Cannery Row

The novel is loosely structured, with chapters about the main plot alternating with short sketches of the street's life: a painter who keeps building a boat he never finishes, a couple who live in an old boiler, a strange boy, the gophers in the vacant lot and the tide pools where Doc collects animals. Steinbeck based Doc on his close friend Ed Ricketts, a marine biologist, and he is the heart of the book, a gentle, music-loving man whom everyone trusts.

To earn money for the party, Mack and the boys go on an expedition to catch frogs for Doc's laboratory, a chaotic trip full of comic mishaps. The first party, held while Doc is away, gets out of hand and wrecks his laboratory. Ashamed, the boys try again, and this time the whole street joins in. Dora Flood, who runs a lively establishment nearby, adds her own generosity to the community. Steinbeck shows kindness, loneliness and humor among people others see as failures, and his descriptions of the waterfront are beautiful.

Short, warm and funny, followed by Sweet Thursday. About 192 pages in the Penguin paperback.