Cannery Row
by John Steinbeck
Summary
Along the sardine cannery district of Monterey, California, the amiable drifter Doc, the well meaning ne'er do wells of the Palace Flophouse, and a cast of local eccentrics scheme to throw Doc a surprise party that goes disastrously and then triumphantly wrong. Steinbeck trades the social outrage of his Depression era fiction for a warmer, more episodic celebration of society's outcasts and their improvised community. The novel's affection for its ragtag characters has made it one of his most beloved and frequently reread books.
Historical Context & Significance
The 1946 Pulitzer for fiction went to no book at all, one of several years the board withheld the prize entirely without public explanation. Steinbeck had already won the Pulitzer for The Grapes of Wrath five years earlier, but this gentler novel received no award of its own.