Cannery row (and tortilla flat)

I read another Steinbeck book this week. Cannery Row was a quick read. Basically only took me two days - which is some kind of record for me. I don't usually read books this quickly. But I liked it and had a hard time putting it down.

Reading CR was, naturally, a good reminder of why I like Steinbeck. As the inside cover says (at least in the 'centennial edition' I have, which was a gift from my daughter):

First 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... In Cannery Row John Steinbeck returns to the setting of Tortilla Flat to create another evocative portrait of life as it is lived by those who unabashedly put the highest value on the intangibles--human warmth, camaraderie, and love. 

I also liked the little tag line Amazon gave it:

"Steinbeck's tough yet charming portrait of people on the margins of society, dependent on one another for both physical and emotional survival."

Ironic that I was laying in bed this morning thinking very much those same thoughts about real life...

I suppose it's also ironic that the last Steinbeck book I read was Tortilla Flat - which I read on vacation in Jamaica earlier this year. I don't think I ever noted that (most likely because that trip threw me for such a loop).

Anyway, I suppose these sorts of reads speak to me so because they help slow me down. Or maybe they pin me to a time and place, unlike my mind which seems to dart from here to there and everywhere all at once. It's comforting to just be still now and then.

I have now crossed both books off my list of Steinbeck books I've read.