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Cannery Row: (Centennial Edition)
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Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Author: John Steinbeck
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
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Our Price: $10.20
You Save: $ 4.80 ( 32% )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Author: John Steinbeck
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Average Customer Rating:
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Cannery Row: (Centennial Edition) Description
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.52
EAN: 9780142000687
ISBN: 014200068X
Label: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 192
Publication Date: 2002-02-05
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Studio: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.52
EAN: 9780142000687
ISBN: 014200068X
Label: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 192
Publication Date: 2002-02-05
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Studio: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Editorial Review of Cannery Row: (Centennial Edition)
Today, nearly forty years after his death, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck remains one of America’s greatest writers and cultural figures. We have begun publishing his many works for the first time as blackspine Penguin Classics featuring eye-catching, newly commissioned art. This season we continue with the seven spectacular and influential books East of Eden, Cannery Row, In Dubious Battle, The Long Valley, The Moon Is Down, The Pastures of Heaven, and Tortilla Flat. Penguin Classics is proud to present these seminal works to a new generation of readers—and to the many who revisit them again and again.
Customer Reviews of Cannery Row: (Centennial Edition)
Customer Rating: 
Review Summary: A "funny little book."
Review: What John Steinbeck does so well, time and again, is show us real people, living real life. Nothing really fantastical, yet just a bit out of the ordinary. But real as dirt.
Reading him makes me wish I did not have to use the past tense when speaking of how he writes.
I just finished his 1945 novel, Cannery Row.
I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The book is not so much about plot, as it is an evocation of time and place. Almost, at times, a panoply of connected vignettes.
Short, economic chapters; never a suffocating moment.
The "cannery" district of Monterey California comes alive, as we meet people like Lee Chong, the shrewd, yet good-hearted general store owner.
From aspirin to zippers, if Lee Chong ain't got it, you ain't need it!
Then there's Mack, the self-appointed ringleader of a veritable posse of down-and-outers. These guys don't work. [I envied them all the way through...] They just sit around all day and cause unintentional mayhem for the whole town, the main victim being Cannery Row's one seeming intellectual, the marine biologist known as "Doc."
The central thrust of Steinbeck's novel is that Mack and his boys want to throw Doc a party. Doc is such a "nice guy" and he is always out there helping others, Mack figures it's time to repay him with a bit of a shindig.
Amazing how such good intentions can go awry!
The first attempt at a party is a complete disaster. The second attempt, this time the event being Doc's alleged birthday, is not much better, but by now Doc has taken precautions. Getting wind of his own party plans, he himself does most of the organizing, and feigns surprise when people start arriving.
But what's the use?
At the end of this second party, his front door is again knocked off its hinges, and by now even the police have given up on arresting these well-intentioned hooligans!
It's a terrific little novel [almost a novella] in which my lasting impression shall be the fact that all friendships, indeed, all human relationships, must be willing to embrace imperfection. Not just in the other person, but also in our own self.
In a subtle way, Doc learns through his bumbling friends, that he is not an island. In fact, he may even need these guys, from time to time.
Even he, self-sufficient Doc, may be in need of someone!
I often look into Steinbeck's Letters [a book] to get a better appreciation for the time frame of some of his writings. Of Cannery Row, he said, back in 1943, to a friend... "I'm working on a funny little book and it is pretty nice."
I concur.
It is funny. It is nice.
The character of "Doc" was based on Steinbeck's real-life friendship with a man by the name of Ed Ricketts.
I read Cannery Row in preparation to reading a new book I recently picked up, entitled Beyond The Outer Shores: The Untold Story of Ed Ricketts, The Pioneering Ecologist Who Inspired John Steinbeck and Joseph Campbell.
It's by Eric Enno Tamm, and I look forward to beginning it, next week.
I highly recommend Cannery Row, to all and sundry.
It's not East of Eden.
It's not Grapes of Wrath.
