Rating 3.75

Yes, I'm going to work my way through Steinbeck's books. Honestly, I grabbed this one as it was his only audio available from my library (guess everyone is reading Steinbeck these days) but one I had an interest in checking out.

Described as "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." Interesting, a place in California in the Great Depression where there are some fish canneries and a cast of characters and businesses that are also here. The story is really about the characters that live on Cannery Row. It focuses on a few special characters and eventually a party they throw...or two. Man, these people can really throw a party and it gets absolutely outta control! TWICE! It's a character driven "plot". However, it's not too deep into the characters as it's a really short book. But a glimpse in time on these souls, how they lived and struggled, but ultimately showed they were happy (I thought). It showed the characters were not really who they initially appeared to be, there was more to them. Oh man, the dog....heartbreaking, but they rallied for the dog and I cheered! (I'm a dog lover) Steinbeck really does well describing times, places, people and capturing the 'phrases' frequently used during those times when he created these books.

I'm a sucker for a deep character driven story. Even if it's a slow read. You dive so deep into the character and I'm loving it. So while I liked this one, I felt it was missing a bit of depth. I tried not to compare it to my most recent read of his, but maybe I did in some way. Overall, glad I read this one. Now....I just wonder what Steinbeck audio will be available next from my library. That's my next 'read' of his. Ha!

All of our so-called successful men are sick men, with bad stomachs, and bad souls, but Mack and the boys are healthy and curiously clean.

Cannery Row offered an unexpected perspective. This is a lower-case anarchism, a common law wedding of science and bacchanal. I loved the situations and gasped and laughed when life intruded: whether that be discovering a corpse or the inevitable fire during revelry. Doc and Mack are wonderful characters, masters of bricolage without the attendant French theory.

I had been feeling flat and uninspired and this novel slipped into place nicely, the spray of guerilla storms masking the audible click of the fascinated reader. The 2022 reader might raise an eyebrow here or there but Cannery Row remains a balm, a guard against the wind. I'm thankful for that. The coastal landscape is as haunting as it is sublime.

There is something about Steinbeck's writing that is so smooth and relaxing. I eased in comfortably to knowing these odd ball characters and the place where they live. I was left with warm feelings for all.

تلاش دوستان داگ برای گرفتن یک مهمانی برای او و ...
آخرش هم چیزی که نباید درست از آب دربیاد هرگز درست نمی‌شه!!

This wasn't just a character study of a person or persons, but a in-depth look at an entire community. And it was brilliant.

I haven't read John Steinbeck since high school when I read Of Mice and Men. I am sorely disappointed in myself for not reading his other novels sooner. Cannery Row is dripping in wit and wisdom; you'll be laughing one moment and then seriously pondering a certain passage the next. Lighthearted and then gritty, warm and then dark, it's a portrait of a certain kind of post wild-west life that feels as if you could step through the pages into a different era - one that was as uncertain about its future as the one we're in now.

So many great characters inhabited this book. My favorite was probably Mack, the de facto leader of the boys of the Palace Flophouse - a bunch of layabouts who may actually be onto something when it comes to the secret of a happy life. Mack is full of charisma and vigor and is a genuinely kind person, but struggles with impulses that always seem to get him in trouble, good intentions or not.

The sorta kinda protagonist - simply known as 'Doc' - was also intriguingly well written . I can definitely feel how Steinbeck based him off his friend Ed Ricketts - he's too tangible of a character to not have a real life doppelganger.

There are so many great moments here; the hilarity of the frog catching scene and the poignant moments involving Doc and Frankie come to mind. There is not much in the way of a central plot, but there doesn't need to be; I grew to like everyone so much that I was happy just reading about their varied experiences.

After reading this, The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden have jumped way up on my classics to read list.

Two of my favorite quotes:

“Financial bitterness could not eat too deeply into Mack and the boys, for they were not mercantile men. They did not measure their joy in goods sold, their egos in bank balances, nor their loves in what they cost.”

And

“What's celebrate?" Eddie asked.

"That's when you can't get no dame," said Mack.

