Cannery Row (Cannery Row, #1) in Never too Late to Read Classics

Mar 03, 2013 Chrissie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: usa, audible-us, fiction, relationships

One of Steinbeck’s best, but too short! Again Steinbeck draws a picture of a time and place that will remain a vivid portrait. This time it is a derelict area in Monterey, California. Probably the 1920s, although it is not said. There are T-Fords, it is on this I am guessing. Steinbeck was from Salinas, California, so he is writing about what he knows best: a cannery, the sea, its smells pungent, acrid and salt, the octopi and starfish and rattlesnakes and the rats, the sound of the surf, the fe ...more

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Aug 28, 2017 Kelly_Hunsaker_reads ... rated it really liked it

Shelves: classics, american-lit, 1001-books, read-in-2020

Update for reread in Feb 2020: I really enjoyed the wit and humor throughout this book. Despite the poverty and the sadness of so many events in this book it is still quite funny. The ridiculousness of a couple of the characters was so entertaining.

Original review:

I am obsessed with everything Steinbeck writes. His style is simple and spare and beautiful. He illustrates the circumstances of life, the tragedies of life, with quiet and beautiful attention to the characters that drive the plot. Thi ...more

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Aug 25, 2019 Laura rated it liked it

Shelves: american-fiction, e-books, fiction-20th-century, read-2019, 1001-books-you-must-read-before-you, california, mtbr-challenge-2019

4* The Moon is Down
5* East of Eden
3* Tortilla Flat
3* The Pearl
4* Of Mice and Men
5* The Grapes of Wrath
3* Cannery Row
TR To a God Unknown
TR To Red Pony
TR Cup of Gold: A Life of Sir Henry Morgan, Buccaneer, with Occasional Reference to History
TR The Log from the Sea of Cortez
TR A Russian Journal
TR The Chrysanthemums
TR Travels with Charley: In Search of America
TR In Dubious Battle
TR The Wayward Bus
TR The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights
TR The Winter of Our Discontent
TR Sweet Thursday

4 likes · Like · see review

Apr 15, 2017 Karen rated it really liked it

Shelves: 1001

Although John Steinbeck novels are light on plot, they are heavy on social commentary, a sense of place, and violence (which is kept at a low boil, and doesn't spoil the book). Cannery Row is peopled with an array of colorful characters, whom we get to know and love. ...more

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Aug 08, 2014 Kate rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2014

"Unburdened by the material necessities of the more fortunate, the denizens of Cannery Row discover rewards unknown in more traditional society.

"Henri the painter sorts through junk lots for pieces of wood to incorporate into the boat he is building, while the girls from Dora Flood's bordello venture out now and then to enjoy a bit of sunshine. Lee Chong stocks his grocery with almost anything a man could want, and Doc, a young marine biologist who ministers to sick puppies and unhappy souls, un ...more

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Aug 10, 2012 Janice rated it it was amazing

How did I ever get to my age without reading Cannery Row? I love this book. Its beautiful writing, structure, humor, outlook on human existence, and interesting characters that I truly cared about while reading it spoke to me. I'll be reading it again. ...more

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