But it's definitely Cannery Row!
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Disappointing
Review: This is the seventh Steinbeck novel I have read, and also one of the worst (The Short Reign of Pippin the VII is worse). I loved The Red Pony and Of Mice of Men, so I branched out, reading some of his lesser known works. Big Mistake. This novella has no focus, no character you can relate to, no plot to speak of, no definitive climax, and no business being read. I daydreamed through most of it.
The reason I don't give it one star is because Steinbeck, like in most of his novels, provided a great description of post-war Cannery Row, and did a decent job of presenting violence on the periphery (kind of like the news today). We see glimpses of violence but we, nor the characters are ever directly affected. Furthermore, the novel's ending is decent, comparing Doc's lonely isolation to that of a gopher being attacked while trying to seek out a mate. Unfortunately, most things leading up until the ending is uneventful, constantly interrupted by dead-end subplots, and lacking in intrigue.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: No emotional attachments
Review: I enjoyed parts of this book, but it did not draw me in nor give me any emotional attachments to the characters. It seemed to be divided into shorter stories that make up the book in whole. This left me missing details and there didn't seem to be a smooth transition between stories. I enjoyed hearing about Mack and the boys and their adventures, but at other points Steinbeck seemed to introduce characters that don't play any part in the story. The look at the blue collar life and discussion of what type of work makes one happy did interest me as I am going through a career crisis.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Steinbeck - Simple & Sublime
Review: "The sale of souls to gain the whole world is completely voluntary and almost unanimous - but not quite." J.S. "Cannery Row"
Like Jack Kerouac's "On the Road", Steinbeck focuses on a cast of characters that fail to consent to the rigid rules of our money-obsessed, Capitalistic American society that the rest of us automatons (myself included, unfortunately) blindly conform to. Like Kerouac's unconventional classic which would come out a dozen years later, "Cannery Row" doesn't have much a plot. It is essentially a short tale about the lives of the men and women who populate the cannery district of Monterey, California right after the great depression. And a truly unforgettable cast they are - Mack, Doc, Lee Chong, Dora, et al... Each character is real and unique, each character so exquisitely human. One of the main reasons why I enjoy Steinbeck so much is the fact that he is able to write about the frailties of the common American while not being as overly judgmental and self-riotous as other greats tended to be at times (i.e. Sinclair Lewis and Dreiser to name two). He was a writer who focused on the benevolence that resides in men's hearts and souls, despite all their imperfections and sins.
In my past life, before I became a well respected,'successful' business man. Before the ulcers, before the insomnia, before the apathy and ennui swallowed up my soul, I was your classic beach bum. It almost seems as if that past life of mine never really existed - surfing twenty to forty hours a week, living off of bad coffee and Top Ramen, working odd jobs a couple days a month so that I had enough money for beer and to cover rent, letting my hair go long and shaving only when I felt like it, partying five nights a week, etc... etc... What a bum I was back then! Yet back then, you never saw me sans a smile. Despite all the unhealthy food, all the beer, all the late nights, etc... I was never healthier in my mind and body. I was never healthier because I was truly at peace and happy. This is why I loved "Cannery Row", because it brought me back to that simple time and place. In many ways, reading this was quite a bittersweet experience. However, we all have to grow up someday don't we? At least that's what they all say...
This is one of my favorite reads of all-time. Right up there with "Grapes of Wrath" and "East of Eden" (the latter being my second favorite novel of all-time) and of all his novellas, this is definitely the best in my opinion. I haven't read them all, but I've read the majority of them, and although there are plenty of other jewels in that bunch, "Cannery Row" is the gem among gems. It is a simple story, but sometimes simple can be sublime, and this short story is all the proof one needs to back up that statement.
So great, I read it twice!
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A different kind of love story.
Review: I will just say this: When I finished reading Cannery Row, I turned the book over and read the description on the back cover, which ends "...and Doc, a young marine biologist who ministers to sick puppies and unhappy souls, unexpectedly finds true love."
