Sweet Thursday (Penguin Classics)

`Sweet Thursday' is the follow up to `Cannery Row' and although it has many of the same characters from that first book it doesn't quite live up to the charm you felt from when you first delved into the lives of those on Cannery Row. Don't get me wrong, `Sweet Thursday' is still very good and is written in Steinbeck's usual descriptive and rich language and once you start you are quickly engrossed in the story being told, but nothing beats the first time you met these characters in the first instalment. You get Mack and the boys in the palace flophouse and their various exploits, but this novel focuses more on Doc and his loneliness and how the inhabitants of Cannery Row go about alleviating it for him with the usual hilarious results. This novel is slightly longer than `Cannery Row' and follows life after the war and when the area is run down and dilapidated. Having only recently found this novel I was delighted to immerse myself in the lives of these wonderful characters again and if you liked `Cannery Row' it is a safe bet you will like this as well, in fact it would be good to read them one after the other to get the full impact of the story. A worthy successor to `Cannery Row' and a good novel in it's own right, well worth a look if you're a fan of Steinbeck.

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Sweet Thursday, Steinbeck's second part to Cannery Row, is in many ways an equal and worthy sequel and a pleasure to read. There is simplicity to many of the story's characters, but there is also a deep, symbolic, spirited prose in Steinbeck's writing, making even the simplest idea of life seem grandiose and thought-provoking. It's as if each statement takes on a larger meaning or is a microcosm for life.

Many of the same cast from Cannery Row returns to Sweet Thursday, including Doc, Mack, Hazel and the boys, and then the most relevant new character is Suzy. Suzy comes to town looking for work, and you can tell despite her denials that she carries some baggage with her. Eventually she takes up some work with Fauna and her girls in her brothel, but you can tell this just doesn't suit her. As much as the town takes an interest in Doc, Fauna takes an interest in Suzy, and she gets the urge to try to play matchmaker with Doc and Suzy. While much of the first half of the book deals with Doc speculating on life, Mack and the boys coming over to socialize, or Suzy's orientation into Fauna's business, the novel takes off a little more in the second half, when the town ties to figure out what is wrong with Doc (because even he doesn't know). The second half also focuses on Fauna trying to be matchmaker for Doc and Suzy.

Doc is really the character who drives the story, and many of Cannery Row feel indebted to him: "Doc was more than first citizen on Cannery Row. He was healer of the wounded soul and the cut finger...When trouble came to Doc it was everybody's trouble..." While everyone tries to decipher exactly what has Doc obsessing over writing the paper, and his frustration with it, Hazel, an unlikely hero, decides to try to take some matters into his own hands. While some of the story might be a little predictable by the novel's end, the mean by which Steinbeck is able to arrive there really is the talent in this novel.

Steinbeck has a way with prose, and seems to inject a symbolic nature in even the minutest moments. For instance, the very brief two scenes with the man who is called the Seer are important to the fate of both Doc and Hazel's later actions. There are also many beautiful descriptions of Northern California--Salinas, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Cannery Row. Steinbeck makes setting as significant as its characters. There is a small town feel to the novel, and whether Doc is lamenting over life with Mack with a drink of Old Tennis Shoes, or taking a walk over to his lab, there is a slice of everyday life in every chapter of Sweet Thursday.

I read "Cannery Row" years ago with some generally good impressions. Later I watched the rather lame movie version and I was reminded that humor was not Steinbeck's forte. I mention this because the first few pages of "Sweet Thursday" led me to think that I was going to get more tired scenes of old reprobates catching frogs at night. I perservered and, as soon as page 22, I was making margin notes for future reference. There is humor in "Sweet Thursday" and some of it is pretty good. However, it is Steinbeck's frequent forays into human psychology that kept my attention.

I suspect that this group of misfits was a good laboratory for Steinbeck to tests his theories and write down his observations. There is a rather off-beat romance that seemed predictable although in an unpredictable way. I actually got to liking many of the characters although some were still a bit much. Somehow this mixture of high brow and low brow works out pretty well. I'm ready for some more Steinbeck!

