Cannery Row: (Centennial Edition)
by John Steinbeck
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Book Summary Information
Author: John SteinbeckEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-02-05
ISBN: 014200068X
Number of pages: 192
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Book Reviews of Cannery Row: (Centennial Edition)
Book Review: "With your sheet-metal memory of Cannery Row..."
Summary: 5 Stars
Bob Dylan included the subject line in his epic song, "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands." Precisely what the line means is a matter of conjecture, and I would welcome some comments. It could mean an absolute and for sure recollection, like something burned into sheet-metal; but typical of Dylan, it could mean the opposite, a memory that has no traction, on something so smooth, like sheet-metal, that nothing is retained.
At any rate, on my second reading, I found it to be as warm, enjoyable, heart-felt, and humane as the first reading. It stands in contrast to "The Grapes of Wrath," his more epic novel for which he won the Nobel Prize. The later dealt far more with the moral dimensions of the Great Depression, whereas Cannery Row, which is set in the same period, depicts some of the "beautiful losers" who manage to survive, and accommodate each other in ways most of us have now long forgotten.
Cannery Row is in Monterey, California, and as the name implies, is near the large canneries which service the fishing boats, and provide meaningful employment when the boats are full. Steinbeck's prose is lean, and he has the knack of quickly providing the meaningful details that provide essential insights into his characters. There is Doc, the alcoholic intellectual who runs the Western Biological Laboratory, which provides marine specimens for many places in the country. There is Mack, and the boys who mean good, can rarely keep a few dollars together, and who manage to live rent free in the "Palace Flophouse." There is Dora Flood, who runs an "upright" house of prostitution, called the "Bear Flag Restaurant." And there is Lee Chong, who runs the local grocery store, and provides, or doesn't, credit for many of the denizens of the area. The plot centers around the two parties that Mack and the boys attempt to hold in honor of Doc. And who amongst us has not known some folks like Mack, who are well-intentioned, but doomed to failure?
Steinbeck's social commentary is much more low-key than in "The Grapes of Wrath," but it is still there, at times implicit, at others, explicit. Consider: "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."
For those enjoying the Great Recession, or not, this is an insightful, wonderful read of the survivors from a previous hard-times era. A solid 5-stars.
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