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I like Steinbeck as a writer. I don't have an eye for nature. I've always been wary of people, and I've never developed a love or appreciation for nature or poetry.
I know Steinbeck uses descriptions of the behavior of animals as a metaphor for themes he is playing with in the book, and I catch some of them, but I'm sure just as many go past me.
What I did notice was his use of repetition. It didn't really click until he hinted at it in his East of Eden Notebook. Repetition is the way to show character's development or differentiate characters. The first time it happens as a shock or a sadness, then by the last repetition, the reader has so many questions, it seems that the characters can talk about it, or talk around it.
Frankie, with whom I fell in love, wanted nothing more than to show his affection for Doc, and due to some accident of coordination spilled beer. Mack went to the same lengths and screwed up by some accident of personality, but as Mack is 48 and Frankie 11, when Mack did it, he could talk about it in thoughtful guilty terms, whereas Frankie could only hide and cry inside a crate.
The book is impressively well-constructed. I don't have the greatest eye for symbols, but I think that symbols are the vehicles that allow repetition to happen, and I think that Doc was a symbol, and as Doc was also a person, he reacted to other symbols that were reoccurring in his life.
There are two chapters I didn't understand. The one about the pole skater and the one with the two kids and the rat poison, but I'm sure they were placed there on purpose. Both Chapters were charming, I just didn't understand how they fit into the narrative.
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I think the frog catching segment of the book is one of the funniest things ever written.
On a meta level, Cannery Row is one of those books that I love and hate, because of the fact that it almost depicts poverty as some kind of idyllic, mulligan stew party. For the same reason, I love the fact that Steinbeck romanticizes the most poor and downtrodden into something beautiful and funny.
I really appreciate your book review threads, Irami. They're often stuff that I haven't read in a while, or stuff I've been meaning to read, and they prod me to read or reread the books you review.
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quote:I never taught the novel because of its content suitability in a public 9-12 school.
A handful of suicides and some whores. I don't know. In my four years in high school, I know of at least four people committed suicide, and I think the whore issue was handled provocatively in the book, thoughtful but not glorified.
I haven't seen the movie. But it looks like it's got Debra Winger in it, and I've decided that if I were in my twenties in the early eighties, I would have made a play for Debra Winger and Amy Irving.
Saxon, with all of the kind remarks thrown upon the lay-abouts, they were four guys who couldn't house train a dog. The hero of the story was Doc. The entire story revolved around how decent a man Doc was.
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"A handful of suicides and some whores. I don't know. In my four years in high school, I know of at least four people committed suicide, and I think the whore issue was handled provocatively in the book, thoughtful but not glorified."
All I can say is yes, well. Depends upon where you are and what your local conditions are.
I did teach Ofr Mice and Men at one school and it was very successful. I like that novel also. There are elements that are the same in both. Men living in their own little society would be one.
Have you read The Log from the Sea of Cortez? That may give some insights into the character of Doc in Cannery Row.
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