Cannery Row: Penguin Classics cover art

Cannery Row: Penguin Classics

Penguin Modern 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 Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction

Critic Reviews

"Uninhibited, bawdy, compassionate, inquisitive, deeply intelligent." (Daily Telegraph)
All stars
Most relevant  
I'm not sure how I achieved 71 yrs of age, and had not read this classic.
To state that I thoroughly enjoyed it would be a classic understatement.
What did I like about it? It's the complete package. Story line, orator, production. The whole package.

My first Steinbeck

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An incredible story, one of Steinbeck’s greatest in my opinion. The characters developed with the story.

The characters were so vivid. Doc and Lee feel Like old friends

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I have read other Steinbeck novels, but somehow Cannery Row slipped through the cracks. I'm so glad I decided to read it. I totally loved it. What a strange and wonderful race human beings are, especially when they are simple "being human".

magical

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The richness of Steinbeck's prose in Cannery Row is so lively and vivacious that it could be sold as a piece of art rather than a book.

There are moments in the book which I am a little lost, (e.g the gopher, the women in the water, the man and the baby) but overall finishing this was so delightful. This is what I feel writting is about.

Steinbeck the Artist

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