Cannery Row

By: John Steinbeck

Narrated by: Jerry Farden

Here is Steinbeck’s tough yet charming portrait of people on the margins of society, dependent on one another for both physical and emotional survival.

Published in 1945, Cannery Row focuses on the acceptance of life as it is: both the exuberance of community and the loneliness of the individual. Drawing on his memories of the real inhabitants of Monterey, California, Steinbeck interweaves the stories of Doc, Henri, Mack and his boys, and the other characters in this world, where only the fittest survive, to create a novel that is at once one of his most humorous and most poignant works.

Public Domain (P)2011 Penguin

Critic reviews

Winner of the 2012 Fifty Books/Fifty Covers show, organized by Design Observer in association with AIGA and Designers & Books

Winner of the 2014 Type Directors Club Communication Design Award

It’s Steinbeck. What’s not to like?!

Another is a series of superb writing by one of America’s great novelists. Narrator does an equally outstanding performance.

Pleasant and enjoyable

I like Steinbeck, so I wasn't surprised that I liked this book. I didn't find it as insightful or weighty as some of his work. What I found was a narrative which seemed to want to paint a picture of Monterey's Cannery Row from the perspective of the little people, the ones we don't notice. I don't think I really got to know any of the characters very well, but there was an overall delightful ambiance. Certainly there is a lot of male camaraderie. Being such a short work, it makes it easy to enjoy this book without the worry of asking too much of it.

Great narration

I’m a huge Steinbeck fan. Just got back from a week in Monterey and felt the need to get real with the locals. The story is a classic and the narrator just nails it.

The story of the frog hunt - and the final party are awesome theatre.

Great reading of an under-appreciated gem

Would you consider the audio edition of Cannery Row to be better than the print version?

Maybe. Farden reads Steinbeck like it should be read. Which is not fast. He savors the words properly.

A most memorable universe

I have read little of Steinbeck before this. It is amazing to me that this tiny "universe" that Steinbeck created in Monterrey was so rich and so interesting.

The perfect reading!

Jerry Farden, the reader, totally captures the sensibility of each of the characters. A perfect reading of a poignantly sardonic novel! A pleasure to listen to!

Beauty and Grit

Mr Steinbeck’s Cannery Row is a wonderful reflection of what I imagine Monterey was like back in his day. The most profound dichotomies I found in this story is life and death, responsibility and carelessness, knowledge and ignorance, productivity and idleness, beauty and ugliness …. This what life is full of now and forever yet when I go the Monterey and the surrounding areas I do perceive the beauty and grittiness of what is there today, and likely more pronounced in Steinbeck’s time. Monterey Bay and it’s surrounding areas are still wonderous but what I see is the ugliness and grit is obscured by the immigrant population that works the land and the God awful and unreachable price of real estate, making this blessed area at once heaven and hell. A truly great book that you can app

The hearts of men......

Read for the first time. I could smell the salty fishermen and sweat of labor as well as the languishing men left to their own thoughts and devices.

very descriptive of common life

Steinbeck really knows how to turn a phrase is analogies are really fascinating. a descriptive of a world that I don't know anything about but now feel like I really do.

Not his best

Like most Steinbeck it comments on the underbelly of society. It has plenty of dark aspects but is generally a story of folks with good hearts.