Ease Reading-Find Your Next Favorite Book

Hot Search

Cannery Row #1

Cannery Row

john steinbeck

... Show More
Cannery Row is a book without much of a plot. Rather, it is an attempt to capture the feeling and people of a place, the cannery district of Monterey, California, which is populated by a mix of those down on their luck and those who choose for other reasons not to live "up the hill" in the more respectable area of town. The flow of the main plot is frequently interrupted by short vignettes that introduce us to various denizens of the Row, most of whom are not directly connected with the central story. These vignettes are often characterized by direct or indirect reference to extreme violence: suicides, corpses, and the cruelty of the natural world.

The "story" of Cannery Row follows the adventures of Mack and the boys, a group of unemployed yet resourceful men who inhabit a converted fish-meal shack on the edge of a vacant lot down on the Row.

Sweet Thursday is the sequel to Cannery Row.

181 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,1943
Series
Cannery Row
Places
california, the united states of america, monterey california, 

This edition

Format
181 pages, Paperback
Published
February 5, 2002 by Penguin Books
ISBN
9780142000687
ASIN
014200068X
Language
English
Characters More characters

More editions

About the author

Profile Image for john steinbeck

john steinbeck

... Show More
John Ernst Steinbeck was an American writer. He won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social perception". He has been called "a giant of American letters."
During his writing career, he authored 33 books, with one book coauthored alongside Edward F. Ricketts, including 16 novels, six non-fiction books, and two collections of short stories. He is widely known for the comic novels Tortilla Flat (1935) and Cannery Row (1945), the multi-generation epic East of Eden (1952), and the novellas The Red Pony (1933) and Of Mice and Men (1937). The Pulitzer Prize–winning The Grapes of Wrath (1939) is considered Steinbeck's masterpiece and part of the American literary canon. By the 75th anniversary of its publishing date, it had sold 14 million copies.
Most of Steinbeck's work is set in central California, particularly in the Salinas Valley and the California Coast Ranges region. His works frequently explored the themes of fate and injustice, especially as applied to downtrodden or everyman protagonists.

Readers also enjoyed

Community Reviews

Rating(4 / 5.0, 99 votes)
5 stars
29(29%)
4 stars
45(45%)
3 stars
25(25%)
2 stars
0(0%)
1 stars
0(0%)
99 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
JizzyBizzy
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
... Show More
"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."
- The first line of Cannery Row

I always enjoy Steinbeck. I don’t think I have read a single one that is not 5 stars. I am glad to finally read Cannery Row and discover that it is not an exception to the 5-star rule.

Cannery Row is one main storyline interspersed with slightly related anecdotes every other chapter. Each story is a snapshot into part of the life of a citizen of Cannery Row. The writing is perfect and drew me in and held me. Some parts felt like a little bit of filler, but they really are not. They all serve to enrich the story and the atmosphere. Every second of this story was an absolute treat!

Characters! I want to meet them all: the good, the bad, the silly, the sweet, the criminal, the questionably moral, and the seemingly righteous. Every time I read Steinbeck, I love getting to know the people he creates. And, I figure based on how he writes and what he writes about he probably knew someone just like every one of his characters. While with some of his other stories there have been obvious villains, this is a book you will leave loving very character you meet no matter what they are like.

If you have been wanting to try Steinbeck but are not ready to commit to a larger tome like East of Eden or Grapes of Wrath, Cannery Row would be a great place to start!
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
Woks
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
... Show More
As a longtime fan of Steinbeck, boy oh boy did he not disappoint! Unlike the other works of his I've read, this novel is set on the coast of California in the Monterey Bay area. One of my favorite parts of reading this was the lengthy descriptions of the wildlife and nature inherent to the area. I've always had a science-y part of myself in addition to my bookish tendencies, and in fact I'm completing a biology minor in school. Resultantly, I really enjoyed the marine biology focus of this work, but at the same time it was not over the top. I think Steinbeck did a wonderful job of showcasing his knowledge about the nature of Monterey Bay, while still keeping it approachable for all readers. I also found the relationships between the odd-ball inhabitants of Cannery Row to be incredibly endearing, and despite the short length of the novel, I felt like I knew them all so well by the end of the novel. I love Steinbeck's writing, and he did not disappoint with this one. I completely recommend to readers of all levels - I think this is the perfect introduction to Steinbeck for anyone who hasn't read him before. Absolutely loved it: 4.5/5 stars.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
Glassssss_
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
... Show More
I'm just really enjoying going back and reading the Steinbeck I missed, now that I realize what a beautiful writer he is. I ended up reading this because I read Monterey Bay from the Tournament of Books longlist, where the author took Steinbeck's research, characters, place and time and wrote her own novel. It made me want to read the original, which I wasn't even sure was a novel at first. One of the characters is based on Ed Ricketts, who Steinbeck writes about taking a journey with in The Log from the Sea of Cortez, and dedicates this book to.

