Cannery Row - John Steinbeck

I read this book a long time ago, maybe when I was a student or when I was on my travels, so I was glad when I came upon it in the bookshop last week because I had never owned it, and it was time for a re-read. It used to be a gaudy looking Pan book and now it is a Penguin Modern Classic - so much classier!

It's set in Monterey - pronounced Monneray. Such a lovely word, and sounds so much more beautiful than this rain-drenched, crowded, hemmed- in island.

I remember it was comforting to read because there is a lot of love in it. There are lovable bums and kind whores and eccentric outsider artists, and Doc, who leaves his door unlocked and accepts gracefully all the life that comes his way: anyone whom the tide brings in... He looks into the rock pools at low tide and finds marvelous sea creatures, and to make his bread and butter he sells them to museums. At dusk the canneries go quiet (which is like the tide going out), and the life of the street returns to Cannery Row. The heroes here are those who live on the margins, like the sea creatures do on the shore. But of course sometimes they don't live - there are some deaths in the book. There is sadness but no tragedy, because life goes on. Also, there is food and drink - so much drink! - and sex and fun.

John Steinbeck varies his narrative by bringing in other characters, and a short telling snapshot of their lives, in between the chapters on Doc and the bums. So the book's structure is rather like weaving a rug in different stripes of colour, or making music with soloists and groups, like a Mass, ending with a big chorus in unison and then a short, sad, coda. The author is aware that he is mythologising his friends, and repeatedly refers to other myths. He knows that myth-making is what words do, and that this is what his art does.

The main business of the place was scooping sardines out of the sea, canning them and selling them for a few cents. This was the thirties and the people were poor. But the canneries were greedy, they over- fished until there were no more shoals of sardines. Then they all went bust.

This is one thing Doc says, and it's certain Steinbeck agrees with him.

"it has always seemed strange to me," said Doc. "The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest: sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first, they love the produce of the second."

Now Jesus also said this. I read the Gospels and I really thought this is what Jesus was trying to say. He did start a political movement - they were called religious orders. Men and women shared the work and helped the poor, and amassed nothing as individuals, but for the community. I really believe that monasteries were the political manifestation of Christianity.

I loved this book. It was written by Steinbeck at the end of the war, when he was looking back across 15 years, and I think he wrote it to comfort himself with a philosophy which can be shown in the telling of these stories, but can't easily be explained.

Under Water to get out of the Rain: concluding :Why oh why oh why did I not become a marine biologist?

It is such a cool thing to be. You get to scuba dive in varied locations collecting data; it involves looking at beautiful things in a beautiful environment, you design great experiments for changing ecosystems to see what works and what doesn't work, and you meet other people who love the same things as you!

It is all the fault of Miss Johns, who taught us Biology. She was a large, toothy woman who was quite diffident. She must have hated her ungrateful, giggling pupils, and she never showed us anything from the real world of nature. We copied the text book and diagrams on the board. I remember that ferns (or mosses) do something quite interesting in their life cycle and I hoped she would bring in an example of the thing that they became, but nope! I am still trying to become less ignorant. I collected my O Level.  But was that education? I believe children are taught better now, that there is some connection between the student and the life form studied.

History was taught and tested in the same way. You learned a story and you wrote it out in grammatically correct sentences. No wonder I preferred English Lit. You actually dealt with the book which contained its own world. It was not a step away from the actual subject under investigation.

My father was a keen gardener and I liked being in the garden with him. I was very fond of worms and used to collect them while he was digging. He told me how important the worms were for the soil. He was also keen on making compost heaps and enjoyed seeing them break down into compost as much as he enjoyed seeing the plants grow. (I am a bit like that now) One day I inspected the roses and I pointed out to him that some were covered with blackfly. I asked him if there was some kind of poison for the blackfly to get rid of them. "Yes," he said. "They tried that. They got some DDT and sprayed it and killed all the pests." "So that's a good idea then?" "Well. Then the birds started to die..." He didn't need to say any more. He had just explained ecology in 2 sentences.

But back to marine biology:" Under Water to get out of the Rain" includes so many interesting stories about things like, why did the Californian giant kelp forests start to diminish? they are vital to the food industry. Who was put on the case and what experiments did he do to solve the puzzle?

What happened to Cannery Row? Who was "Doc" the marine biologist that John Steinbeck wrote about? Now I know the answers I have to read "Cannery Row" again.(What an unlikely place for literature - a row of smelly factories for fish processing.)

I picked up this book by serendipity - my friend Amanda asked us round for a Christmas quiz and gave me this book to rest my answer paper on. I flicked through and I was intrigued. It's a terrific read, and unlike our  bad role-model Professor Steve Jones, Professor Trevor Norton lists at the end all the books he has consulted : A long, long list, and credits everyone, especially those who died at sea.