Cannery Row - book review

Cannery Row

John Steinbeck

1945

186 pages

Cannery Row is a book that will make you feel warm all over. It does it a few ways. The first of which is ensuring you feel the brightness of the California summer. From the jump you feel as though you are being let in on a secret and secluded form of community. John Steinbeck is in full flourish as he gifts you the freedom of the pacific surf and delves into a few of the lives that call it home. There is a sunny optimism in these pages as the mishaps are unveiled. It pervades the prose and won’t allow you respite. Even when your inside one of more unsavory seaside abodes within the story there is a warmth about the words.

A second way in which this title warms me is with nostalgia. If you’ve ever held a factory job the many depictions of life in the canneries will have you seeing yourself on the page. Nearly 20 years ago Nathan Ahern gave me this book to read when we worked together in Manhattan making window displays. We were neck deep in sawdust some days but hanging at the local watering hole after a hard day’s work made us feel as though we were part of something. Steinbeck’s depiction of miscreants and ne’er-do-wells pried open memories of the old days of cheap living and 10-to-a-house in the post college hustle. Cannery Row is summer, independence, friendship all rolled into one potent work.

The third way the book will warm you is with new friends. You won’t be able to stop yourself from caring about the many fictitious personas that populate the pages. John Steinbeck has a way with all matter of subjects and knows these characters very well. Mack, man child and loveable leader of the freeloaders who do just enough to scrape by, Doc, the marine biologist with a love for beer and chronic loneliness, Darla, house mother of the local bordello, Lee Chung, the grocer watching it all.

The fourth way this book warms you is with the glow of an amazing party. The primary plot revolves around Mack and the boys from the Palace Flophouse trying to do something nice for Doc. Everyone from Lee Chung to Darla are pulled in the shenanigans, which involve Lee Chung’s jalopy of a truck, a frogging expedition, lots of whiskey and a few parties thrown in doc’s honor. The parties do not go as planned, but there are still loads of fun to go around. This book shows that community can be formed despite the lame circumstances which surround it. Exuberance of their connections carries them, and this novel.

This book is tough jobs, second chances and fun in the California sun. Depression era Monterey Canning sector is not glamourous, but sardines won’t package themselves. Fish smell is in the air, but you won’t mind because the company is so good. All the kids steal, but they learn to steal the right way. Rather, they learn there is a right way and wrong way to steal. They learn about good ideas going bad and trying too hard to do the right thing will put you in the wrong direction.

If you want to feel the sun on your face, read this book. Make your summer a last a little bit longer by grabbing a glass of Ole’ Tennis Shoes and sitting back with some great American wordsmithing. Steinbeck’s charged prose and wily wit will have you smiling despite yourself. At only 186 pages you can read a day and still brag to your pals you finished a whole book.

p.s. John Steinbeck wrote a sequel titled, Sweet Thursday. I’m sure it’s filled with the same sun and fun characters that make Cannery Row delightful. More on that review later, in the meantime, go read Cannery Row.