This is a book about some of the characters living in Cannery Row. There's a small group of young men who mostly loaf around, but have good hearts, the Chinese shopkeeper, the scientist/doctor, ladies of the evening, and other characters. A lot of the book is taken up by the young men who want to throw a party for the scientist/doctor who they call "Doc." They mean well, but do poorly, causing much damage and hurt feelings.

Note that I listened to this via Audible. It's about 6 hours long.

Those who enjoy John Steinbeck novels, stories that are interesting, but that move relatively quickly without a lot of depth. I don't mean this in a bad way, but there's not a lot of serious thinking that needs to be done to enjoy this book. Unlike some books where you must focus to keep up with the plot and characters, this one can be enjoyed while you multi-task, which I appreciate.

The descriptions where especially enjoyable for me. One example is when the author described something as being as soft as a mouse belly. Adorable! I also really loved the characters, especially the young men and Doc.

I actually wanted this book to be a bit longer because I enjoyed it so much. I was delighted to discover there was a 2nd book in this 2-book series, so it will be my next listen.

Start the next book in this 2-book series.

Happy and relaxed and full of life as I listened to the stories of the characters.

I don't always enjoy classic books, but I definitely enjoyed this one! It's also fun and interesting to learn about how some things were done back then. For example, apparently in some places, you could get a reward for finding a dead body. That seems to me like it might promote murder, but whatever. It's interesting.

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Created Feb 26, 2022 at 7:16pm • Submit your own review...