Ana V.

Why did I take this book of my library's shelf? First of all, it's Steinbeck. There's no book of his that I didn't like up to this point. Second of all, he got a Nobel for literature after writing this one. That's one good reason for which to read anyone, Not just because they won a Nobel and everything they did must therefore be amazing, but because you might find interesting things and learn from them things you wouldn't get elsewhere.

Cannery Row struck from the beginning as a book that has a hidden message. It was too plain, it was forward, and knowing Steinbeck, there just had to be twists. Then I came to know each of the characters, each portraying a type of personality, be it damaged or generous or easily impressed or the lost one. This author is one of the rare people that really understand what others just know. He goes into a human mind and extracts the basics of it, then transforms it into something everyone would be able to understand when they see it on a character. It's really hard to do that. A writer is only able to know what his conscience knows, what he has seen, what he has felt, and for him to able to write about pain or loneliness or love, he had to feel it at some point in life. Otherwise you just portray it wrong.

Steinbeck, of course, didn't do this wrong. I got the feeling that Doc was a kind of idol of wood, that everyone came to. Doc gave help constantly, taking care of others, but no one knew what he actually was, no one understood him and they just kept saying that he's worth so much and he's a saint, though he got nothing in exchange.

Mack, the king of losers, was another type of personality portrayal. Not a bad guy inside his secret heart, he kept doing wrongs by everyone and anyone around him, including himself. When punishment would come upon him, he was happy to receive it, then wondered why does this happen to him.

In the end, they all complimented each other, and I can understand why Steinbeck is one of the greatest writers there ever were.