Cannery Row

Cannery Row (Masterplots II: American Fiction Series, Revised Edition)

At a glance:

The Novel

Cannery Row is a sentimental, nostalgic portrayal of the lazy, the shiftless, the good-natured lowlifes who survive at the fringes of a fishing and canning community outside Monterey, California. Working only when they must, preferring drinking, fighting, and indolence, “the boys” of Cannery Row are somewhat akin to the old picaresque heroes of the seventeenth and eighteenth century novel. The picaro of these early novels was something of a rogue who lived by his or her wits, and who, despite poverty and social ostracism, displayed a basic goodness and a...

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