04-21-2015, 06:12 PM | #16 |
Wizard
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I first read Cannery Row about 20 years after it was published when I was about sixteen. I adored it because I had known - or been related to - many similar characters. But unlike most books, they are seen through each other's eyes, and therefore with love and humor, rather than through the eyes of the rest of society who would see them as stereotypes and outcasts.
Perhaps, Issybird, you have led a sheltered life. I also found Lee Chong to be far from inscrutable. I've loved Steinbeck from my earliest years. He heard the people with no voice and told their stories in his books. At times he was more successful than others, but he was always real. |
04-21-2015, 08:18 PM | #17 |
o saeclum infacetum
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That's a tad personal, don't you think, and unwarranted? Sheltered life or not, and I think it's a mistake to make such an inference based on a negative reaction to a book, one does not have to have experienced something to have empathy, nor does the contrapositive necessarily hold.
Breifly, to me, the characters read "cute" and Steinbeck's attitude toward them was condescending. Personally, and now I'm bringing the personal to it, but I'm talking about myself, I tend more toward Thoreau's "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." There wasn't enough desperation in this sanitized Cannery Row for it to ring true to me. No doubt a reflection on something lacking in my background. Last edited by issybird; 04-21-2015 at 09:18 PM. |
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04-22-2015, 10:17 AM | #18 |
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You are absolutely right, issy, and I apologize. That certainly sounded more personal and judgemental than I intended. I have enjoyed, and learned from, your posts over the years, and have immense respect for your background that has made you such a delightful contributor to MR.
Apparently I am a bit too emotionally attached to John Steinbeck. |
04-22-2015, 10:21 AM | #19 |
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04-22-2015, 10:54 AM | #20 |
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04-22-2015, 11:02 AM | #21 |
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Speaking only out of my own experience, particularly when young when I identified with this book, desperation and humor go hand in hand. This was their life. There was no point in self pity or hand wringing, but there was always plenty to laugh about.
Full disclosure since I've already revealed myself to be a biased participant in this thread: Steinbeck's viewpoint was like that of my father (and Will Rogers) who could turn the most desperate situation into an occasion for hilarity and reveal the most disreputable people to be lovable. That is why it felt real to me. It is impossible to be unbiased with those kinds of associations. But from now on I will try hard to be objective. |
04-22-2015, 02:02 PM | #22 | |
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I really enjoyed the book. It's a good evocation of a very particular setting that has resonance anywhere.
I can see the criticism of Steinbeck being condescending and the more rosy disposition of the novel. Perhaps Steinbeck is an antidote to Dostoyevsky? However, I don't necessarily see this cheerfulness as a bad thing. I thought the book was still revealing about human nature and it had an optimism about it that I liked. Maybe the book wasn't written simply to let us who are in comfortable homes have a view of these people's bleak or desperate existences, but rather to illuminate how people living a hard and low-caste life can be good people, are still just people like anyone else and can still make the best of things, have good times and enjoy life despite it all - and even despite themselves - without being too saccharine and while still maintaining a certain level of realism. It can come off as condescending but I think he was celebrating these people. I liked how Steinbeck correlated "whores, pimps, gamblers and sons of bitches" to "Saints and angels and martyrs and holy men", and I also liked this excerpt: Quote:
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04-22-2015, 02:46 PM | #23 |
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I just finished. I remember, vaguely, having read the Grapes of Wrath and The Pearl and Of Mice and Men but to be honest I don't remember whether I liked them much or not.
spoilers ahead Spoiler:
All in all it was an enjoyable book to read and I'm glad the book club chose it because otherwise I likely never would have. I thought about posting that very same excerpt as I read it. I'm glad you did. Last edited by Merischino; 04-22-2015 at 02:49 PM. |
04-22-2015, 05:14 PM | #24 | ||
Bah, humbug!
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Quote:
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04-23-2015, 08:19 AM | #25 | |
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I really enjoyed Cannery Row.
Last year I read Grapes of Wrath which I gave 4 stars, intending 4.5 stars, but now nostalgically remembering as 5 stars. Although this was a very different reading experience to GoW, I felt there was a similarity in how Steinbeck treated the characters. Like some others have mentioned, I really sensed the love Steinbeck had for the characters in Cannery Row, but I felt it equally in the darker novel. Quote:
While reading this "novel", I remembered the stories my mother and father used to tell me of growing up in very poor homes. Their stories (particularly my father's) were of larger-than-life characters and humorous events. And despite the obvious lack of means, the memories are of joy and mischief, and the tales of struggle are always told with a certain fondness and nostalgia. This is what I felt when reading Cannery Row. In the end, I didn't quite like it quite as much as Grapes of Wrath, but I definitely enjoyed it. I haven't decided on my next Steinbeck, but there will definitely be one. |
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04-23-2015, 08:26 AM | #26 |
The Dank Side of the Moon
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04-23-2015, 08:50 AM | #27 |
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04-23-2015, 10:39 AM | #28 |
(he/him/his)
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The only Steinbeck in my current TBR is Travels With Charley - In Search of America:
Spoiler:
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04-23-2015, 10:54 AM | #29 | |
The Dank Side of the Moon
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Quote:
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04-23-2015, 11:23 AM | #30 |
Bah, humbug!
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Sounds like a great travel book.
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