Cannery Row
by John Steinbeck · first published 1945
53% recommend45% neutral3% critical
Why HN recommends it
Short, funny, rowdy novel of poor, memorable characters in Monterey, told humorously without mocking them. Readers reread it yearly for its insight into the human condition; an easy entry to Steinbeck.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Cannery Row is a novel by American author John Steinbeck, published in 1945. It is set during the Great Depression in Monterey, California, on a street lined with sardine canneries that is known as Cannery Row. The story revolves around the people living there. Steinbeck revisited these characters and this milieu nine years later in his novel Sweet Thursday.
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…cannot really be understood in a meaningful way by the vast majority of people with ~15 years of life. It wasn't until a decade after college that I picked up another Steinbeck novel. and after finishing Cannery Row, the only question i could ask myself was, WTF were my teachers thinking assigning Grapes of Wrath vs some of his much shorter, less complex works that could be read in a couple days. The whole book is…
on “Original 1851 reviews of Moby-Dick” ↗…was actually to save the library money in the long run, by not having to repurchase books which often go in and out of fashion with readers. One of Finley’s choices, for instance, was John Steinbeck’s “Cannery Row.” Any librarian worth their salt will tell you that every library should have a copy of Cannery Row. Any algorithm that says it should be discarded is simply wrong. Circulation numbers can be very useful.…
on “Librarians in Florida went rogue to save 2,300 books from an algorithm” ↗…favorite. It's delightfully mind bending and left me thinking about it long after the book was done. 2. All the Pretty Horses - Beautifully written. McCarthy has an uncanny ability to paint with words. 3. Cannery Row - Short, witty, and full of interesting characters. Nonfiction: 1. The Idea Factory - A dive into how Bell Labs became such an innovation powerhouse and gives a rounded picture of the figureheads that…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2017?” ↗There was a good John Steinbeck novel in which beans were often mentioned, probably tortillas too. It might have been Cannery Row or another title. Enjoyed reading it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannery_Row_(novel)
on “The Myth of Authenticity Is Killing Tex-Mex” ↗I second Hearst Castle. Goes well when paired with Citizen Kane. Also, Monterey is cool. Can also be paired with Cannery Row by Steinbeck.
on “Ask HN: Los Angeles to San Fran, where to visit?” ↗…book has more to say, but I was not convinced by the suggested Freudian interpretation. Another example of a writer with a good sense of smell I think is John Steinbeck, whose first few paragraphs in Cannery Row is a marvel of the literary whiff, even without much description of the smells themselves. [1] [1] https://books.google.com/books?id=CQmjRCj-LNsC&printsec=fron...
on “George Orwell and the whiff of genius” ↗/Cannery Row/ by Steinbeck. It's a short read, but it packs in a lot of insight about the human condition. I re-read it every year or so, and still learn new things.
on “Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?” ↗He has some excellent books in there with classics and cult favorites but I have to specifically give the highest recommendation to John Steinbeck's dilogy of Cannery Row/Sweet Thursday. It's a very humanistic book that covers stories of poor characters in a humorous way without mocking them or acting as if they're beneath others somehow. The atmosphere of the books is…
on “Some Favorite Non-Technical Books (2018)” ↗Fiction, yes. I've recently read and recommend Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami (which in a way is a blend of sci fi and fantasy), Cannery Row by John Steinbeck, and Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut. On Deck, I have Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino.
on “Ask HN: Do you read books regularly? Fiction or nonfiction?” ↗Cannery Row, Tortilla Flats - Steinbeck Smillas sense of Snow-Hoeg Currently reading The Expanse series and it's great.
on “Ask HN: What is your favorite fiction book?” ↗…science and its personalities in an engaging way. Now that I actually work in dynamics and have met a number of these people, I'm not sure I like it as much. But still a good general science book IMO. Cannery Row by Steinbeck. I grew up in the Bay Area and visited Monterey fairly often, and though the Cannery Row in the book hasn't existed (and perhaps never has?) for a very long time, somehow it evokes a certain…
on “Ask HN: What book have you re-read 3x or more?” ↗The Mist - Stephen King Cannery Row - Joseph Steinbeck Post Office - Charles Bukowski Dracula - Bram Stoker
on “Ask HN: What are the best books you've ever read?” ↗I read /Cannery Row/ once a year, and have for over ten years. I am a Steinbeck fan, and this is my favorite of his, but I'm not sure if I keep doing it because it's really the best or if I just enjoy judging my own changes…
on “Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?” ↗…listen, tap, make an adjustment, and a machine works. Indeed there are men near whom a car runs better. And such a one was Gay" ^one of my favorite excerpts from my one of my favorite novels, Steinbeck's /Cannery Row/
on “Functional Mechanical Sympathy [video]” ↗I couldn't write a coherent sentence until I was 24 years old. A couple years after high school I discovered reading starting with "Cannery Row" however it still took significant effort to learn to write despite thousands of hours of reading. Once I understood the basic mechanics of grammar, fitting words into meaningful structures became second…
on “54% of adults in the United States have prose literacy below the 6th-grade level” ↗