I did read Cannery Row once but that was either very late high school or just after. I remember liking it well enough but it didn't fire me up or anything.
But it was right around that time that I was starting to pay attention to language a lot more, and rhythm and cadence as much as story. So that younger me might not have been primed yet for Steinbeck's writing here which, 7 chapters in, is just delicious.
I do remember it being a sort of community portrait cycle of stories, which is one of my favorite forms of fiction. Some day I'll sit down and make a list of these, but loosely connected chapters/stories with a recurring set of characters, but not necessarily a larger (or overly central) plot.
Kind of the way I like ensemble TV shows, I guess? Like Northern Exposure, Reservation Dogs.
So no surprise I'm already enjoying it immensesly!
"And everywhere people asked him why he was walking through the country.
Because he loved true things he tried to explain. He said he was nervous and besides he wanted to see the country, smell the ground and look at grass and birds and trees, to savor the country, and there was no other way to do it save on foot. And people didn't like him for telling the truth. They scowled, or shook and tapped their heads, they laughed as though they knew it was a lie and they appreciated a liar. And some, afraid for their daughters or their pigs, told him to move on, to get going, just not to stop near their place if he knew what was good for him.
And so he stopped trying to tell the truth."
-- Cannery Row, Ch. 17
Finished Cannery Row this morning after a few days away.
What a great read. As I went, I remembered a bit more from my first read ages ago, but overall this felt like I was reading it for the first time.
A handful of things I'll remember -- don't have the book in front of me, so no quotes to pair with, just off the top:
* the hour of the pearl!
* the life and death of parties (parties as understudied!)
* The entire scene of the first bust of a party: from the wind up to the party itself to everything getting torn to shreds to Doc and Mack's tough discussion afterwards. You sort of know everything that's going to happen but I really felt for Mack every step of the way.
* Steinbeck's an excellent nature writer! Who knew?
* Doc's love of music. (Steinbeck's a pretty good music writer, too --- does he chat much about music in his other novels?)
There are a few more titles in the anthology I started working through, but a hold on Aaron John Curtis's *Old School Indian* just came through -- so I think that's up next.