The language! Such language.
"Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream.
And the characters! Here's an example:
"Mack and the boys, too, spinning in their orbits. They are the Virtues, the Graces, the Beauties of the hurried mangled craziness of Monterey and the cosmic Monterey where men in fear and hunger destroy their stomachs in the fight to secure certain food, where men hungering for love destroy everything lovable about them."
And here's one for the road, maybe a bit applicable in 2017:
"'It has always seemed strange to me,' said Doc. '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."
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
FenominalJA
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
... Show More
‌
‌
جان یه رفیقی داشت به نام اِد ریکِتس که یه زیست‌شناس دریایی بود. ایشون یه آزمایشگاه داشت توی ساحل مونتری و کارش جمع‌آوری نمونه‌های موجودات آبزی و دریایی برای مدارس و دانشگاهها بود. جان و اِد دوستای صمیمی شده بودن و حتی همسر جان توی آزمایشگاه اِد مشغول به کار شده بود یه دوره‌ای. اِد تاثیر زیادی روی جان میزاره و فلسفه و زیست‌شناسی رو بهش آموزش میده.
‌
این کتاب یه جور ادای دین به ریکتس بوده و بس. برشهایی از زندگی ریکتس و خاطراتش، خرده روایت‌هایی از ایشون به همراه آدمای دور و برش که جان نتونسته بود منسجم ارائه‌شون کنه و باعث شده بود کتاب اصلا دلنشین نباشه. من اگر بودم این خرده روایتها رو به صورت داستان کوتاه منتشر میکردم نه یه رمان.
‌
حالا از اینم که بگذریم، ترجمه فاجعه بود!! یعنی به هیچ عنوان پیشنهاد نمیشه برید سراغش، یا زبان اصلی بخونید یا صبر کنید یه ترجمه درست حسابی ازش دربیاد. البته من ترجمه مرضیه خسروی رو خوندم از نشر روزگار !!

درضمن یه فیلم هم از روی این کتاب ساخته شده که به مراتب از کتاب بهتره چون یه خط داستانی منسجم به فیلم‌نامه اضافه کردن، چیزی که کتاب به شدت از نبودش رنج میبره.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
NadiaSusana
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
... Show More
Il caldo aroma della vita

“Le cose che ammiriamo negli uomini, la bontà, la generosità, la franchezza, l'onestà, la saggezza e la sensibilità, sono in noi elementi che portano alla rovina. E le caratteristiche che detestiamo, la furberia, la cupidigia, l'avarizia, la meschinità, l'egoismo, portano al successo. E mentre gli uomini ammirano le prime di queste qualità, amano il risultato delle seconde”.

La prima cosa è il luogo: Cannery Row, Monterey, California, l'abitato quartiere dove hanno sede gli stabilimenti per la produzione di sardine in scatola, la bottega di alimentari e liquori, il bar di dubbia fama, la casa di piacere frequentata da operai, marinai e soldati, uno strano Istituto di Biologia, il magazzino occupato dagli hobos, i vagabondi che hanno così poco da chiedere all'esistere. E così il traduttore, Aldo Camerino, rese quel “row” con Vicolo, per consonanza con questo ambiente di umili, di piccole cose, di ultimi resti di umanità. Steinbeck ha penna agile e lirica nel descrivere le azioni e i personaggi che, in quegli anni Trenta, riempiono questa scena scanzonata: un commerciante cinese, una maitresse di intensa esperienza, le giovani e flessuose ospiti del bordello, coppie che vivono in caldaie dismesse o altre che offrono un the inglese a una massa di gatti, i reietti che cercano di sopravvivere e di godere di ciò che è a portata, il Dottore biologo, saggio e misterioso e generoso, che si avventura ovunque per sentieri marini e sacri e si presta a fare da punto cardinale di una comunità dispersa, fragile, frammentata e, diremmo oggi, molto liquida (in ogni senso). Quest'ultimo personaggio è calco di un grande amico di Steinbeck, che qui e altrove volle omaggiarlo. E quindi l'autore di Salinas ci narra la marea delle vicende: la caccia alle rane, i debiti, le ubriacature, il furgone “modello T” simbolo culturale, le gentilezze e i piaceri del corpo offerte ai viandanti, gli stenti, la miseria, le feste, le risse, le disillusioni e i fattacci di questi umili e imbranati e fallimentari antieroi del vivere. Così i semplici cittadini di vicolo Cannery assumono un'aristocratica sprezzatura verso il destino del mondo, la loro anima è libera, tornano a guardare le cose ogni mattino con occhi nuovi. A colpire in questo testo è l'applicazione di due princìpi di leggerezza, l'umorismo e la fantasia, che con meraviglia e atmosfera creano in chi legge una aggraziata sospensione del senso morale.

“La prima mattina è tempo di magia nel Vicolo Cannery. Nell’ora grigia, dopo l’apparire della luce e prima che il sole si sia levato, pare che il Vicolo penda sospeso fuori del tempo in una luce d’argento. I fanali si spengono e l’erba è d’un verde lucente. Il ferro ondulato brilla della lucentezza del platino o degli antichi peltri. Non passano automobili, allora. La strada è silenziosa di movimento e di faccende. E si odono l’impeto e il fragore delle onde, mentre il mare urta contro i piloni degli stabilimenti. È un tempo di grande pace, un tempo abbandonato, una piccola era di riposo”.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
guhahahaha
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
... Show More
Три пъти започвам "Улица "Консервна" и три пъти я зарязвам. Добре, че беше чудесният прочит на Николай Николов в Сторител, та да й дам шанс. И какво се оказа - изненадващо умилителна, малко тъжна и много весела история е сътворил Стайнбек. А сред всички уж разпилени, преплетени и небрежно подхвърлени житейски разкази насред Улица Консервна - чувство на топлина, човещина, чистосърдечност, добронамерена дяволитост и не малко мъдрост.
0 0 Reply
Leave a Review
You must be logged in to rate and post a review. Register an account to get started.