Those last four words, "unexpectedly finds true love", were my key to this story. At first I thought they made no sense (I will not say why so as not to spoil the ending for anyone), so I went back and read the book again, particulary the last three chapters, and thought about the story as a whole. And there I discovered the true genius of the book, the subtle and mysterious layers of meaning beneath the surface of this seemingly lighthearted tale.
Breathtaking. Beautiful. Sublime.
That's all I can say. Every chapter and word counts in this story. It all adds up if you pay attention, so read it, with your eyes and with your heart.
Review Summary: A "funny little book."
Review: What John Steinbeck does so well, time and again, is show us real people, living real life. Nothing really fantastical, yet just a bit out of the ordinary. But real as dirt.
Reading him makes me wish I did not have to use the past tense when speaking of how he writes.
I just finished his 1945 novel, Cannery Row.
I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The book is not so much about plot, as it is an evocation of time and place. Almost, at times, a panoply of connected vignettes.
Short, economic chapters; never a suffocating moment.
The "cannery" district of Monterey California comes alive, as we meet people like Lee Chong, the shrewd, yet good-hearted general store owner.
From aspirin to zippers, if Lee Chong ain't got it, you ain't need it!
Then there's Mack, the self-appointed ringleader of a veritable posse of down-and-outers. These guys don't work. [I envied them all the way through...] They just sit around all day and cause unintentional mayhem for the whole town, the main victim being Cannery Row's one seeming intellectual, the marine biologist known as "Doc."
The central thrust of Steinbeck's novel is that Mack and his boys want to throw Doc a party. Doc is such a "nice guy" and he is always out there helping others, Mack figures it's time to repay him with a bit of a shindig.
Amazing how such good intentions can go awry!
The first attempt at a party is a complete disaster. The second attempt, this time the event being Doc's alleged birthday, is not much better, but by now Doc has taken precautions. Getting wind of his own party plans, he himself does most of the organizing, and feigns surprise when people start arriving.
But what's the use?
At the end of this second party, his front door is again knocked off its hinges, and by now even the police have given up on arresting these well-intentioned hooligans!
It's a terrific little novel [almost a novella] in which my lasting impression shall be the fact that all friendships, indeed, all human relationships, must be willing to embrace imperfection. Not just in the other person, but also in our own self.
In a subtle way, Doc learns through his bumbling friends, that he is not an island. In fact, he may even need these guys, from time to time.
Even he, self-sufficient Doc, may be in need of someone!
I often look into Steinbeck's Letters [a book] to get a better appreciation for the time frame of some of his writings. Of Cannery Row, he said, back in 1943, to a friend... "I'm working on a funny little book and it is pretty nice."
I concur.
It is funny. It is nice.
The character of "Doc" was based on Steinbeck's real-life friendship with a man by the name of Ed Ricketts.
I read Cannery Row in preparation to reading a new book I recently picked up, entitled Beyond The Outer Shores: The Untold Story of Ed Ricketts, The Pioneering Ecologist Who Inspired John Steinbeck and Joseph Campbell.
It's by Eric Enno Tamm, and I look forward to beginning it, next week.
I highly recommend Cannery Row, to all and sundry.
It's not East of Eden.
It's not Grapes of Wrath.
But it's definitely Cannery Row!
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Disappointing
Review: This is the seventh Steinbeck novel I have read, and also one of the worst (The Short Reign of Pippin the VII is worse). I loved The Red Pony and Of Mice of Men, so I branched out, reading some of his lesser known works. Big Mistake. This novella has no focus, no character you can relate to, no plot to speak of, no definitive climax, and no business being read. I daydreamed through most of it.
