’s laboratory everyone knows he is in the midst of wooing well on his way to fornicating.

Doc takes a road trip down the coast of California to collect some specimens for his laboratory. We travel along with him and as the towns are listed off...Salinas, Gonzales, King City, Paso Robles, Santa Maria, and Santa Barbara I had a distinct heart pain of longing for the Golden State. He stops off frequently to sample the local cuisine and also manages to cross a very unusual concoction off his bucket list. “If a man ordered a beer milkshake he'd better do it in a town where he wasn't known.” He orders more than once while on this trip a healthy slice of pineapple and blue cheese pie. It sounds so weird that I have to try it.

Steinbeck sprinkles in some poetry from Black Marigolds by E. Powys Mathers. It is sensual and evocative poetry.

Even now
Death sends me the flickering of powdery lids
Over wild eyes and the pity of her slim body
All broken up with the weariness of joy;
The little red flowers of her breasts to be my comfort
Moving above scarves, and for my sorrow
Wet crimson lips that once I marked as mine.
Steinbeck includes several stanzas and with each one I read my appreciation for Mathers continued to grow.



This book is an ode to a friend, an ode to a period of time when I can tell Steinbeck may have felt most alive, and it is an ode to Cannery Row. A perfect storm of diverse elements that contributed to making Steinbeck one of the Great American Writers. There is a film version of the book starring Nick Nolte and Debra Winger which I have queued up to watch sometime this week. It looks like they muck up the film version with a love story, but I will reserve judgment until I’ve actually watched it.

If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten ...more

4

Nov 19, 2017

One of my favorite childhood memories was my family vacation to California the year I turned nine. On that trip one of our stops was the Monterey Bay Aquarium. As a lover of all things marine biology I was captivated by the flora and fauna of the aquarium for an entire day. Before there was an aquarium near Monterey's beach front, the city was home to a few block stretch of fish and fruit canneries so eloquently portrayed in Steinbeck's Cannery Row, the author's homage to depression era One of my favorite childhood memories was my family vacation to California the year I turned nine. On that trip one of our stops was the Monterey Bay Aquarium. As a lover of all things marine biology I was captivated by the flora and fauna of the aquarium for an entire day. Before there was an aquarium near Monterey's beach front, the city was home to a few block stretch of fish and fruit canneries so eloquently portrayed in Steinbeck's Cannery Row, the author's homage to depression era Monterey. In this telling historical fiction, the Nobel Laureate creates archetypes of characters who made central California home during a trying time in American history.

Depression era Monterey, California is a quiet community comprised of canneries, whore houses, a few general stores, and one biologist named Doc who is forever tinkering with experiments in his laboratory. Most people are short on funds and use the barter system to get by and many creatively create homes out of deserted steam ovens and warehouses. Despite being short on funds, liquor is always flowing, whore house business is prosperous, and most people appear for the most part happy with their station in life despite the lack of money. Mack and his gang of delinquents call a warehouse owned by Lee Chong home in exchange for only shopping in his general store and never stealing his goods. They come up with one charade and adventure after another in attempt to earn enough money to get by. Often, Mack asks Doc if the gang can obtain him frogs or cats or other animals in exchange for spending money. Although Doc realizes that this gang is only after a good time, he usually resists because he shows them sympathy in their impoverished station in life when people are looking for a morale booster more so than bettering their place in society. Such is the life on cannery row in Monterey, California.

Steinbeck writes in such a captivating style that makes him one of America's master story tellers. This book goes off on tangents that at times makes the story hard to follow; however, this is the nature of Mack's sense of going in the direction of whatever adventure is thrown at him. Yet, even if he is borrowing a car to go frogging or throwing a disastrous party at Doc's lab, his compass ends up on Cannery Row. I enjoyed Steinbeck's depictions of Monterey and the time period more so that Mack's adventures. When describing his cast of characters, Steinbeck got to the gist of the story and painted a picture of the time period whereas Mack's exploits at times took away from the rest of the good people of Monterey and left me wanting more knowledge of daily life in Monterey. In a book under two hundred pages, I was able to read quickly from chapter to chapter to discover how life in Monterey and how each character coped with the times of nationwide depression.

One facet of this novella that left me wanting more was the minimal development of female characters. Mary Talbot made the most of her situation by joining the Bloomer League and throwing parties, and eventually she threw a pregnancy party for herself. Mrs. Malloy made the best out of living inside a steam oven but little is said about her character and interests. The most development given to female characters in Cannery Row is that of Madam Dora and her whores. It appears as though Dora fancies Doc but there is little to advance the story line. Otherwise, the whores simply exist to provide a good time to fishermen and canners and other men who are seeking a quick fix for their personal depression. I would have liked to see more character development for Dora, but as this book focused on the exploits of Mack and his gang, Steinbeck simply did not have the space to focus on each character as he would in a full length novel.

Cannery Row demonstrates Steinbeck's story telling skills while also painting a picture of California during the depression. Most people appeared to desire a good time and quick fix for their troubles without contemplating long term solutions for their own and the country's money troubles. The only character who had foresight was Doc who behind the scenes was creating the basis for what would be Monterey's famed aquarium. I enjoyed reading this novella, which I liked more than the last Steinbeck story that I read, and it left me desiring to return to his work sometime in the future.

4 stars
...more

5

Feb 25, 2015

Why does Steinbeck's narrative voice entice me so, I've been asking myself over the past few days.
In my second reading of this novella, which has become a favorite of mine, I realized that it's his unshakeable belief in mankind.
Steinbeck reinvents the concept of family and expands its boundaries with his blatant love for humanity. Nobody is homeless in Cannery Row, not even imps or prostitutes, destitute painters or big-hearted biologists, mentally impaired kids or immigrant shopkeepers. Even Why does Steinbeck's narrative voice entice me so, I've been asking myself over the past few days.
In my second reading of this novella, which has become a favorite of mine, I realized that it's his unshakeable belief in mankind.
Steinbeck reinvents the concept of family and expands its boundaries with his blatant love for humanity. Nobody is homeless in Cannery Row, not even imps or prostitutes, destitute painters or big-hearted biologists, mentally impaired kids or immigrant shopkeepers. Even mongrels and frogs are treated with decorum in this picturesque portrait of comradeship in Monterrey, California.

