Cannery Row

John Steinbeck 1945

Devastation Rating

Lingering Melancholy
poverty community Steinbeck California

Our Take

Steinbeck's Monterey is populated by the failed, the gentle, and the dispossessed — and he writes them with a love that is not condescension. Mack and the boys' plans always end in unintended consequences. The sadness is the gap between kindness and outcome.

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