Cannery Row by John Steinbeck

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


It took me a while to get to writing the review of "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck. Still, having sat down to do it today, I feel that my impressions are as fresh as they’d been back in September when I’d read the book.

"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." I read the opening lines of the novel at the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, California when I visited it with my family in June 2024. The words, framed in a photograph, ran over the view of the Monterey Bay with small, old-fashioned vessels dotting the water surface. I remember standing there reading the words and peering into the picture and thinking that once I return home from our USA trip, I’ll get the book and read it.

John Steinbeck captured my reader’s soul with “The Grapes of Wrath”, the story that also shattered my heart into pieces. “Of Mice and Men” left my heart bleeding. And “East of Eden” planted the seed of reflections that would stay with me until the moment I lose the ability to reflect.

The impact of “Cannery Row” was completely different. It isn’t a story. It is a glimpse into the world hidden from the eyes of ‘decent citizens’, a burst of emotions, fireworks that turn the dark skies into magic for a few moments and then fade forever – from memory too.

On the way to Monterey Bay Aquarium, I stopped to take a picture of I can’t even remember what. Probably a palm or a flag of California with its cute bear caught my eye. And then my husband exclaimed, “What are you photographing there? Look, it’s Steinbeck!” I turned and saw that I was standing next to the writer’s bronze bust. We then walked to the Cannery Row Monument right behind it.

"It is the hour of the pearl—the interval between day and night when time stops and examines itself."

With these words, I would describe “Cannery Row” itself. In this Steinbeck’s novel, time has stopped forever. It stopped amidst the canneries working in full swing, Ford Models T cruising the street, people rushing about their business. And all this against the backdrop of the turquoise waters of the picturesque Monterey Bay.

The characters of the book are numerous and colourful. It is pointless to try to describe them. The author has done it with unsurpassed skill.

Mack and his friends exist in their own reality. We call them homeless, but the home they have created for themselves in a storage shack on an unoccupied land plot in a way is more ‘a home’ than many a mansion of the rich. Mack and other drifters like him are happy with the arrangement they made with the local grocery store owner Lee Chong to live in "The Palace Flophouse", not caring about the taxes, legal issues, and other cumbersome things ‘decent’ people must bother themselves about.

One day, a brilliant idea dawns on Mack. He decides that he simply must do something good for a great guy Doc. Doc is a marine biologist and he owns Western Biological Laboratories. And Doc often does something good for Mack and the boys.

Mack’s idea turns into a disaster of epic proportions. His and the boys’ attempts to make a gift to their friend are, in equal measure, funny, sad, grotesque, and touching.

I think that “Cannery Row” should be read without expectations. You will be surprised anyway. No one can say if that surprise will be pleasant or otherwise. Yet, with the classics, it is always worth checking for yourself.



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Cannery Row