Interweaving a wide array of anecdotes with symbolic connotations, Steinbeck paints decent lives for the dispossessed that endure the sentence of social marginalization. Unexpected dignity comes in the form of reciprocal support, selfless loyalty and the humbling acceptance of the foibles of human condition and, as if by some sort of magic, the unappealing milieu of rattling caravans, crumbling shacks and noisy honky-tonks constitute an enchanting place where people live for themselves and need very little to reach serenity of mind.
The spell of Steinbeck’s soothing prose settles in and Mack and the boys, troublesome rascals, become the Beauties, the Graces and the Virtues of this vibrant community. Doc, whose faith in the goodness of mankind is as fervent as his devotion to the mysteries of marine biology, is the converging point that brings out the best in his fellowmen, modeled after his creator. His compassion is genuine and carries not a hint of condescendence, and so when he listens to his friends’ predicaments or to one of his albums of Gregorian music at the hour of the pearl, he is equally overcome by the joy of extending unconditional friendship or by his not unwelcome loneliness.

But watch out. Don’t allow yourself to be misled.
Steinbeck, like Doc, doesn’t offer a glorified, syrupy version of the hardships of life while sermonizing on the benefits of collective insurgency; his clear-cut vision synthesizes the healing compassion that human beings are capable of and inspires us to find poetry in the most prosaic, even the most repulsive of things.
There is an irresistible modesty in Steinbeck’s minimalistic yet deeply charged prose. The half-deprecating, half-dramatic tone in which he paints these stories gives a tragicomic intensity to the clumsy, reprovable characters and tinges their daily tribulations with an authentic tenderness that pierces right through the thickest skins.

Cannery Road is a toast to ordinariness, an unabashed portrayal of men at his worst shinning with the best of human condition, an ode to the invisible treasures of life.
I dare you who read to look at the world through Steinbeck’s eyes.
And you will see a cocktail prepared with drink leftovers and cheap whisky become a delicatessen, if shared in good company.
A disastrous birthday party; the much-desired present that restores lost innocence.
The high tides and waves splashing on the rocks under the piers; the perfect moonlight sonata at the time after the light has come and before the sun has risen.
And Black Marigolds that wither with the evanescence of life; an eternal blessing.
Even now. Even here. Even for us.



...more

5

Jun 25, 2014

When it rains, and rains, and rains, I drink my morning coffee and think of sunny California. Of Steinbeck, of course! Not that the world is more perfect in his imagination than in my reality. Far from it. But it is dusty and dry, and that seems like a welcome change sometimes. His characters would of course drink their coffee, stare at the dust and hope for rain and mud. Such is the world!

As there are countless wonderful real reviews of this classic already, but I feel I have to add my When it rains, and rains, and rains, I drink my morning coffee and think of sunny California. Of Steinbeck, of course! Not that the world is more perfect in his imagination than in my reality. Far from it. But it is dusty and dry, and that seems like a welcome change sometimes. His characters would of course drink their coffee, stare at the dust and hope for rain and mud. Such is the world!

As there are countless wonderful real reviews of this classic already, but I feel I have to add my enthusiasm about spending delicious hours rereading Cannery Row, laughing tears of amusement and sorrow, I will offer a little prayer quote, as honest as can be, the absolute antithesis to the equally powerful, yet hypocritical rhetoric of an Elmer Gantry.

“Our Father who art in nature, who has given the gift of survival to the coyote, the common brown rat, the English sparrow, the house fly and the moth, must have a great and overwhelming love for no-goods and blots-on-the-town and bums, and Mack and the boys. Virtues and graces and laziness and zest. Our Father who art in nature.”

As it is Saturday, and I am a lazy bum, this will have to do for a review of an all time favourite.

Amen. I rest my case. ...more

4

Jun 30, 2009

I first read this many years ago. Riddled with ADD, frozen by nervousness, and thrown-off by wack-ass hormones, I had trouble reading anything at the time, and this was no exception. A parable of my formerly wasted time on earth, I read it and got nothing out of it. Hell, I didn’t even remember I had read it until I started it (again) 10 days ago.

But oh did I appreciate it this go-round. Steinbeck got me to like the kind of people that, at first judgment, I would deem ignorant, annoying, or I first read this many years ago. Riddled with ADD, frozen by nervousness, and thrown-off by wack-ass hormones, I had trouble reading anything at the time, and this was no exception. A parable of my formerly wasted time on earth, I read it and got nothing out of it. Hell, I didn’t even remember I had read it until I started it (again) 10 days ago.

But oh did I appreciate it this go-round. Steinbeck got me to like the kind of people that, at first judgment, I would deem ignorant, annoying, or maybe even dangerous. The kind of people with brains attuned to a totally different frequency than my own; people so different from myself, that I’d probably be pretty freaking uncomfortable if I met them. I’d maybe even feel threatened by them. This, of course, is not because Mack-and-his-motley-crew are actually bad guys. Sure they’re slick and they’ll take you for a ride if they can; but they almost always mean well, and they are not bad people.

Mack and the boys aren’t enclosed by the excesses and goal-driven constructs that trap most of the population. They live in the moment and are free from most worries. They are content, and are therefore happy. The Doctor –- a very memorable character, and a hero of sorts to the people of Cannery Row -– says it best:

"Look at them. There are your true philosophers. I think that Mack and the boys know everything that has ever happened in the world and possibly everything that will happen. I think they survive in this particular world better than other people. In a time when people tear themselves to pieces with ambition and nervousness and covetousness, they are relaxed. All of our so-called successful men are sick men, with bad stomachs, and bad souls, but Mack and the boys are healthy and curiously clean. They can do what they want. They can satisfy their appetites without calling them something else."

Cannery Row was written and ordered expertly, with each chapter short but packing a punch. And while the characters for the most part remain pretty freakin’ lovable, Steinbeck -- true to life -- hits us with dark surprises throughout. People seem to have memories and favorite scenes from this novel that they recall years later: the dead girl, Henri the “painter,” the beer milkshake, the ice skater, to name a few. My favorite and most memorable scene was a full chapter, only a few pages long, in which Steinbeck takes one of his brilliantly dark detours from the main narrative, to tell us about a gopher -– yes, a gopher. In a vacant lot on Cannery Row, the gopher finds the perfect spot for a burrow. Through strategy, hard work, and passion, the gopher makes himself his ideal home. He loads up food for his future offspring, and enjoys his nice view and rich soil: he is set for life. But as time moves on, no female appears: he remains alone. The gopher gives up on his perfect home, and decides to move where he can find a mate.......and ends up choosing a spot in a nearby garden that is full of gopher traps.

I started reading heavily a little over a year ago. Since then, I’ve had dashes of great love for humanity which have taken place more often, and have been more piercing, than those that took place before I was a hardcore bookster. Oh, I’m still secretly more of a hater than a lover, and ignorance still typically ticks me off. But thanks to reading novels like this, I understand and love my fellow human beings a little more.