"I thought it was a kind of a party," said Jones.

A silence fell on the room.”

Edit: After thinking about this book a bit, I'm moving it from a 4 to 5 star rating. It left quite a mark on me on how I view certain styles of novels and made me a huge Steinbeck fan.

Here am I continuing to fill in the gaps from when I dropped off the face of the Earth. While I was not on Earth, I read Cannery Row by John Steinbeck. Sure, it was for my English class, but I read it nonetheless.

I did skim through bits and pieces of this novel when it was required reading for my English class in my junior year of high school, 3 years ago, and I guess I kinda remember having some lengthy discussions on it -- but nothing I ever paid much attention to. This time around, I actually digested the words on the paper!! That truly doesn't happen too often… unless the book actually interests me. 3 years ago, I didn't care. Now, I do.

I think this novel came to me again in a time where I learned to appreciate the simplicity of things. I have become much more accustomed to reading novels that allow the stories to crawl out on their own (here am I paraphrasing Steinbeck himself), much like most of my new favorite books in the literary fiction genre. Since books like these don't tend to have a very strong plotline, I was happy to just float along and indulge in all of the shenanigans that ensued in Monterey in the mid-20th century, from catching frogs to throwing parties. Interspersed with chapters of fables or smaller stories about other people in town, it felt relaxing, like a breath of fresh air.

I want to commend Steinbeck on his ability to drop minute details about the characters without going into further depth. What he wants us to know we will know, but other information will be kept hidden unless the need for it arises later on. It makes the reader question the contents of the characters' pasts: what happened that made them end up like this? But I do think a bit too much consideration on this topic will make for a less enjoyable read. We don't need to rack our brains to answer the mysteries of the story when we can instead sit back and watch.

Just one more thing I wanted to note: I didn't entirely like the characterization of Asian characters in this novel, from "the old Chinaman" to Lee Chong. Both seemed flat, each representing different stereotypes often held for Asian characters. I don't know, just considering how much depth Steinbeck gave other characters, it felt a bit odd to leave those two very stale.

That's all folks. Until the next.

"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. Cannery Row is the gathered and scattered, tin and iron and rust and splintered wood, chipped pavement and weedy lots and junk heaps, sardine canneries of corrugated iron, honky tonks, restaurants and whore houses, and little crowded groceries, and laboratories and flophouses."

John Steinbeck's "Cannery Row" captures the spirit of a rundown waterfront community in 1930s Monterey. The book's main character is Doc, a marine biologist based on the author's friend, Ed Ricketts. Doc, owner of a biological supply company, is a generous, intelligent man who is known for helping others.

The book is composed of character sketches and humorous vignettes as Mack and the boys decide to do something nice for Doc by throwing him a party. Mack and his friends live in a converted fish-meal storage building near a sardine canning factory and a vacant lot. They do odd jobs to get by, and are resourceful in their own ways.

The descriptions of Monterey are gorgeous:

"Early morning is a time of magic in Cannery Row. In the gray time after the light has come and before the sun has risen, the Row seems to hang suspended out of time in a silvery light. The street lights go out, and the weeds are a brilliant green. The corrugated iron of the canneries glows with the pearly lucency of platinum or old pewter. . . The rush and drag of the waves can be heard as they splash in among the piles of the canneries. It is a time of great peace, a deserted time, a little era of rest. . . It is the hour of the pearl--the interval between day and night when time stops and examines itself."

"Cannery Row" is about community, and making a family of friends. While most of the characters are down on their luck from a material point of view, they exhibit compassion and a joy in living. Highly recommended!

What the great John Ernst Steinbeck has done here is nothing short of a work of art. He didn't so much write a plot-driven story that meanders through with its tedious beginning middle and end, he wove a beautiful tapestry of colorful characters and their varying circumstances. The threads of their lives intertwining, their struggles, successes, turmoil, and happiness woven together to make something beautiful and timeless.

"'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,
inquisitiveness, meanness, egotism, and
self-interest are the traits of success.' "

Cannery Row isn't so much a story as it is a feeling. A comradery, a fellowship,  a snapshot of a time and place. Steinbeck's ability to make you feel like you are part of the environment is unmatched, his uncanny ability to make you feel attached to his characters with minimal effort is beyond compassion.