In every way except the title, "Sweet Thursday" is a sequel to "Cannery Row". Most of the characters return, with a few new additions to the Monterey, California community. John Steinbeck again proves to be a master of developing charcters in this work. As is the case with most sequels, the second is not as good as the original.

Having read all of Steinbeck's other works except one, I went into this book with certain expectations. Knowing the characters in this story from a previous work, I expected Steinbeck to further develop these characters. Doc continues to be the centerpiece of the story. With the other members of the community rallying to his aid, the plot centers on the attempt to attain Doc a love interest. The "Seer" adds an interesting element to the story, which acts as a device for Steinbeck to give less realistic traits to the characters. This entertaining aspect sets this work apart form "Cannery Row".

This is not Steinbeck's best work. When a writer has such a high standard of excellence, it is hard to write a "Grapes of Wrath" in every book. Fans of Steinbeck will enjoy this work.

This book is a deemed a continuation of "Cannery Row," which I have yet to read, although it is on my list. But, it is also written in the spirit of Steinbeck's "Tortilla Flats," in that it is a story of men who are down and out conspiring to help each other through life's many setbacks. In this book, the men of the Palace Flophouse work together and separately to overcome the ennui being suffered by their pal Doc, a marine biologist, who is burried under an extreme case of loneliness. Enter Suzy, who becomes a member of the local brothel. How to get the two together? That's the charming focus of this book. Men and women looking out for each other; a terrific moral, a bawdy and sentimental read, a book I enjoyed to the fullest.

This is actually his best book. Steinbeck was at his worse when he was serious; he got preachy and dull. This is such a funny book, and such a sad book, and such a sweet book that I can't understand anyone who can't enjoy it on it's own terms. The combination of Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday is unrivaled in American literature. Only Updike's Rabbit series is comparable, but Steinbeck at his best was the great American writer, and this really is him in all his powers.

John Steinbeck’s SWEET THURSDAY revisits the people and places of CANNERY ROW. Set after World War II, some of the cast of the Row has changed—Lee Chong has moved on, and his store is taken up by a clever criminal by the name of Joseph and Mary Rivas; the Bear Flag brothel is now under the care of a star-chart-reading madam named Fauna; while Mack and Hazel still remain at the Palace Flophouse, the rest of the tenets have changed over the years. The book is centered around the two biggest changes: Doc has gone to war and come home again, and a girl named Suzy arrives on Cannery Row. Both are wounded, stubborn, deeply lonely people, and the folks of Cannery Row take it upon themselves to get the two together.

As is typical for Steinbeck’s work, SWEET THURSDAY appears simple but is actually rather complex. It is, on the surface, a somewhat saccharine love story. It’s a love story mostly about how a woman can save a man, can fix him, which means that the love story is really about the man and much less about the woman. That’s one of my least favorite kinds of love story, frankly, which meant this book was not always what I wanted it to be or what I wanted to read. But a deeper reading makes this a weightier, darker book. This book is as much about redemption as it is about love. It’s as much about reconciling the past as it is about building a future. Doc comes back from the war changed—hollow and flat and listless and angry, or what we today might call PTSD-stricken. We don’t know what he saw in the war, but I’m sure it was nothing pleasant. Suzy shows up on the Row penniless and hungry, on the run from what is hinted to be a nasty failed marriage. She is angry and listless, too.

To some extent, this is a slapstick book. Steinbeck’s raucous, corny style of comedy is in play throughout. But counterbalancing that is a weirdly pervasive casual violence. Characters who seemed so gentle in CANNERY ROW, like Hazel and Doc, pick fights, break bones and nearly strangle others. Doc spends several pages literally enraging octopi to the point of death. It’s threaded through the book, start to finish, and I found it a little disturbing. Everything in the book reads like a desperate scramble to right things, to get things back to the equilibrium of the first book, both in the plot and in the writing itself.

SWEET THURSDAY is not CANNERY ROW—and I doubt it’s really trying to be, so while one is a sequel of the other it’s ultimately an apples-to-oranges comparison. It’s a different book: where in CANNERY ROW the characters were the backdrop and the place was the protagonist, the characters take center stage here. SWEET THURSDAY has a much more linear and traditional narrative plot, which, perhaps, comes as part of it being more about the people than the place. It is a good book on its own merits, but it feels unfocused. It feels like Steinbeck’s heart and his brain were trying to write two different books here, and he was never quite able to resolve those inconsistencies.

