Every now and then I need to pick up a classic by a formidable writer and hold it up to the novels written today. ( )

What a change of pace from East of Eden and the Grapes of Wrath! Cannery Row is a small distillation of what I'm beginning to recognise as Steinbeck's trademark style, the heartfelt descriptions, the humourous yet poignant characterisations, the matter-of-fact narrative. It feels different here though, when the stakes are so much lower. I think I can only feel like the characters of Cannery Row are cute, rather than emotionally taxing in the same way that the other two books are. I particularly liked the briefer anecdotes rather than some of the more extended ones, since I felt like they had just enough flavour without wanting to do more and not having the words for doing so. The Malloys moving into the boiler, Henri and his boat, the soldiers and Dora's girls, Mary Talbot and her parties, the bachelor gopher. I get that I wouldn't enjoy a novella with solely 3 page vignettes, but I think without them Cannery Row would suffer a great deal. The more "philosophical" moments fall a little flatter, like Doc opining about capitalism and how Mack and the boys have actually figured it out. The quips get me more; I loved describing boring parties as "not parties at all but acts and demonstrations, about as spontaneous as peristalsis and as interesting as its end product" (p168). Good, tight read. ( )

Oh dear. A book I should like but don't really. In my defence, I have enjoyed other Steinbeck books, but this one just didn't have any compelling plot or depth of characters or sustained insight to hold my attention. It's a slight work, somewhat chaotic or sad small-town lives mixed with local atmosphere from Monterey and a few witty lines. But there's a sort of pointlessness to it. Maybe that was the point. ( )

Story: 5.5 / 10
Characters: 8
Setting: 7.5
Prose: 7.5 ( )

meh. I wish I enjoyed this more than I did but to be honest, the vignettes of folk in this story was sort of dull. Steinbeck has some occasional prose that is fantastic though. ( )