From one chapter to the next; your running a local grocery store with theever-vigilantt Lee Chong; your out in the tide pools collecting starfish with Doc; your living it up in the palace flophouse with Mac and the boys. In 200 short page,s Mr. Steinbeck has proven, once again, that he is a literary God and we should all be attending the church of John Ernst Steinbeck.

Най-сетне да попадна на по човешки понятен американски класик

I first read it in 2019 and at that time I only gave it 3 stars. I'm glad I decided to give it another go as I enjoyed it a lot more then I did then. 4 or 4.5 stars can't decide yet. John Steinbeck was very talented with his pen both how he wrote and the characters and flow of the story. Read a few of his works but far from everything. Need to start reading more of his works sooner rather then later.

It is a weird experience to (without directly meaning to) read Cannery Row and Suttree within months of each other. I almost want to give this novel five stars just to celebrate its obvious parentage to Suttree. While Suttree's style is a scream in the ear, Steinbeck's novel is a gentle and (for better and worse at times) sentimental song.

Cannery Row (Cannery Row #1), John Steinbeck

Cannery Row is a novel by American author John Steinbeck, published in 1945. It is set during the Great Depression in Monterey, California, on a street lined with sardine canneries that is known as Cannery Row. The story revolves around the people living there: Lee Chong, the local grocer; Doc, a marine biologist; and Mack, the leader of a group of derelicts.

Cannery Row has a simple premise: Mack and his friends are trying to do something nice for their friend Doc, who has been good to them without asking for reward. Mack hits on the idea that they should throw a thank-you party, and the entire community quickly becomes involved.

Unfortunately, the party rages out of control, and Doc's lab and home are ruined, and so is Doc's mood. In an effort to return to Doc's good graces, Mack and the boys decide to throw another party but make it work this time. A procession of linked vignettes describes the denizens' lives on Cannery Row. These constitute subplots that unfold concurrently with the main plot.

تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز بیستم ماه فوریه سال 1977میلادی

عنوان: راسته کنسرو سازان (راسته کنسرو سازی)؛ نویسنده: جان اشتاین (استاین) بک؛ مترجم: سیروس طاهباز؛ تهران، کتابخانه ایرانمهر، فرانکلین، سال1344؛ در 239ص؛ موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده 20م

داستان، در شهر ساحلی «مونتری»، جریان دارد؛ در محله ای با عنوان: «راسته کنسرو سازان (کنسرو سازی)»؛ خیابانی که حاشیه هایش، پر است از ماهیهایی، که قرار است، کنسرو شوند؛ قشر پایین جامعه، و کارگرها، آنجا زندکی میکنند؛ رخدادها، در سالهای جنگ جهانی دوم، روی میدهند، و نویسنده، زندگی بومی ساکنان آن منطقه را، بازگو میکند، و از پیمانهای زندگیشان مینویسد؛ این رمان، از آثار پرخوانشگر «اشتاین بک» است، و همانند بیشتر کتابهای این نویسنده، در فضایی بازگو، و از زندگی نادارها، و مشکلات آنها را، بیان میکند؛ خوانشگر در این رمان، با تصویری روشن از کوشش انسانها، برای ادامه ی زندگی روبرو میشود؛ «راسته ی کنسرو سازان» یا «راسته ی کنسرو سازی»، اثری است، که ته مایه های طنز نیز دارد، و در آن شکستهای آدمیان، در کنار شادیهای کوچک، نشان داده میشود؛ در رمان بر «دوستی»، «قناعت»، «اخلاق»، «پرهیز از نگاه سطحی به انسانها»، و «حس نوستالژی» تاکید شده؛ «راسته ی کنسرو سازی»، مکانی واقعی در «کالیفرنیا» است، که در چندین شعر، و داستان، از جمله در همین اثر «اشتاین بک»، به نام آنجا اشاره شده است؛

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 27/08/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 10/07/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی