Cannery Row (Penguin Audio Classics)
Cannery Row (Penguin Audio Classics) book cover

Cannery Row (Penguin Audio Classics)

Price
$11.15
Publisher
Penguin Audio
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-1611760149
Dimensions
5.21 x 0.76 x 5.75 inches
Weight
5 ounces

Description

Winner of the 2012 Fifty Books/Fifty Covers show, organized by Design Observer in association with AIGA and Designers & BooksWinner of the 2014 Type Directors Club Communication Design Award Praise for Penguin Drop Caps: "[Penguin Drop Caps] convey a sense of nostalgia for the tactility and aesthetic power of a physical book and for a centuries-old tradition of beautiful lettering."— Fast Company “Vibrant, minimalist new typographic covers…. Bonus points for the heartening gender balance of the initial selections.”—Maria Popova, Brain Pickings "The Penguin Drop Caps series is a great example of the power of design. Why buy these particular classics when there are less expensive, even free editions of Great Expectations ? Because they’re beautiful objects. Paul Buckley and Jessica Hische’s fresh approach to the literary classics reduces the design down to typography and color. Each cover is foil-stamped with a cleverly illustrated letterform that reveals an element of the story. Jane Austen’s A ( Pride and Prejudice ) is formed by opulent peacock feathers and Charlotte Bronte’s B ( Jane Eyre ) is surrounded by flames. The complete set forms a rainbow spectrum prettier than anything else on your bookshelf."—Rex Bonomelli, The New York Times "Drool-inducing."— Flavorwire "Classic reads in stunning covers—your book club will be dying."— Redbook From the Artist John Steinbeck

Features & Highlights

  • Steinbeck's tough yet charming portrait of people on the margins of society, dependant on one another for both physical and emotional survival
  • Published in 1945,
  • Cannery Row
  • focuses on the acceptance of life as it is: both the exuberance of community and the loneliness of the individual. Drawing on his memories of the real inhabitants of Monterey, California, including longtime friend Ed Ricketts, Steinbeck interweaves the stories of Doc, Dora, Mack and his boys, Lee Chong, and the other characters in this world where only the fittest survive, to create a novel that is at once one of his most humorous and poignant works. In her introduction, Susan Shillinglaw shows how the novel expresses, both in style and theme, much that is essentially Steinbeck: “scientific detachment, empathy toward the lonely and depressed…and, at the darkest level…the terror of isolation and nothingness.”

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
30%
(2.3K)
★★★★
25%
(1.9K)
★★★
15%
(1.2K)
★★
7%
(540)
23%
(1.8K)

Most Helpful Reviews

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All it should be, all it can.

Cannery Row is one of my favorite novels. On my first encounter with it, decades ago, I found it an effortless reflection of the way Steinbeck said it was the best way to write it. I opened the page and let the stories crawl out by themselves.

Enough has been written about the novel itself to make my own analysis redundant, except to say that it's just as he described: a view through a peephole of everybody. With one view, they are whores, pimps, gamblers and sons of bitches. With the next view, the same people are saints, angels, martyrs and holy men.

After reading the book, I found I was having to spend time traveling around the country with my work. So, I took to listening to books on tape. When I first found the tape cassette version of Cannery Row, read by Jerry Farden, I was very quickly hooked.

But, as cassette users know by experience, over time the tapes grow tired, the sound likewise. I longed to have had the insight to copy the tapes to CD when the quality was at its best, but it was not to be. I read the book from time to time, and that was it.

Then I discovered that this CD release was available. I'm delighted.

The audiobook is no less alive than it was all those years ago. As I originally wrote in a review for the cassette version, this is a superb example of the ease with which his written-to-be-read work translates to a spoken-to-be-heard medium.

Now, it's even better. The tracks on each CD are separated into small segments around a few minutes long, but they aren't apparent when you listen to the CD as a whole. For those of us who don't have the luxury or inclination to listen to an entire CD without a break, that is invaluable. It's a simple matter to return to whichever point you left and pick up the tale again.

A word about Jerry Farden: I haven't been able to find out much about the man, despite his having read his way through several audiobooks.
His reading of Cannery Row is superb; his tones and modulation are perfect for Cannery Row, but his voice doesn't stand out as a man reading a book. It's almost not there.

The most important thing that Farden accomplishes is not speaking the words so much as deliver them to you and let them crawl in by themselves.

And that's always been the best way to encounter Cannery Row.
3 people found this helpful
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Not standing to the test of time

This review is for the audio version. Did not enjoy it very much. I read Cannery Row in high school (in the 70s), and thought I would enjoy it like I did then, but I was surprised to see the subtle sexism and racism that was a part of the times. I guess I have grown since then, and so has our culture. Thank goodness. The book did NOT stand up to the test of time.

As to the audio version, we did not like the reader that much. I should probably research the best audiobook voice performers and go with the fan favorites. The reading does matter!
2 people found this helpful
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Five Stars

Loved It