John Steinbeck - Cannery Row

Pros: fabulous writing and characterizations
Cons: a couple passages are quite graphic

Pros: Captures a unique place and time in California history.
Cons: Perhaps not Steinbeck's finest work, but a sentimental favorite regardless.

While Cannery Row isn’t one of John Steinbeck’s most critically acclaimed works, it has some elusive quality that keeps it hovering near the top spot of my mental rankings of his writing. It’s certainly not his most ambitious or literary work;...

Pros: Stunning metaphors, beautiful descriptions, captures a time and place perfectly.
Cons: Some readers may be put off by lack of narrative structure.

After the great triumph of The Grapes Of Wrath, Steinbeck sought to deconstruct the novel. In 1939 he wrote a letter to a former college roommate, Carlton Sheffield, in which he declared, “I’ve worked the novel – I know it as far as I can take it....

Pros: The characters and descriptions.
Cons: It ought to be longer.

Cannery Row is a great book. A classic from the day it was written to some point far in the future. Actually, that's true of almost all of John Steinbeck's books. You'll be hard pressed to find one which is not a masterpiece, if such a thing exists.
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Pros: Memorable Characters, Humorous and Thought-Provoking Plot, Great Setting
Cons: None, except that it's short and should go on longer. :)

Cannery Row is almost like a book of short stories. There are some central stories that follow main characters, such as a gang of jobless, penniless hooligans known as "Mack and the Boys", and a marine biologist named Doc, but interspersed between these...

Pros: Beautifully captures what it was like to live during this era in this place.
Cons: Could use a more defiled plot, at least to some readers.

Cannery Row was the first Steinbeck novel I ever read. The story takes place in Monterey during the depression and crisply details the lives of its main characters, living in the lower end of society. Lee Chong the wise business grocery owner, a marine ...

Pros: A real page turner, colorful characters, humorous tales
Cons: No real plot, if that is what you are seeking

First, I must admit that I had never read a book by John Steinbeck before I picked up Cannery Row. Not Grapes of Wrath, not Tortilla Flat, not even Mice and Men. But I wanted to read a so-called classic, so I check this one out.
I was not...

Pros: Short and easy reading
Cons: Slow progression

Being an Honors English student at my high school, i was assigned to read books over the summer. THe books had to meet the following standards.
1. Must be around 200 pages long (at least)
2. Must be written by an American author
3. Must be...