And if I could keep within me, all the time, those aforementioned dashes of pure, radiating love in my heart, I think I’d be perpetually happy. But you know, life is flighty. And these moments are few and far between.

Then again, I’ll take what I can get.

...more

4

Aug 04, 2009

how do i review cannery row? like all the steinbeck i have read, except the dead pony, of which i remember very little except not being too keen on it, it is saturated with these wonderful marginalized characters who are desperate and hopeless and yearning. but they are surviving. and there is so much beauty in the squalor. it reminds me in my feeling-parts of suttree, which is one of my all time favorite books. this book is full of such well-meaning ineptitude and many very serious things how do i review cannery row? like all the steinbeck i have read, except the dead pony, of which i remember very little except not being too keen on it, it is saturated with these wonderful marginalized characters who are desperate and hopeless and yearning. but they are surviving. and there is so much beauty in the squalor. it reminds me in my feeling-parts of suttree, which is one of my all time favorite books. this book is full of such well-meaning ineptitude and many very serious things couched in an effortless prose that comes across as almost humorous, or rather, amused. i'm not sure how to articulate all that i am feeling for steinbeck right now. this one will never be my favorite, but its been so long since i read him, i am remembering why i always list him when rattling off favorite authors when cornered by someone who wants something "really american". this certainly qualifies. the frog story was the best thing i have read in a long time. it didn't escape five stars by much, but there's a visceral reaction i get to certain books that i didn't get here. but really - a fucking gem.

come to my blog! ...more

5

Apr 30, 2013

Cannery Row is of frogs and men…
The frog pool was square—fifty feet wide and seventy feet long and four feet deep. Lush soft grass grew about its edge and a little ditch brought the water from the river to it and from it little ditches went out to the orchards. There were frogs there all right, thousands of them. Their voices beat the night, they boomed and barked and croaked and rattled. They sang to the stars, to the waning moon, to the waving grasses. They bellowed love songs and challenges.
Cannery Row is of frogs and men…
The frog pool was square—fifty feet wide and seventy feet long and four feet deep. Lush soft grass grew about its edge and a little ditch brought the water from the river to it and from it little ditches went out to the orchards. There were frogs there all right, thousands of them. Their voices beat the night, they boomed and barked and croaked and rattled. They sang to the stars, to the waning moon, to the waving grasses. They bellowed love songs and challenges.
Or to be more precise it is of friendship and love…
The boiler looked like an old-fashioned locomotive without wheels. It had a big door in the center of its nose and a low fire door. Gradually it became red and soft with rust and gradually the mallow weeds grew up around it and the flaking rust fed the weeds. Flowering myrtle crept up its sides and the wild anise perfumed the air about it. Then someone threw out a datura root and the thick fleshy tree grew up and the great white bells hung down over the boiler door and at night the flowers smelled of love and excitement, an incredibly sweet and moving odor.
In the age of steam, sages dwell not in barrels but in boilers…
The novel is strangely poetic… And the poetry of streets and the poetry of ideals are capriciously intertwined. ...more

4

Feb 19, 2017

Cannery Row (Cannery Row #1), John Steinbeck
Cannery Row is a novel by American author John Steinbeck, published in 1945. It is set during the Great Depression in Monterey, California, on a street lined with sardine canneries that is known as Cannery Row. The story revolves around the people living there: Lee Chong, the local grocer; Doc, a marine biologist; and Mack, the leader of a group of derelicts.
Cannery Row has a simple premise: Mack and his friends are trying to do something nice for Cannery Row (Cannery Row #1), John Steinbeck
Cannery Row is a novel by American author John Steinbeck, published in 1945. It is set during the Great Depression in Monterey, California, on a street lined with sardine canneries that is known as Cannery Row. The story revolves around the people living there: Lee Chong, the local grocer; Doc, a marine biologist; and Mack, the leader of a group of derelicts.
Cannery Row has a simple premise: Mack and his friends are trying to do something nice for their friend Doc, who has been good to them without asking for reward. Mack hits on the idea that they should throw a thank-you party, and the entire community quickly becomes involved. Unfortunately, the party rages out of control, and Doc's lab and home are ruined, and so is Doc's mood. In an effort to return to Doc's good graces, Mack and the boys decide to throw another party but make it work this time. A procession of linked vignettes describes the denizens' lives on Cannery Row. These constitute subplots that unfold concurrently with the main plot.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز بیستم ماه فوریه سال 1977 میلادی
عنوان: راسته کنسرو سازان (راسته کنسرو سازی)؛ نویسنده: جان اشتاین (استاین) بک؛ مترجم: سیروس طاهباز؛ تهران، کتابخانه ایرانمهر، فرانکلین، 1344؛ در 239 ص؛ موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان امریکایی - سده 20 م
داستان، در شهر ساحلی «مونتری» جریان دارد؛ در محله ای با عنوان: راسته کنسرو سازان (کنسرو سازی)؛ خیابانی که حاشیه هایش، پر است از ماهی هایی، که قرار است، به کنسرو تبدیل شوند. قشر پایین جامعه، و کارگرها، آنجا زندکی میکنند. رخدادها در سالهای جنگ جهانی دوم، روی میدهند و نویسنده، زندگی بومی ساکنان آن منطقه را، بازگو میکند، و از پیمانهای زندگیشان مینویسد. این رمان از آثار پرخوانشگر «اشتاین بک» است، و همانند بیشتر کتابهای این نویسنده، در فضای کاهش تقاضا بازگو میشود، و زندگی نادارها و مشکلات آنها را بیان میکند. خوانشگر در این رمان با تصویری روشن از کوشش انسانها برای ادامه ی زندگی روبرو میشود. «راسته کنسرو سازان» یا «راسته کنسر سازی»، اثری ست، که ته مایه های طنز هم دارد، و در آن شکستهای آدمیان در کنار شادیهای کوچک نشان داده میشود. در رمان: دوستی، قناعت، اخلاق، پرهیز از نگاه سطحی به انسانها، و حس نوستالژی تاکید شده است. «راسته کنسرو سازی» مکانی واقعی در «کالیفرنیا» است، که در چندین شعر، و داستان از جمله در همین اثر «اشتاین بک» به نام آنجا اشاره شده است. ا. شربیانی ...more

3

Apr 21, 2019

Cannery Row is my 5th novel by John Steinbeck and while I enjoyed the read it isn't a standout novel for me like East of Eden or Of Mice and Men and I think this is down to the way in which the book is written as it lacks a plot and reads more like a character study as we get a snapshot of the characters daily lives on Cannery Row.

