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The novel is actually a collection of short stories about the lives of some people who live on Cannery Row. Cannery Row, in Monterey, California, is an area around and including a sardine cannery. Furthermore it is also the people living there, and the smell, and the dreams. There\'s Doc, a marine biologist who\'s always ready to do something nice for his neighbours, Dora, the owner of the Bear Flag Restaurant, Mac, the leader of a group of homeless men and one of Doc\'s closest friends, Henri, an artist who\'s only interests are his boat and women, Lee Chong, who owns the only local grocery store, and Hazel, a mentally retarded man who is learning marine biology from Doc and is one of Mac\'s boys as well. There are many different little plots of Cannery Row, but the main one is this: Mac and the boys decide that the time has come to throw Doc a surprise party at his house, to show him how highly they think of him. They get the chance when Doc goes to collect some octopi several days away.
He won\'t be back for few days. To get the money for the decorations, food and drinks, they go out and talk Doc into paying them if they collect frogs for him. Consequently Doc is going to pay for his own party. They collect over seven hundreds frogs and convince Lee Chong to use them as money to buy party supplies. That way when Doc comes home, Lee is able to trade them to Doc for money. The night Doc is supposed to come home, the boys decorate his house and invite everybody in Cannery Row to come.
But the party is spoiled because, not only does Doc not show up, but a fight gets started between the guests and a few party crashing college kids. When Doc finally does come home, he finds his house totally devasteted. Mac and the boys are sorry about all this and shun themselves from society, but after a while, they decide to give a new party as a apology for the last one. Thankfully this one turns out much better.
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