Rating: Summary: Short, yet blissfully sweet Review: "There are your true philosophers." - Doc's laconic, yet accurate, observation astutely equates Mack and his motley gang of apathetic winos to that of philosophers. However absurd this may sound to those who have yet to read Cannery Row, it is altogeter true and revealing. Steinbeck, as is his custom, expertly and artistically endears his lowbrow group of characters to the reader. While whores & alcoholic bums living on the indigent fringes of Monterey, California may not sound like your cup of tea, they nonetheless make for a great novel.Steinbeck, allowing his characters to speak with candid blue-collar vernacular, ties in his uncanny and unique ability to pull the reader into the woefully downtrodden, yet extraordinarily vibrant, and all too real, world that is Cannery Row. Just like he so masterfully accomplishes in Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck exquisitely explores the inner depths of humanity and the immense resiliency of the human spirit and its inherent propensity to overcome the trials and tribulations of adversity. Despite being miserably destitute and forlorn by others' standards, the eclectic gang of Cannery Row consciously rises above the utter chaos of soulless ambition and covetousness and, in their genuine indolent happiness, perseveringly subsist as "curiously clean." Short, yet blissfully sweet.
Rating: Summary: Read the Sequel Review: If you've read Cannery Row, it only gets better in Sweet Thursday.
Rating: Summary: The migrant workers Review: ESL- PAOLAM. George and Lennie are best friends. George is small and quick with a dark face and Lennie, a huge man who has a mind like a young child. They are always with each other and they are like a family. They have a dream to buy their own place from farm Laborers. They also want to save their money but they have some troubles in their lives. This book is interesting bacuase the story is about two people who are always with each other. The book teach us about friendship and loneliness. I recomMend this book because you can learn a lot of things.
Rating: Summary: MAGNIFICANT Review: This book is easily one of Steinbecks finest works. A wonderful glimpse into an era and the lives of people that's hard to imagine in this day and age. The characters are rich and fascinating and I was left wanting to know more. If the book has any real flaw it is the length. It was too short
Rating: Summary: Steinbeck's best book! Review: What a wonderful novel. I am a big fan of Steinbeck's writting, and Cannery Row is by far my favorite of all of his books. After reading this book you will just feel like giving "doc" a big hug. Cannary Row has everything, passion, romance, morality and humor. This book makes you wish you were back in "the good old days" and living on cannary row with doc and the boys.
Rating: Summary: An Eden for those rough around the edges. Review: I loved it. I love the idea of a place where you can bruise your knuckles on someone's skull without fear of a reprisal drive by shooting; a place where you can go on week long benders without fear of liver damage or DUI's; a place when you decide when to work and when not to. I loved it so much, 'cause there ain't no place like that 'round here.
Rating: Summary: Great writing, full of heart, passion, humor and sadness Review: If you love great stories filled with heart, wisdom, a love of people and a love of life, this is a great place to start. Steinbeck pours a lifetime of experience into this book of lovable, all-too-human characters. Forget all the postmodern garbage out there,this is fiction that makes you feel alive.
Rating: Summary: Life is like a box of chocolates..... Review: Life is like a box of chocolates you never know what you are going to get. that is definetly true for this book. i was expecting to read another boring high school book, but was sweep away and left with a new understanding of life and a better idea of what to look for in the never ending pursuit of happiness. "Cannery Row" has the most life like characters ever to jump off of paper. trying to understand the characters is rather impossible until you understand that the characters are real people looking for the same things as you and me. The most successful character of the book is the Doctor, he has money, a good job, and plenty of work to do, however the author chose to make this character the least happy. the authors favorite characters are the hoboes. Jobless and broke with nothing but life and each other the hoboes ideals and values put me in touch with whats really important in life. this book is great i hope you like it and come to realize that having nothing is having everything.
Rating: Summary: a portrait of small-city life Review: i have to admit that this classic has sat whiling away the hours, days, months and years on my bookcases, being shuffled from bottom shelf to top shelf, shifted from the section of favorites to the area for classics. it's been shipped in a book-rate parcel box overseas and has traveled three continents on commercial airliners, and i've kept it on at least four different home furnishing items. however, none of this was due to its own merit. in fact, i had never even read this short, poignant novel. it had accompanied me far and wide merely because it came in a double edition published in the eighties with 'of mice and men.' that was the chance occurrence that finally led me to read this book. i knew that someday the californian backdrop would draw me to it at some time when i needed to be reminded of home while far away. that is exactly what happened, and the book served its purpose wonderfully in that sense. it is a quaint snapshot of depression-era california, when having a wild party was the utmost expression of rebelliousness. the novel includes characters from many walks of life, with a notable emphasis on the unfortunate bunch along cannery row: the jobless, prostitutes, pimps, factory workers, fishermen, the homeless, a chinese immigrant. and this unlucky crowd is only offset by the seemingly perfect Doc, a local savant who has 'made it' by opening a laboratory which sells small animals for experimentation. though he is so utterly different from his fellow citizens, their lives become entwined with his to a certain extent, and life on cannery row can be seen as a sort of microscopic version of society as a whole. perhaps what is so heartwarming about the place portrayed in the book is that this society works so well, despite all of its flawed members. everyone is forgiving, understanding, caring and so apparently human on cannery row, even if they are living in a rusty old pipe on an empty lot, getting drunk and sleeping with glamourless hookers or pinching every penny to get by...
Rating: Summary: So-so Review: This book is very much like a Hemingway book. A story about people interacting with each other, but containing no real plot. Just a tale of people's lives. Cannery Row probably has a strong appeal to English teachers and historians of the Great Depression and surely Steinbeck has many themes and symbols woven into the book that would appeal to to such types. But strictly speaking of entertainment value, this is not a book that produces any great anticipation and lacks any exciting development. I'm sure I'd enjoy it more if I read about the deeper meanings hidden within.
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