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Cannery Row: Penguin Classics

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Cannery Row: Penguin Classics

By: John Steinbeck, Susan Shillinglaw
Narrated by: Jerry Farden
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

One of the BBC's '100 Novels That Shaped Our World'

Meet the gamblers, whores, drunks, bums and artists of Cannery Row in Monterey, California, during the Great Depression. They want to throw a party for their friend Doc, so Mack and the boys set about, in their own inimitable way, recruiting everyone in the neighbourhood to the cause. But along the way they can't help but get involved in a little mischief and misadventure. It wouldn't be Cannery Row if it was otherwise, now would it?

Packed with a ramshackle joi de vivre, Cannery Row is Steinback's high-spirited tribute to his native California.

©1945 John Steinbeck (P)2021 Penguin Audio Classics Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Fiction

Critic reviews

"Uninhibited, bawdy, compassionate, inquisitive, deeply intelligent." (Daily Telegraph)
All stars
Most relevant
I have never been so absorbed by words or been so drawn in to a literary place. The narrator reads like he's living in the story and through the author's compelling characterisations, I became a phantom observer in a fictional Californian town.

SteinBEST!

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Slice of life story with a somewhat lacking end.
It's nicely written but parts of the story is simply too fantastic, like the overly descriptive parties that the drunk gang tried to hold for the doctor. It seemed to come from another book. Drunk boys don't procure 100 feet of crêpe paper, laced doilies, and scented candles to decorate for a party. And how big was this party if the doc went out to get 10 pounds of tomatoes?
It didn't seem to fit the male characters.

The narrator was decent but not great. The pace was a bit slow, like the speed was set at .75.
There's a moment where his age or unpreparedness shows when he reads the line "great, great, great...great...great, grandfather". It was like he read that line for the first time and had to count the words.
It was unintentionally funny.

There's also a problem with chapter 21 or 22 where it is repeated, and also at the end where 'Audible hopes you've enjoy the boo...' only for chapter 36 to start playing.

Overall a good book but not with a satisfying ending. I guess it can be difficult to end a slice of life story. Marcel Proust's 'Remembrance of Things Past' has a much more enjoyable ending and it all seems to come to completion on the last page.

Captivating slice of life story

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It had been over 40 since I first read Cannery Row so it was a great pleasure to revisit it as an audio book beautifully read by Jerry Farden. This book is warm, witty and humane with a big heart. I defy anyone not to love it.

Classic Steinbeck

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Enjoyable book, brought to life by the excellent narration.

A story of misfits and.......well, misfits and their every day lives. Not quite the same part of Monterey depicted in Big, Little Lies! Although they were misfits in their own way too. Makes for a good read / listen to.

Great narration

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So so sentimental but so good and so funny. Steinbeck is a genius. Some of the descriptions are amazing

I love Steinbeck

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