I really liked the setting of the novel. Published in 1945 it is set during the Great Depression in Monterey California on a street lined with Sardine Canneries known Cannery Row is my 5th novel by John Steinbeck and while I enjoyed the read it isn't a standout novel for me like East of Eden or Of Mice and Men and I think this is down to the way in which the book is written as it lacks a plot and reads more like a character study as we get a snapshot of the characters daily lives on Cannery Row.

I really liked the setting of the novel. Published in 1945 it is set during the Great Depression in Monterey California on a street lined with Sardine Canneries known as Cannery Row. We meet a host of interesting and entertaining characters who happen to live there and there is no definite plot to the novel, just every day life happenings for these entertaining characters and unlike some of Steinbeck’s other novels it is not a depressing read and the characters do bring a smile to your face and I really enjoyed hanging out with them.

Not one for my favourites shelf but an easy and enjoyable read and a book that I am glad to have picked up and crossed off my TBR list. I listened to this one on audio and enjoyed the experience. ...more

5

Feb 08, 2013

I owe Mr. Steinbeck an apology. I am so shamed that I cannot even use the familiar 'John'. I have taken this beautiful story and mucked it up. I read about Lee Chong during a middle school basketball game, I learned of Dora Flood while riding the shuttle bus to work. I grew to love/hate Mack during a cheerleading competition filthy with Rihanna songs. I fell in love with Doc and Frankie and Darling while watching a traumatic brain injured patient freak out about his meds.

I am not worthy. This
I owe Mr. Steinbeck an apology. I am so shamed that I cannot even use the familiar 'John'. I have taken this beautiful story and mucked it up. I read about Lee Chong during a middle school basketball game, I learned of Dora Flood while riding the shuttle bus to work. I grew to love/hate Mack during a cheerleading competition filthy with Rihanna songs. I fell in love with Doc and Frankie and Darling while watching a traumatic brain injured patient freak out about his meds.

I am not worthy. This series of stories is so…breathtaking. I may even go to California because of it… before it was Big Sur that made me think of leaving my treasured New England, but now… now I want to bask in the rubble of Cannery Row.

Except, I can’t…
can I? Because it is set in a time that is so far off my radar. It’s set when credit bought you cheap whiskey and Model T’s were interchangeable. When squatters could make an old cannery their home and when artists could pretend to be French and live in a partially built boat. Why do I wish for this? It’s depressing and everything feels soaked in sepia and I see pageboys and horny sailors and dare I say… ruffians? I am messed up.

This is beautiful and sad and romantic and hopeful and tragic and wistful…. and….

Everyone seems to have a favorite story… the gopher, the party, the frog hunt. I can’t pinpoint one. I can only describe emotions and even then, I feel like I cheated and was only able to give in to them superficially. It’s really hard to take in “The word is a symbol and a delight which sucks up men and scenes, trees, plants, factories, and Pekinese. Then the Thing becomes the Word and back to Thing again, but warped and woven into a fantastic pattern. The Word sucks up Cannery Row, digests it and spews it out, and the Row has taken the shimmer of the green worlds and the sky-reflecting seas.” while the bus driver is laying on his horn and swerving dangerously around a Subaru.

I love every part of this book. Every word. It conjures up whimsy and makes me feel like there is more to life than vampires and reality shows and twitter and… and….

I also want to give a shout out to the reviews that many of my friends have posted. Each are in itself a chapter, a slice of the Row. I love that Sarah read this to her friends during a trip from Portland to Salinas. I love that Ben is reminded of teenage fears that karen uses the phrase ‘well-meaning ineptitude’ and that I now have an image of Logan flirting it up with Steinbeck.

Thank you, Mr. Steinbeck, thank you goodreaders, and thank you Carole Louise Dahl of Olympic Valley, CA for giving away this book so that I could buy it for a quarter at a library sale. I am a better person for having read this.

on a side note... does it detract from my appreciation if I mention how hot Steinbeck was?
...more

5

Mar 03, 2017

John Steinbeck's Nostalgia: Cannery Row

It won no Pulitzer Prize. It does not figure into the reason John Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize for literature. Yet, I love this book. Cannery Row evokes a place that no longer exists, covering a period roughly that of the Great Depression in Monterey, California.

Steinbeck drew on his friendship with Ed Ricketts, a marine biologist , as his central character "Doc" for his novel. They had been friends since the early 1930s. Ricketts taught Steinbeck marine John Steinbeck's Nostalgia: Cannery Row

It won no Pulitzer Prize. It does not figure into the reason John Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize for literature. Yet, I love this book. Cannery Row evokes a place that no longer exists, covering a period roughly that of the Great Depression in Monterey, California.

Steinbeck drew on his friendship with Ed Ricketts, a marine biologist , as his central character "Doc" for his novel. They had been friends since the early 1930s. Ricketts taught Steinbeck marine biology. Ricketts real persona is contained in The Log from the Sea of Cortez. Like "Doc," Ricketts operated a marine laboratory, Pacific Biological Laboratories. Steinbeck was a fifty percent partner in the lab. Upon the publication of Cannery Row, Ricketts found himself a celebrity, something which exasperated him. However, he forgave Steinbeck his unwanted celebrity for he understood Steinbeck had written the novel with no sense of malevolence. The two had intended an expedition to study marine biology off the coast of Alaska in 1948. However, it didn't happen. Rickett's car was hit by a train. Ricketts was killed.

Steinbeck would return to the world of Cannery Row with the novel Sweet Thursday, published in 1954. Ed Ricketts lived on in Steinbeck's memory, with Doc returning as the novel's central character.

The prologue of Cannery Row grabs the reader and shakes him, much as a terrier shakes a rat.

“Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream. Cannery Row is the gathered and scattered, tin and iron and rust and splintered wood, chipped pavement and weedy lots and junk heaps, sardine canneries of corrugated iron, honky tonks, restaurants and whore houses, and little crowded groceries, and laboratories and flophouses. Its inhabitant are, as the man once said, "whores, pimps, gambler and sons of bitches," by which he meant Everybody. Had the man looked through another peephole he might have said, "Saints and angels and martyrs and holymen" and he would have meant the same thing.”

Steinbeck prepares the reader for a world of light and darkness. What follows is a series of vignettes depicting the best of life revolving around the lives of residents of the row, interspersed with Steinbeck's digressions from the plot showing the darker aspects of life.

Now, take Doc. He's the type guy who tips his hats to dogs. And they smile back at him. Doc is nice to everybody on the row. And everybody wants to do something nice for Doc. Which leads to the relatively simple plot of the book. How to do something nice for Doc.

