Book Review: Cannery Row by John Steinbeck

Cannery Row.  Author:  John Steinbeck (1945). 181 pages. Genre:  Classic

First Lines:  "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 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."

Summary:  This is the story of a place, but also of the people who live and work there.  As we get to know the people who live there and how they came to be there, a plot develops.  Five of the men who share a house in the row, decide that it would be nice to throw a party for Doc, owner and operator of Western Biological Laboratory.  They feel he is a "hell of a nice fella" and that they should do something nice for him.  The trouble is, not one of them has a steady job and no money between them.  And everyone knows you have to have money to throw a party.  There is drink to buy and steak and what about decorations?  They hatch a plan to make some money.  But, unfortunately, things don't go as they had planned.  However, they won't be deterred.  Doc deserves a party and a party he will have.

My thoughts:  John Steinbeck is a master at creating memorable characters.  

Lee Chong, owner of the the grocery on the row, works from dawn to dusk and has most of the community in his debt.  He rarely collects from his clients, but if the bill becomes too large, he cuts off their credit.

The five men who share the house are; Mack, the leader and mentor of the group, Hazel, a young man of great strength; Eddie, the one who occasionally has work as a back up bartender; Hughie and Jones, who are just along for the ride.  Mack was able to convince Lee Chong to let the boys live in the abandoned house he owned by telling him that they would protect the house from break-in or fire.  Here is how they are described:

"...a little group of men who had in common no families, no money, and no ambitions beyond food, drink, and contentment."

Doc is the owner and operator of Western Biological Laboratory.  He spends his days collecting specimen and filling orders.  He is mysterious to the rest of the residents because in the evenings he buys two quarts of beer from Lee Chong's and returns to the lab to listen to music which can be heard along the row.  He is always alone, but never seems lonely.  He treats everyone as a human being.  

Dora runs the whore house with dignity.  She has standards and runs a "virtuous" club.  She is strict with her girls and then men who visit the house.  But she has a soft heart and is willing to help others when needed.

Not much happens in Cannery Row, but we come to know these characters and see the goodness in them despite their vices.  

Content note:  There is some language in the book, but it is minor.

Cannery Row around 1945

Photo by Pat Hathaway

Quotes:

"Hazel hated that, it meant casting about in his mind for an answer and casting about in Hazel's mind was like wandering alone in a deserted museum.  Hazel's mind was choked with uncatalogued exhibits."

"There is no term comparable to green thumbs to apply to such a mechanic, but there should be.  For there are men who can look, listen, tap, make an adjustment, and a machine works."

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