Cannery Row by John Steinbeck Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Cannery Row
Book Review: A beautifully written novel
Summary: 5 Stars
I just finished Cannery Row and I loved it. I didn't care that the book didn't seemingly have a "plot". The characters were so realistic and such good people that I immediately fell in love with them. By the end of the book, I thought of each character as some sort of saint rather than the bum or hooker that they "really" were. Steinbeck gives the reader an intimate view into this community that he knows so well. I thought of Cannery Row as a sort of paradise where the ideals that are truly important prevail. Even besides all this, I thought that the writing was just so eloquent. I enjoyed reading about these characters that would be overlooked in real life because of the way that they live.Book Review: A book that lives in the soul
Summary: 5 Stars
You usually know the books you like best - you slow down as you come towards the end, reluctant to put them by. "Cannery Row" is one of those books.
In its all-American, seedy, rambling way, it has affinities with Kerouac's later "On the Road." The episodic narrative is unified through cinematic handling of Cannery Row's topography. We share the familiarity and intimacy of its buildings and spaces "kitty-corner", opposite, in front of, and behind each other.
The inhabitants thus spatially and topographically linked are no less vivid: Doc, wise and poetic, his laboratory full of his beloved marine specimens; Lee Chong, the canny Chinese grocer; Dora the local madam; and Mack with his "gang of good-natured losers who inhabit the Palace Flophouse" (per the Penguin edition).
Structurally, the vignettes linked by an overarching setting recall Anderson's "Sherwood, Ohio". An extended narrative is triggered by Mack's decision to spring a surprise party for the well-loved Doc. To raise the beer money, the dossers agree to net 400 frogs for Doc up the coast. Thus starts a Pacific picaresque odyssey in Lee Chong's uncooperative Model T Ford - a recipe for trouble.
Steinbeck lovingly paints this rundown society with realism and respect, occasionally introducing chapters with an epic claim: "Monterey is a city with a long and brilliant literary tradition." "The Model T Ford of Lee Chong had a dignified history". Set against this the true-to-life element: "Lee Chong got the truck in payment of a grocery bill."
The beautiful comparison of Mack and his cohorts to the classical Graces has often been cited. Here's another detail which sums up this book's lyricism. When a disused old boiler is moved into a vacant lot, flowers germinate around it: "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."
Only Steinbeck could have wrung such humanity out of a discarded bit of hardware. Fabulous.
Book Review: A complex town of rouges and misfits.
Summary: 5 Stars
The book Cannery Row is excellant book for the highschool level reader. It is filled lively charecters and a very good stroy line. I recommend to any who likes to read.Book Review: A fine novel
Summary: 5 Stars
Steinbeck's Cannery Row is, at times, a humorous look at a social microcosm and its individuals struggle to interact with, but, as per J S Mill, not interfere with, each other.The daily lives of Doc, Mack and the boys, Lee Chong, Albert and the rest move with a slow fluidity from snapshot to snapshot as each struggles to relate to his or her neighbor, to do good by them and achieve a place within the social stratum that is firmly fixed.
Essentially, the plot is to hold a party. The self-deluding, but well-intentioned, Mack and the boys come up with a plan to gather frogs in order to hold a party for Doc. Within the social structure of the Palace Flophouse they successfully obtain all the necessary 'bits' to enact the plan, but its inherent seflishness means that they ultimately fail, wreck Doc's laboratory and end up being outcasts from their place in the social strata. Ultimately they realise that the Party needs everyone in Cannery Row's assistance and, once everyone pulls together, it is achieved spectacularly.
A humorous look, yet with a deep underlying comment on the struggle for survival, at a small geographical area, the lives of these people leaves an indelible mark on the reader and you are left with a sense of affiliation and understanding that transcends the novel.
Book Review: A great portrayal of the importance of community!
Summary: 5 Stars
In school, most students are forced to read some boring books that their teachers call "classics." But of course most students don't fully grasp the meaning of most of the books. When I was forced to read Cannery Row, I thought, oh no, not another book. But, during the course of reading this piece, I found that the book made me think. Cannery Row deeply described the importance of the community around you. And in doing so, I came to realize that not everything should relvove around an individual. The people around you help to make you who you are. They are the ones to shape your perspective. Cannery Row portrays this excellently. It is a great book, that all people, not just students should read.