It's Mack and the Boys who start the movement to do something good for Doc. Mack and the Boys are the homeless guys who live in the Palace Flophouse and Grill. The men without family, rarely have jobs, but who know they can go to Doc with any kind of nonsense and he can turn it into some kind of wisom.

Dora is the madam of the Bear Flag Cafe, the brothel that brooks no profanity be spoken therein. Dora of the orange hair and heart of gold who feeds homeless families. Dora, who operates an illegal business and therefore is the queen of donations, fifty dollars to the policeman's ball, rather than five. Dora's where a girl is never turned out because she's never to old, who may have only turned three tricks in the past month but still gets three meals a day.

Then there is Lee Chong, owner and operator of the Heavenly Bamboo Grocery, who owns more in debt than in actual receipts received but always seems to lives comfortably. Where good will is a currency of its own.

No, there was no Pulitzer for this novel for Steinbeck. But I love this book. Steinbeck captures the essence of life in all its raucous spirit. Its rioutous happiness of living. The quirky nature of community in the many voices that form to create its own ode to joy and its lament to the sadness that befalls each of us. But there is never a dirge. Not ever.

So there is no The Grapes of Wrath here. No Of Mice and Men. Cannery Row makes me glad to be alive. It makes me seek out the Docs of the world and do something good for him and hope I find Mack and the boys, Dora and the Girls, and Lee Chong to help. ...more

3

Sep 22, 2010

Steinbeck wrote one book about the Arthurian legends. However, he wrote a few books using the Arthurian legend model and Cannery Row is one of them.

Here we have a marvelously fun tale, almost a tall-tale, about the bums, prostitutes and common folk living on the California coast south of the San Francisco bay area in and about Monterey and Carmel-by-the-Sea during the Great Depression. Mischievous scamps get up to no good and little comes of it. All of this is inconsequential and yet intrinsic Steinbeck wrote one book about the Arthurian legends. However, he wrote a few books using the Arthurian legend model and Cannery Row is one of them.

Here we have a marvelously fun tale, almost a tall-tale, about the bums, prostitutes and common folk living on the California coast south of the San Francisco bay area in and about Monterey and Carmel-by-the-Sea during the Great Depression. Mischievous scamps get up to no good and little comes of it. All of this is inconsequential and yet intrinsic to human nature.

I finished Cannery Row a week or so ago. It's taken me this long to think about how I wanted to review it. That's not because it's a particularly deep and thought-provoking book. I just needed to examine my feelings, and besides, I feel like Steinbeck's work deserves reflection, even his lesser work.

Is this a lesser Steinbeck work? It's heralded by many and often included in "top Steinbeck" lists. I don't see it. Don't get me wrong, it's quite good, 3.5 stars good I'd say, but it's more of a collection of character sketches loosely tied together rather than a fully realized novel. Ah, but they are incredible sketches!

Cannery Row and Tortilla Flats fall into that Arthurian legend model as stated earlier. These are adventure stories in which "heroes" go on quests in an attempt to obtain whatever is their holy grail. Are there morals and lessons to be learned along the way? Sure. Is any of this meant to be much more than entertainment? I don't think so, but that's me. This is highly enjoyable and I think that's what Steinbeck was going for. ...more

3

Jan 10, 2016

"It has always seemed strange to me,” said Doc. “The things we admire in men — kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding, and feeling — are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest — sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism, and self-interest — are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first, they love the produce of the second."

Cannery Row is a real place. What John Steinbeck describes as "a poem, a stink, a "It has always seemed strange to me,” said Doc. “The things we admire in men — kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding, and feeling — are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest — sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism, and self-interest — are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first, they love the produce of the second."

Cannery Row is a real place. What John Steinbeck describes as "a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream" is a street in the city of Monterey in California, the site of many canning factories, now defunct; formerly known as Ocean View Avenue, the city government officially renamed the street to Cannery Row to honor Steinbeck and his novel.

The aim of Cannery Row is not as much to provide a coherent story with beginning or end, but to capture the mood and time of a specific place and closely knit community - the eponymous street and areas surrounding it, and the people living there. The novel features a cast of colorful characters who live a modest but largely happy existence. The main crux of Cannery Row is very simple - a group of well intending jobless locals decide to throw a party in celebration of Doc, their friend who is well liked by everyone; despite their good intentions the effort does not exactly go as planned.

Where the novel succeeds is its sheer humanity of the many inhabitants of Cannery Row: Lee Chong, the Chinese grocer who sells his goods on credit to everyone but apparently manages to run a profitable business; Doc, the gentle and intelligent man who studies local sea creatures and is an endless well of wisdom and intelligence, beloved by everybody; Mac, the leader of the local derelict who could be president if he only wanted to - but doesn't. This isn't Steinbeck of the The Grapes of Wrath, which is possibly his greatest book - with all its epic symbolism and gritty realism of extreme poverty and consuming hunger and misery; Cannery Row is a much more relaxed novel in the tradition of another of his early works, Tortilla Flat, which also featured a cast of whimsical protagonist enjoying what life brought to them, despite being poor as a tribe of mice.

Cannery Row might seem a departure from realism into idealism for Steinbeck - the lives of its protagonists are idealized and romanticized, their poverty made enviable; despite not having much or indeed anything at all, they enjoy an existence more content than those who live in the more prestigious parts of town. Accordingly, at times characterization resorts to stereotyping: the unemployed men are benevolent, joyful swindlers, and the local madam runs her brothel with respect and care for her girls and has a heart of gold. The novel is told via a series of almost disconnected vignettes, many of which do not have much to do with the main "plot" but provide a broad and enveloping image of the Row and its inhabitants. Although most of the anecdotes and stories are usually heartwarming and endearing, several end in violence and even tragedy, which is a conscious choice of Steinbeck reminding both his characters and readers that they are not experiencing a fantasy, but real life.

But the beauty of the book is that it allows us to dream a fantasy in the real life; and even though the world us contains death and misery, it also contains joy, happiness and love. In the end, Cannery Row is not a utopia, but a novel of optimism, and manages to be one without being overly maudlin and artificial. With plenty of great, quotable writing, Cannery Row is a brief but surprisingly affecting book, recommended both to Steinbeck fans and newcomers. ...more

4

Jul 12, 2015

Funny and wonderfully written. Steinbeck captures the spiritedness of his characters so well. And he describes the landscape beautifully. I'm glad I finally got around to reading this one!