The reason I don't give it one star is because Steinbeck, like in most of his novels, provided a great description of post-war Cannery Row, and did a decent job of presenting violence on the periphery (kind of like the news today). We see glimpses of violence but we, nor the characters are ever directly affected. Furthermore, the novel's ending is decent, comparing Doc's lonely isolation to that of a gopher being attacked while trying to seek out a mate. Unfortunately, most things leading up until the ending is uneventful, constantly interrupted by dead-end subplots, and lacking in intrigue.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: No emotional attachments
Review: I enjoyed parts of this book, but it did not draw me in nor give me any emotional attachments to the characters. It seemed to be divided into shorter stories that make up the book in whole. This left me missing details and there didn't seem to be a smooth transition between stories. I enjoyed hearing about Mack and the boys and their adventures, but at other points Steinbeck seemed to introduce characters that don't play any part in the story. The look at the blue collar life and discussion of what type of work makes one happy did interest me as I am going through a career crisis.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Steinbeck - Simple & Sublime
Review: "The sale of souls to gain the whole world is completely voluntary and almost unanimous - but not quite." J.S. "Cannery Row"
Like Jack Kerouac's "On the Road", Steinbeck focuses on a cast of characters that fail to consent to the rigid rules of our money-obsessed, Capitalistic American society that the rest of us automatons (myself included, unfortunately) blindly conform to. Like Kerouac's unconventional classic which would come out a dozen years later, "Cannery Row" doesn't have much a plot. It is essentially a short tale about the lives of the men and women who populate the cannery district of Monterey, California right after the great depression. And a truly unforgettable cast they are - Mack, Doc, Lee Chong, Dora, et al... Each character is real and unique, each character so exquisitely human. One of the main reasons why I enjoy Steinbeck so much is the fact that he is able to write about the frailties of the common American while not being as overly judgmental and self-riotous as other greats tended to be at times (i.e. Sinclair Lewis and Dreiser to name two). He was a writer who focused on the benevolence that resides in men's hearts and souls, despite all their imperfections and sins.
In my past life, before I became a well respected,'successful' business man. Before the ulcers, before the insomnia, before the apathy and ennui swallowed up my soul, I was your classic beach bum. It almost seems as if that past life of mine never really existed - surfing twenty to forty hours a week, living off of bad coffee and Top Ramen, working odd jobs a couple days a month so that I had enough money for beer and to cover rent, letting my hair go long and shaving only when I felt like it, partying five nights a week, etc... etc... What a bum I was back then! Yet back then, you never saw me sans a smile. Despite all the unhealthy food, all the beer, all the late nights, etc... I was never healthier in my mind and body. I was never healthier because I was truly at peace and happy. This is why I loved "Cannery Row", because it brought me back to that simple time and place. In many ways, reading this was quite a bittersweet experience. However, we all have to grow up someday don't we? At least that's what they all say...
This is one of my favorite reads of all-time. Right up there with "Grapes of Wrath" and "East of Eden" (the latter being my second favorite novel of all-time) and of all his novellas, this is definitely the best in my opinion. I haven't read them all, but I've read the majority of them, and although there are plenty of other jewels in that bunch, "Cannery Row" is the gem among gems. It is a simple story, but sometimes simple can be sublime, and this short story is all the proof one needs to back up that statement.
So great, I read it twice!
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A different kind of love story.
Review: I will just say this: When I finished reading Cannery Row, I turned the book over and read the description on the back cover, which ends "...and Doc, a young marine biologist who ministers to sick puppies and unhappy souls, unexpectedly finds true love."
Those last four words, "unexpectedly finds true love", were my key to this story. At first I thought they made no sense (I will not say why so as not to spoil the ending for anyone), so I went back and read the book again, particulary the last three chapters, and thought about the story as a whole. And there I discovered the true genius of the book, the subtle and mysterious layers of meaning beneath the surface of this seemingly lighthearted tale.
Breathtaking. Beautiful. Sublime.
That's all I can say. Every chapter and word counts in this story. It all adds up if you pay attention, so read it, with your eyes and with your heart.