Cannery Row by John Steinbeck **** (of 4)

Steinbeck uses Cannery Row to tell a long yarn about a community of hobos, prostitutes, semi-homeless, store owners, and an amateur marine biologist living adjacent to some Pacific sardine-canning factories. The era is the Great Depression, the ocean and its tide pools are described in minute detail, and Cannery Row's inhabitants receive the same respect, dignity, and more than a little love.

Lee Chong runs an all-purpose store where patrons can purchase everything from eggs and butter to firecrackers and hardware. Most people buy beer or whiskey they use to become pleasantly drunk. They pay with scrip or credit, and on one significant occasion, with several hundred recently captured frogs. Doc, the biologist, collects sea creatures for scientific labs, has an open-door, and takes a troubled youth, too slow to learn in school, under his wing. 

Mack and his four work-avoiding buddies reside in an abandoned warehouse, affectionately known as the Palace Flophouse, where they spend nearly everyday drinking, scheming, planning, abandoning plans, and discussing the great issues of the day. Much of the book centers upon a party that Mack and his friends are planning for Doc, because to them Doc is such a fine fella, and who doesn't deserve a party.

While a book about some bums planning a party might on the surface feel superfluous, written as it was in 1945, as World War II was finally drawing to a close, there are still some lessons worth heeding as we navigate 2020. Perhaps, camaraderie and contentment with our lot is more important than work and unsatisfiable striving.

Yes, an American battle for justice and equity must still be fought, so utter complacency is not acceptable, but for moment of rejuvenation, and an antidote to horror -- World War II or Covid and Black Lives Matter -- there is no better story teller than John Steinbeck.