5

Jan 07, 2017

I'm just really enjoying going back and reading the Steinbeck I missed, now that I realize what a beautiful writer he is. I ended up reading this because I read Monterey Bay from the Tournament of Books longlist, where the author took Steinbeck's research, characters, place and time and wrote her own novel. It made me want to read the original, which I wasn't even sure was a novel at first. One of the characters is based on Ed Ricketts, who Steinbeck writes about taking a journey with in The Log I'm just really enjoying going back and reading the Steinbeck I missed, now that I realize what a beautiful writer he is. I ended up reading this because I read Monterey Bay from the Tournament of Books longlist, where the author took Steinbeck's research, characters, place and time and wrote her own novel. It made me want to read the original, which I wasn't even sure was a novel at first. One of the characters is based on Ed Ricketts, who Steinbeck writes about taking a journey with in The Log from the Sea of Cortez, and dedicates this book to.

The language! Such language. "Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream.And the characters! Here's an example:"Mack and the boys, too, spinning in their orbits. They are the Virtues, the Graces, the Beauties of the hurried mangled craziness of Monterey and the cosmic Monterey where men in fear and hunger destroy their stomachs in the fight to secure certain food, where men hungering for love destroy everything lovable about them."And here's one for the road, maybe a bit applicable in 2017:"'It has always seemed strange to me,' said Doc. 'The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second." ...more

5

Jan 10, 2015

5
“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.”

Cannery Row, where the smelly, noisy business of canning fish takes place and where people settle in ramshackle, makeshift structures to live their lives amongst their fellows. The men and women, Mack and the boys, Dora and the girls, Doc, Lee 5★
“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.”

Cannery Row, where the smelly, noisy business of canning fish takes place and where people settle in ramshackle, makeshift structures to live their lives amongst their fellows. The men and women, Mack and the boys, Dora and the girls, Doc, Lee Chong, simply stumble from one day to the next, often enjoying a glass of ” Old Tennessee, a blended whiskey guaranteed four months old, very cheap and known in the neighborhood as Old Tennis Shoes.”

Doc is the brains of the bunch, rents his own place, and is a collector and seller of specimens, such as frogs and snakes. Occasionally Mack and the boys collect for him to earn a little drinking money. They’ve made themselves at home in an abandoned building, while a married couple have taken up residence in a huge pipe, in which the wife is desperate to hang curtains, to make it a real home.

Except for Lee Chong, the wily Chinese shopkeeper, nobody has a great deal of thought for the future, other than the immediate one, but they take great pride in making plans. The action, such as it is, revolves around Doc, who isn’t a doctor but does seem to patch people up and be some sort of source of advice.

“Doc tips his hat to dogs as he drives by and the dogs look up and smile at him. He can kill anything for need but he could not even hurt a feeling for pleasure.
. . .
Everyone who knew him was indebted to him. And everyone who thought of him thought next, ‘I really must do something nice for Doc.’ ”

These are people who could live anywhere at anytime. They are the fringe dwellers, the overlooked, the best and the worst of us, and they live in Cannery Row.

“Its inhabitants are, as the man once said, ‘whores, pimps, gamblers, and sons of bitches,’ by which he meant Everybody. Had the man looked through another peephole he might have said, ‘Saints and angels and martyrs and holy men,’ and he would have meant the same thing.”

It is funny and poignant and true. These are people you’d like to help, but they can’t help themselves. They are like the children who are sent to the shop to buy a packet of biscuits for visitors but who snack on them all the way home until there’s almost nothing left. They aren’t evil – their intentions were good. These are those kids who never quite grew up.

“Hazel's mind was like wandering alone in a deserted museum. Hazel's mind was choked with uncatalogued exhibits. He never forgot anything but he never bothered to arrange his memories. Everything was thrown together like fishing tackle in the bottom of a rowboat, hooks and sinkers and line and lures and gaffs all snarled up.”

He is what he is. Watching Mack and the boys or Dora and her ‘girls’ plan a party for Doc reminds me of Seinfeld, the TV show that was said to be ‘about nothing’, but of course, was also about everything, as is Cannery Row, although it seems strange to mention them in the same sentence.

I believe the people of Monterey weren’t thrilled with Steinbeck’s portrayal, but the rest of the literary world appreciated it. I certainly love it all, the “gathered and scattered, tin and iron and rust and splintered wood, chipped pavement and weedy lots and junk heaps, sardine canneries of corrugated iron, honky tonks, restaurants and whore houses, and little crowded groceries, and laboratories and flophouses.”

Painting of Cannery Row by Bruce Ariss

This is a re-read, because I do love Steinbeck. He packs such a lot into a little.

P.S. I just saw an article about a rare Steinbeck story (which I haven't seen), and I quote a paragraph here:

"I am sometimes criticized for avoiding the great discordant notes of the times and closing my ears to the drums of daily doom," Steinbeck notes drolly. "But I have found that the momentary sound very shortly becomes a whisper and the timely fury is forgotten, while the soft verities persist year after year. We have not survived on great things, but on little ones . . ."
https://www.usatoday.com/story/entert...
...more

4

Aug 02, 2018

Read for Popsugar's 2018 Reading Challenge #50: Read a book recommended by somebody else doing the Popsugar Reading Challenge

This audiobook was great!

I really enjoyed this little book about a town full of misfits. I loved Hazel, Mack (and the boys, of course), and the myriad of kooky characters. I often found myself laughing as I listened, which I wasn't expecting...? For example, Steinbeck often shows little vignettes and small moments in these people's lives, which frequently included Read for Popsugar's 2018 Reading Challenge #50: Read a book recommended by somebody else doing the Popsugar Reading Challenge

This audiobook was great!

I really enjoyed this little book about a town full of misfits. I loved Hazel, Mack (and the boys, of course), and the myriad of kooky characters. I often found myself laughing as I listened, which I wasn't expecting...? For example, Steinbeck often shows little vignettes and small moments in these people's lives, which frequently included hilarious little tidbits thrown in. Amongst normal things like "she bought an apple peeler" and "he went to the bar", something along the lines of "a man caught a two-headed fish, then sold it to the museum for eight dollars" would be thrown in, which is so random but I loved it.

