Thanks For The Recommendation, Mummie

My mother has been telling me for ages to read Cannery Row by John Steinbeck. She told me that it's a really funny book and that I would get a kick out of it. Of course she was right. You should always listen to your mother. I'm a big Steinbeck fan. I've read a number of his books while we've been here in Virginia, mostly because there always seems to be one that I haven't read when I'm perusing used books. I with the exception of one or two, I've found that his books are funny and enlightening and insightful. Cannery Row was not one of the exceptions. It was very entertaining of course, but what I liked best about it were the characters. Steinbeck is able to portray his characters in such a way that one is able to empathize with them in almost anything that they do. He is able to make vagrants, prostitutes, and philanderers almost lovable. The main characters of Cannery Row scam a store owner out of giving them a free place to live, they end up practically destroying a laboratory, they lie, they cheat people out of money and other goods, they drink too much and they do other things that would normally make them objects of derision. But Steinbeck is able to show these characters as well meaning. Nothing they do is malicious and as we follow their thought processes we find that they are really kind and want to do good, though things they try to do end up going wrong most of the time which is what makes the book so funny. I would definitely recommend this book.