# SDMB Book Club - Cannery Row
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-book-club-cannery-row/715067
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [March 15, 2015, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-book-club-cannery-row/715067 "2015-03-15T21:53:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2015, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-book-club-cannery-row/715067/1 "2015-03-15T21:53:41Z")
Howdy folks! Let’s talk about Cannery Row by John Steinbeck.
I will say that despite the short length of the book it took me forever to get into it. I would read half a page, sigh, and put it down again because it just wasn’t that interesting. After about 30 pages it started to get good, and while I haven’t finished it yet it has gotten good enough that I’m looking forward to finding out what happens in the end. I loved most of the characters once they were fleshed out a bit. My absolute favorite by Steinbeck is The Grapes of Wrath and Cannery Row doesn’t hold a candle to that, but the idea of learning all about people who all live on the same block and how their stories intertwine is an excellent one.
What did you think of Cannery Row?
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### Author:  [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2015, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-book-club-cannery-row/715067/2 "2015-03-16T18:02:15Z")
Fell in love with it instantly when I was in my teens, and still love it 45 years later.
It’s not so much a novel as a series of images, but they’re beautiful images, and they make you (or me, anyway; YMMV) care about the people in them. Doc, Mack and the boys, Lee Chong, Dora and the girls at the Bear Flag, Henri the painter, and all the rest.
The book alternates chapters that are mostly about the various characters, with chapters that are only marginally connected vignettes. Some of those have the surreal feeling of an Escher print.
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### Author:  [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2015, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-book-club-cannery-row/715067/3 "2015-03-16T20:44:09Z")
I agree, Rufus T (if I may): “not so much a novel as a series of images.” Very nice.
I hadn’t read it before and am very happy to have done so, now. Aside from perhaps a tiny touch of sentimentality about Mack and the Boys, it’s very, very smart about human psychology, and not at all heavy-handed about it.
It’s a vision of humanity that has nothing to do with the fantasy-wish-fulfillment and melodrama of 99% of novels. Not that there’s anything wrong with those things–but the difference becomes apparent only when we experience it, as we do when reading this book.
I find myself curious about the 1982 movie. Obviously it’s a distortion of the book, given that the promotional materials ballyhoo a Romance between Doc (played by Nick Nolte) and “Suzy” (played by Debra Winger). I wonder if anything of Steinbeck’s creation made it in?
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### Author:  [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2015, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-book-club-cannery-row/715067/4 "2015-03-17T07:04:43Z")
A comparatively unknown book of Steinbeck’s is **Log of the Sea of Cortez** , a non-fiction account of a sea cruise down to the Gulf of California (also called the Sea of Cortez) a year before the outbreak of World War II.
As I recall, the purpose of the trip was gathering of sea life specimens for Doc Ricketts, who was on the boat.
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### Author:  [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2015, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-book-club-cannery-row/715067/5 "2015-03-17T15:19:14Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#):
>
> I agree, Rufus T (if I may): “not so much a novel as a series of images.” Very nice.
Thanks!
> [@](#):
>
> I hadn’t read it before and am very happy to have done so, now. Aside from perhaps a tiny touch of sentimentality about Mack and the Boys, it’s very, very smart about human psychology, and not at all heavy-handed about it.
Well said.
> [@](#):
>
> I find myself curious about the 1982 movie. Obviously it’s a distortion of the book, given that the promotional materials ballyhoo a Romance between Doc (played by Nick Nolte) and “Suzy” (played by Debra Winger). I wonder if anything of Steinbeck’s creation made it in?
Steinbeck later wrote a sequel to _Cannery Row_, titled _Sweet Thursday_. It’s much more of a conventional novel, and is a pleasant read, but not nearly as memorable as the original.
The movie’s plot line is mostly drawn from _Sweet Thursday_, where Suzy’s character is introduced, and she and Doc have a budding romance. So that part is actually from Steinbeck, just not from the book you were expecting.
Some material from the movie is borrowed from the book _Cannery Row_, but not that much IIRC, and really none of the plot. I suspect they named the movie _Cannery Row_ rather than _Sweet Thursday_ because, well, which title is better known?
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### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2015, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-book-club-cannery-row/715067/6 "2015-03-17T15:47:41Z")
In “Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands,” Dylan sings to Sara: “With your sheet-metal memories of Cannery Row, and your magazine husband who just one day had to go”. Sara’s first husband had been a magazine photographer. AFAIK she had no connection with the subject of Steinbeck’s novel, so this association with her must be alluding to her father’s scrap metal business.
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### Author:  [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2015, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-book-club-cannery-row/715067/7 "2015-03-17T16:06:07Z")
> [@Johanna](#):
>
> In “Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands,” Dylan sings to Sara: “With your sheet-metal memories of Cannery Row, and your magazine husband who just one day had to go”. Sara’s first husband had been a magazine photographer. AFAIK she had no connection with the subject of Steinbeck’s novel, so this association with her must be alluding to her father’s scrap metal business.
Which reminds me, I’ve been meaning to ask: every time I see your handle, I think of Dylan’s “Visions of Johanna.” Is your username a reference to that song?
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2015, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-book-club-cannery-row/715067/8 "2015-03-17T16:27:56Z")
> [@movingfinger](#):
>
> A comparatively unknown book of Steinbeck’s is **Log of the Sea of Cortez** , a non-fiction account of a sea cruise down to the Gulf of California (also called the Sea of Cortez) a year before the outbreak of World War II.
>
> As I recall, the purpose of the trip was gathering of sea life specimens for Doc Ricketts, who was on the boat.
Yes, and you wouldnt know it by reading it, but Steinbeck’s wife, Carol was along on that trip!
Sweet Thursday should be read immediately after Cannery Row.
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### Author:  [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2015, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-book-club-cannery-row/715067/9 "2015-03-17T20:16:08Z")
Good information about _Sweet Thursday_; I’ll look for a copy.
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### Author:  [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2015, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-book-club-cannery-row/715067/10 "2015-03-18T02:44:59Z")
The further I get in the book the more I am enjoying it. I still find it to be a bit of a slog, but that might be because I haven’t gotten a lot of sleep lately and reading in general is not very high on my list of priorities as of late. I’m going to have to go back and reread it again in a few months after my schedule has settled down a bit.
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### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2015, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-book-club-cannery-row/715067/11 "2015-03-18T14:37:46Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#):
>
> Which reminds me, I’ve been meaning to ask: every time I see your handle, I think of Dylan’s “Visions of Johanna.” Is your username a reference to that song?
It absolutely is. Conquer my mind.
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### Author:  [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2015, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-book-club-cannery-row/715067/12 "2015-03-19T13:32:04Z")
Based on poll results next month we will read Catch 22.