I'm not sure if this review makes sense anymore, but I'm glad I finally read this book, and I highly recommend the audiobook! ...more

5

May 28, 2009

20 pages in i immediately noticed the sherwood anderson influence and shot off an email to my friend xxx, urging him to read it on the flight to nyc. his girlfriend of many years just left him and i figured cannery row might inspire. his response was... um... deranged? check it:


"brian - had a hell of a day. almost got shot down on San Julien this afternoon. Bullet smoke so close I could taste it. Almost got arrested breaking up a Guatemalan knife fight, too. got robbed $40, too. But I bought 20 pages in i immediately noticed the sherwood anderson influence and shot off an email to my friend xxx, urging him to read it on the flight to nyc. his girlfriend of many years just left him and i figured cannery row might inspire. his response was... um... deranged? check it:


"brian - had a hell of a day. almost got shot down on San Julien this afternoon. Bullet smoke so close I could taste it. Almost got arrested breaking up a Guatemalan knife fight, too. got robbed $40, too. But I bought some crack. I'm smoking some right now here in the upstairs office at XXX -- can I do a paidout for this? I am very serious. I have the crack for you. Anyway, I'll save you some. I made a makeshift pipe out of a red Paper*Mate FLEXGRIP ultra med. pen. If it's your pen, I am sorry.

my favorite thing about crack is that it tastes like cheap grape soda. I'm jamming dark side of the moon too, so fuck you --I love you.

Steinbeck: my first mainmost man after Twain when I was "coming up". I got seriously into Steinbeck in my Wonder Years thru early 20s. Had to stop reading him just so I could save something of his for later in life. Grapes of Wrath, The Winter of Our Discontent, In Dubious Battle, Cannery Row, To a God Unknown, all FUCKING amazing. Uncle Sherwood is THEE branch above Steinbeck, Saroyan, Fante, Hemingway, Fitzgerald--they ALL cite him as being The Man.

Well, wish you were here smoking crack with me. I'm taking some to NYC, but I'll save you hit.

Love,
xxx"

i'm not gonna smoke crack. i promise. ...more

5

May 10, 2012

This:

Doc was collecting marine animals in the Great Tide Pool on the tip of the Peninsula. It is a fabulous place: when the tide is in, a wave-churned basin, creamy with foam, whipped by the combers that roll in from the whistling buoy on the reef. But when the tide goes out the little water world becomes quiet and lovely. The sea is very clear and the bottom becomes fantastic with hurrying, fighting, feeding, breeding animals.

And as if Manifest Destiny has pushed the dreamers of America West, This:

Doc was collecting marine animals in the Great Tide Pool on the tip of the Peninsula. It is a fabulous place: when the tide is in, a wave-churned basin, creamy with foam, whipped by the combers that roll in from the whistling buoy on the reef. But when the tide goes out the little water world becomes quiet and lovely. The sea is very clear and the bottom becomes fantastic with hurrying, fighting, feeding, breeding animals.

And as if Manifest Destiny has pushed the dreamers of America West, West as far as they can go, to the furthest seabord and then withdrawn like a tide, leaving them washed up in the stink, the tone, the dream that is Cannery Row, so we peer into this fabulous place and see the teeming life scurrying there. The combers roll over Cannery Row when the sardine fleet has made a catch and a wave of shining cars bring those who disappear into offices, and another wave of men and women come in trousers and rubber coats and oilcloth aprons, and clean and cut and pack the fish, but when the last fish has been cleaned and cut and packed and the boats are riding high in the water again, then this tide of workers retreats back up the hill to Monterey, and Cannery Row becomes itself again - quiet and magical. At dusk, always at dusk, the creatures of this pool creep out to fight and feed and breed. Just as in the Great Tide Pool, these men and women form an economy of their own, a system of interdependence, of borrowing and recycling and stealing, a delicately balanced cycle of taking and giving, one that judiciously sets the limits of giving without becoming a stoop, of taking without obvious exploitation. Warm, wise economics, where the entrepreneurs know when to forgive a loan in order to keep a customer, the chancers know when not to push their luck too far, and the Madam of the Whorehouse knows exactly how philanthropic she has to be to avoid being closed down. The men of the Palace Flophouse are, in the eyes of mainstream society no doubt slackers, no-hopers, scum. They literally live on the dregs of those who pay their way: Eddie is understudy bartender at La Ida. He keeps a gallon jar under the counter, that takes whatever is left in the glasses before he washes them. Sometimes, indeed, "if an argument or a song were going on at La Ida, or late at night when good fellowship had reached its logical conclusion, Eddie poured glasses half or two-thirds full into the funnel…..It was a source of satisfaction to him that nobody was out anything. He had observed that a man got just as drunk on half a glass as on a whole one, that is, if he was in the mood to get drunk at all.” Such wisdom. And this punch is a sensitively calibrated measure of the men’s development and refinement along the length of this short novel: it is delicately put to Eddie, just suppose, not complaining or anything, but just s’pose you had two or three jugs, put the whisky in one, the wine in another… By the end, Eddie has stopped putting beer in at all as all agree it gives a flat taste.

The men from the Flophouse are beyond dreaming, their dignity rests in their having realised the fruitlessness of wanting. Not for them the ulcers and trussed up stricture of those who chase a false, materialist dream. Like most of the wonderful characters in the novel, they have accommodated themselves, have made their home in this place that offers them all they need: companionship, fun, and the contents of Eddie’s gallon jar. They provide the picaresque plot which consists of a crazy, hilarious Odyssey in search of frogs, a disastrous homecoming, and a second chance at a better staging of the party. Their Penelope at the centre, holding everything together, is Doc, the warm beating heart of Cannery Row, the man to whom everyone is grateful and to whom they long to demonstrate their appreciation and indebtedness. Interspersed between the lines of plot there is a wealth of other wonders: the hermit-crab like Malloys who have taken up residence in a disused boiler, Mary Talbot who puts on fantastic parties (view spoiler)[but the only guests are cats (hide spoiler)], a flagpole skater (what?), Josh Billings’ liver, Henri the French painter who was not really French, or named Henri, or really a painter come to that– oh I could go on and on.

There are boundaries: poor William cannot break into this world. For some inexplicable reason no-one likes him. Although there is no real malice, there is nevertheless harm. And often there is a sudden breaking beyond boundaries: a yawning chasm of horror, an opening into another world in the eyes of a drowned girl or the single eye of the dreaded mysterious Chinaman who flap-flapped up the street each evening.

But is this vision of the stink, the tone, the dream too romantic? Sentimental? Surely life at the littoral cannot have been a permanent party? The emptiness at the centre is subtly drawn, in delicate shades of parody in the form of the one and only character that sets up a home, prepares a nest, lays in a store of food, sits at the entrance and calls mournfully for a mate. That character is a lonely gopher who builds his burrow on the vacant lot of Cannery Row. And although it seems like an ideal position for a gopher home, there are no females. He has to move up the hill, to the more civilised, but risky part of town, where there is a dahlia garden. And traps put out every night. The men and women of Cannery Row feel that loss too, that lack of love that will create new life. They are not aware of it, but they feel that emptiness. It is not until the final, moving magnificent scene, when Doc reads them the sweeping, solemn, melancholy verses of the Sanskrit poem ‘Black Marigolds’ that their hollow centre finds expression, but they recognize the pain that crosses centuries and is theirs too.

