Reading "Cannery Row" for the first time

[MonkeyFunk]

Only a couple pages in, and wow! Funny, beautiful, poetic.

"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."


and

"The deep-laden boats pull in against the coast where the canneries dip their tails into the bay. The figure is advisedly chosen, for if the canneries dipped their mouths into the bay the canned sardines which emerge from the other end would be metaphorically, at least, even more horrifying."


And that's just from page 1.

This is gonna be good.

[villager]

1. This post is making me want to see the underrated film version again...

n/t

[puerco-bellies]

2. Great but short book.

It, too me, has the greatest opening paragraph of any work of literature.

[MonkeyFunk]

3. well

it's certainly made an impression on me!

[Manifestor_of_Light]

4. "Tortilla Flat" was a funny Steinbeck movie too. n/t

[hamerfan]

6. Cannery Row is excellent. Tortilla Flat

has the greatest ending paragraph of any book written! I still liked Cannery Row better.
dumpbush

[gratefultobelib]

5. Yes, it was excellent. I enjoyed the movie, too. Nick Nolte and

Debra Winger as I remember?

[flamingyouth]

7. It's been a long time since I've read it

I think I was in high school (so it's been 20+ years). Your post makes me want to pick it up again. :)

[WCGreen]

8. Yea it's about time to reread it again.....

[last_texas_dem]

9. That's a very good book

I read it for the first time last summer, along with several other Steinbeck books. Its sequel, Sweet Thursday (which was actually the one that I read first!) is funnier though a bit more lightweight, but a great read as well. I also read the very powerful The Moon Is Down and another that has become my second-favorite Steinbeck (after The Grapes of Wrath), The Winter of our Discontent.