Cannery Row by John Steinbeck

Set during the Great Depression in Monterey, California, Cannery Row revolves around the people living on a street lined with sardine canneries that shares its namesake.

This is wonderful. I'd only ever read one book by Steinbeck, which was Of Mice and Men a million years ago in high school.

All I really want to comment on is how much Doc ate on his drive from Monterey to La Jolla. That's a 6-7 hour drive. Maybe highways were significantly different enough that it was a much longer drive back then? He ate 3 days worth of meals. I was dumbfounded reading it. Anyway, great book. It's so descriptive and there are so many wonderful artifacts from the 1930s and 1940s.

Lighting a water heater. Soap chips. Beer cans you open with a can opener. I could go on.

Another wonderful Steinbeck novel. I liked this book, but I didn't love it. I had trouble connecting to the characters, and despite the charm of the community, I felt that there was a kind of stagnant melancholy also coloring the book—a kind of cheery monotony. I would not recommend this to people who haven't read Steinbeck before; I don't think it's the best example of his abilities, though it's certainly a good read for anyone who has read his works before.