The fine introduction to this Penguin Classic edition, written by Susan Shillinglaw, informs me that Steinbeck was looking for a new start in 1939. He wrote to Carlton Sheffield, his college roommate. “I’ve worked the novel-I know it as far as I can take it. I never did think much of it-a clumsy vehicle at best. And I don’t know the form of the new but I know there is a new which will be adequate and shaped by the new thinking.”

This.
The new: a rich seam of brilliance.


...more

4

Apr 10, 2018

It is a wondrous and magnificent thing that a necessarily great writer (because not all writers do this) can sit alone in his room emitting explosions of love for his characters and, being free and technically astute, he can channel this ineffable love into the energy of his words so that a reader, half a century after his death, can feel it viscerally as if she were in the room with him at the time of the explosion.

4

Oct 08, 2017

Cannery Row was a pleasant little book based in Monterey, California, one of my favorite spots in the United States. The book has a single loose plot, focused on a group of central characters residing there, but several chapters divert to unrelated stories or tangents. This is something that typically irritates me and would impact my rating of a book but so well done by Steinbeck here in Cannery Row. The general plot focuses on the group of characters, who are all, in one way or another, trying Cannery Row was a pleasant little book based in Monterey, California, one of my favorite spots in the United States. The book has a single loose plot, focused on a group of central characters residing there, but several chapters divert to unrelated stories or tangents. This is something that typically irritates me and would impact my rating of a book but so well done by Steinbeck here in Cannery Row. The general plot focuses on the group of characters, who are all, in one way or another, trying to make something of themselves and deal with their own thoughts, such as failure, pain, and loneliness, among others. There is also a fair amount of scene setting and descriptions of Cannery Row and Monterey.

”The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second.”

“It’s all fine to say ‘Time will heal everything, this too shall pass away. People will forget’ — and things like that when you’re not involved, but when you are there is no passage of time, people do not forget and you are in the middle of something that does not change.”

I’ve only read one other Steinbeck book, Of Mice and Men, which was required reading for me in high school. I remember liking it enough back then, but I really liked Cannery Row, even with it being quite different from the typical books I choose to read and end up enjoying. ...more

5

Jul 30, 2008

This is the first Steinbeck that I've attempted to read as an adult. We had some brief flirtations during my teen years but never really hooked up. I think it was probably a wise choice. Now we've found each other as adults and can really appreciate each other's complexities and I can tell that I'll likely be making sweet love to Johnny S. for years to come.

Cannery Row is a really brief read that features some of the most concise yet descriptive writing I've ever come across. Set in a small This is the first Steinbeck that I've attempted to read as an adult. We had some brief flirtations during my teen years but never really hooked up. I think it was probably a wise choice. Now we've found each other as adults and can really appreciate each other's complexities and I can tell that I'll likely be making sweet love to Johnny S. for years to come.

Cannery Row is a really brief read that features some of the most concise yet descriptive writing I've ever come across. Set in a small stretch of Monterey, California, the book tells the story of the town's inhabitants and their attempts to throw a party to show their appreciation for Doc, a marine collector who is generous almost to a fault. A simple plot, which makes the writing shine all the more. Whether he's describing the town's indigent or the short and exciting life of a tide pool, Steinbeck never fails to turn a phrase that is near poetry in its beauty. All prose should aspire to this degree of eloquence.

...more

5

May 20, 2014

East of Eden is to Cannery Row as The Godfather is to Slacker. This sketch book wrapped up as a novel was the perfect complement to John Steinbeck's multigenerational family epic and reminded me of a scrappy independent movie that takes place on a few blocks of a town off the beaten path. No one character or relationship stands out. It's the sense of place that pervades.

Set in the mid-1940s at roughly the same time the novel was published, Cannery Row defies a time stamp. I got the impression East of Eden is to Cannery Row as The Godfather is to Slacker. This sketch book wrapped up as a novel was the perfect complement to John Steinbeck's multigenerational family epic and reminded me of a scrappy independent movie that takes place on a few blocks of a town off the beaten path. No one character or relationship stands out. It's the sense of place that pervades.

Set in the mid-1940s at roughly the same time the novel was published, Cannery Row defies a time stamp. I got the impression that many of the stories Steinbeck was telling had already vanished into the fog of history as California embarked on World War II, but no matter. By the time I finished the book, I wanted to wrap my belongings into a bindle and hitch a ride to Monterery.

Most of the sketches here involve "Doc", a marine biologist and bachelor who resides in Western Biological. He spends his days making trips up and down the Pacific Coast plucking animals from the tide pools while in the evening, is given to playing opera music on his phonograph, drinking beer and entertaining the occasional female guest.

From businessman to working girl, from Lee Chong's grocery to the Bear Flag Restaurant operated by Dora Flood as the best whorehouse in town, Doc is not only regarded as the most learned man in Monterey, but the most charitable. The local hobos would certainly agree. "The boys", whose elder statesman is a cunning fool named Mack, have taken up residence at an old warehouse they've dubbed the Palace Flophouse.

Clever enough to resist working for a living and cursed enough to foul up almost anything they touch, Mack and the boys get it in their heads to do something nice for Doc. They decide to throw him a party. Funds for the party will be raised by gathering up frogs and selling them to Doc. Peril, pain and pathos ensue.

Cannery Row might seem pretty thin at first blush. The story is more like the book for a stage musical, minus the song and dance numbers, and in fact, a maligned film version was released in 1982 starring Nick Nolte and Debra Winger, inserting a romantic comedy plot where none existed in Steinbeck's source material.

The quality I loved about the novel was how a sense of both community and individuality, happiness and regret, co-existed. Characters ended up in Monterey because an ocean simply stopped them from rolling any further. While they settled together and supported each other, everybody had something they'd abandoned and wanted to atone for. Someday. After one more short round of whiskey.

Steinbeck's wit and gentle way of leaving the reader wiser than when they'd picked up his book lives and breathes here. Anyone with an itch to hit the open road, sleep under the stars and live by your wits and the charity of your fellow man, particularly if you're land locked and yoked to a job, would get a lot of mileage out of this book. Highly recommended. ...more

5

Jun 14, 2015

This book finds me in my making. It gives a color to it which isn't bright or striking, but pale, and subtle, and earthly. It has something of the universe in it. The concomitant pattern is so satisfactory to look at that it swells my heart and waters my eyes.

Steinbeck is The Man.