Cannery Row

Few authors write characters as compelling and three-dimensional as Steinbeck does. Cannery Row is more a series of vignette than a novel, but each one gives us the flavor of a place. The prose is top notch, the world visceral and winsome.

Amazingly, I had not gotten around to reading this short novel until 2023. Steinbeck is one of my favorites for many reasons; several are on display in Cannery Row, including many well-drawn characters who are memorable far beyond turning the final page.

Moreover, this book is typical of Steinbeck's rare ability to blend the natural world with human calamity. His training as an oceanographer seeps through on nearly every page, and the long descriptions of sea creatures add a layer of depth that has the briny delight of eating a fresh-shucked oyster.

It is also one of those rare… show more.

A street at the edge of the Pacific in Monterey where sardines are brought in to be canned, is the setting for a collection of colorful characters Steinbeck knew.

Chief among them is Doc, based on Steinbeck’s friend Ed Ricketts, who operated a lab that collected and prepared aquatic specimens for schools and museums. The lab is still there, next to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

The canneries closed by the 1970’s and today Cannery Row is a thumping tourist trap. But I loved the book because of Doc, a gentleman, and a scholar if there ever was one.

Although this book is not science fiction or fantasy, I have included it because of its rich assortment of characters and how they are woven into their own world. This novel taught me how to create complex characters and bring them together in a world that not only make sense, but seems truly real. John Steinbeck was a master of character development and in Cannery Row he brought all his skills to bear. The novel focuses on an area of closed canneries and the odd set of remaining inhabitants. I loved how the characters interacted with each other creating a… show more.

Cannery Row is a non-fiction novel, and I think it’s the best thing Steinbeck ever did. An exploration of an itinerant community in Monterey, California, it builds up layer on layer of life, creating a rich compound portrait of marginal, precariat life in the sun, the hardship of that, but also the freedom and dignity and bravery and joy.