Book Club

Cannery Row

Cannery Row is a book with a minimally developed plot. Instead, it’s an attempt to depict the atmosphere and characters of a particular place—the cannery neighbourhood of Monterey, California, which is home to a mix of the poor and individuals who prefer not to live “up the hill” in the more respectable part of town for a variety of reasons. Short vignettes that introduce us to different Row residents, the majority of whom are not directly related to the main story, regularly interrupt the main plot’s pace.

These short stories frequently make reference to extreme violence, including suicides, bodies, and the brutality of nature.The adventures of Mack and the guys, a gang of resourceful unemployed men who live in a renovated fish-meal shanty on the edge of an empty lot down on the Row, are the “narrative” of Cannery Row.