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Dec. 2nd, 2014
Book 94 - John Steinbeck l "Cannery Row"
Dec. 2nd, 2014 09:47 amJohn Steinbeck "Cannery Row" (Penguin Modern Classics)
This is one of those books where nothing much happens, and yet the world happens. Where in a sense it's about nothing and everything at the same time.
When I picked it up from one of my charity shop visits I hadn't the slightest idea what it was about. I read classics, I enjoy classics, I know Steinbeck is a good author, and this title is on the 1,001 Books list, so I saw it and snagged it, needing no more info. After reading it, I'm not really sure I could pinpoint what it was about. Life, that's probably the closest you can get. Cannery Row is snapshots of life, the humour, the pain, and everything in between.
I think the first few lines tell you all you need to know.
"Cannery Row is the gathered and scattered, tin and iron and rust and splintered wood, chipped pavement and weedy lots and junk heaps, sardine canneries of corrugated iron, honky tonks, restaurants and whore houses, the little crowded groceries, and laboratories and flophouses. Its inhabitants are, as the man once said, 'whores, pimps, gamblers, and sons of bitches,' by which he meant Everybody. Had the man looked through another peephole he might have said, 'Saints and angels and martyrs and holy men,' and he would have meant the same thing."
In a way the stories within this short novel tend to crawl into your head and stay there. Steinbeck does this in the collage of vignettes about down-and-outs living near the sardine canneries of Depression-era Monterey, California. The broad story is of a group of people who want to show appreciation to their friend, Doc, a sort of marine biologist and all-around good guy. It’s beautifully written, evocative of men and place and -- who knew! -- Steinbeck can write fun. And it’s all the more meaningful to learn that Doc is based on a friend of Steinbeck, to whom the book is dedicated and in what grows to feel like a meta-appreciation from author to friend,
In essence, this is the Steinbeck book for people who don't think they like Steinbeck.
This is one of those books where nothing much happens, and yet the world happens. Where in a sense it's about nothing and everything at the same time.
When I picked it up from one of my charity shop visits I hadn't the slightest idea what it was about. I read classics, I enjoy classics, I know Steinbeck is a good author, and this title is on the 1,001 Books list, so I saw it and snagged it, needing no more info. After reading it, I'm not really sure I could pinpoint what it was about. Life, that's probably the closest you can get. Cannery Row is snapshots of life, the humour, the pain, and everything in between.
I think the first few lines tell you all you need to know.
"Cannery Row is the gathered and scattered, tin and iron and rust and splintered wood, chipped pavement and weedy lots and junk heaps, sardine canneries of corrugated iron, honky tonks, restaurants and whore houses, the little crowded groceries, and laboratories and flophouses. Its inhabitants are, as the man once said, 'whores, pimps, gamblers, and sons of bitches,' by which he meant Everybody. Had the man looked through another peephole he might have said, 'Saints and angels and martyrs and holy men,' and he would have meant the same thing."
In a way the stories within this short novel tend to crawl into your head and stay there. Steinbeck does this in the collage of vignettes about down-and-outs living near the sardine canneries of Depression-era Monterey, California. The broad story is of a group of people who want to show appreciation to their friend, Doc, a sort of marine biologist and all-around good guy. It’s beautifully written, evocative of men and place and -- who knew! -- Steinbeck can write fun. And it’s all the more meaningful to learn that Doc is based on a friend of Steinbeck, to whom the book is dedicated and in what grows to feel like a meta-appreciation from author to friend,
In essence, this is the Steinbeck book for people who don't think they like Steinbeck.
So after the madness that was Black Friday and the equally weird Cyber Monday, whatever that was, both American imports, today has been quieter.
Weather still damn cold, dull, and miserable. Gets too dark too quickly as well. I really do not love this time of the year , and yet is still milder than it has been in past winter months. No wonder it is difficult to get out if bed in the mornings.,
Weather still damn cold, dull, and miserable. Gets too dark too quickly as well. I really do not love this time of the year , and yet is still milder than it has been in past winter months. No wonder it is difficult to get out if bed in the mornings.,
Beefheart and Can
Dec. 2nd, 2014 11:02 pmCame across an old CD i made from various albums i use to have and i listened to some tracks, all from the sixties and early seventies, and in ageneral rock and similar genre. Here are just a couple of these grooves -
Captain Beefheart and Safe As Milk
The other is by Krautrock band Can and Mushroom Head.
Enjoy.
Captain Beefheart and Safe As Milk
The other is by Krautrock band Can and Mushroom Head.
Enjoy.
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