Well, folks, a sequel is a sequel. By definition, it is less original, creative, surprising than the first instalment. Granted.
Apart from that it is more of the same enjoyable ramble through different levels of life. Of course mainly the lower ones. Can't see Steinbeck writing a society novel.
During WWII, excessive fishing has depleted the seas around Monterey, so now in this post war period, there is no fish to be canned in cannery row. The story is set around the survivors from part I, mainly Doc and Mack etc. Add Fauna and Suzy as delightful new characters, not to forget the Patron, Joseph and Mary. What a name.
I loved it. Steinbeck had a great sense of humour. His fun stories are so much better than the mythical ones, like e.g. East of Eden or Burning Bright. Yes, he dropped a bit in productivity and creativity in his last 2 decades.
Not quite surprisingly then, part of the 'plot' of 'CRII' is a writer's block of the main hero, Doc. (Whose real life model had by then died in a car accident, by the way!)
I would agree that the story drops off speed a bit in the last quarter, since the pedictable outcome takes a little long in coming together.
One more thought: is there any other Murakami fan (like me) around here? Don't you agree that the seer in the chapter about the hole in reality could have walked straight into a Murakami story 40 years later? (Maybe it is time to relate Murakami more to Steinbeck than to Kafka!!)

"Sweet Thursday" is, without a doubt, my personal favorite Steinbeck novel.
Assuredly, he wrote better books -- ones, such as "Cannery Row," for example (and for which this volume serves as a sequel), which were arguably far more profound and which today remain far more prominent in the public mind as examples of Steinbeck's craft -- yet I don't believe that he ever wrote anything with more insight, not mention love and dedication, than "Sweet Thursday."
"Sweet Thursday" is, simply put, a 'love letter;' Steinbeck's love -- for the characters (and the real-life people who inspired those characters), as well as his love for the simple craft of writing -- shines forth in every page. Written approximately fifteen years after its "prequel," "Sweet Thursday" also serves to document Steinbeck's growth as a writer (he'd significantly narrowed the gap in those intervening years between what a writer wants to say -- as expressed by yet another California author [Raymond Chandler] -- and his ability to actually say it).
But above all else, it's simply a "marvelous read;" and, by the way, you don't have to read "Cannery Row" beforehand in order to fully enjoy it.

Steinbeck's colorful sequel to "Cannery Row". WWII has passed, and in one way or another everyone from "Cannery Row" has either fought in it or been affected by it; now, they have resumed their lives in Monterey. Some old characters have left, moved on, or died, and new characters such as Joseph & Mary Rivas (one man), Flora, Whitey #2, and Suzy are new. But the main characters without whom the book wouldn't have been written, Doc, Mack, and Hazel return. Each character is real and believable from speech to dress, thought and action. Their seemingly mundane and simple lives are interesting and appealing (as are most people's without even realizing it), and the love story which develops between Doc and Suzy is charming in my opinion. Throughout, and especially in the two chapters Steinbeck entitles "hooptedoodle", there are interesting asides on subjects such as Pacific Grove, Carmel Valley, and marine biology for example, which help fill in the larger universe of "Sweet Thursday/Cannery Row". One of my favorite chapters is the one entitled: "There's a Hole in Reality Through Which We Can Look if We Wish". Here, Doc takes a lonely, evening stroll along the beach where he encounters a man called "the Seer". The Seer invites Doc to his campfire for dinner and in a mystical conversation we begin to really see and feel another side of Doc's personality not as evident in the more light-hearted "Cannery Row". This mysterious beach-bum talks to a morose Doc and gets him to realize that what's lacking in his life is nothing less than Love. "Sweet Thursday" is the story of Doc's accepting love, as well as the good intentions of his diverse friends, into his life. Steinbeck's further development of the other Cannery characters, along with his wonderful descriptions of Monterey County and the post-war time period is a perfect blend of art and story-telling talent which make for a highly enjoyable novel. It's quite possible that you will want to read it more than once, not only to re-live Steinbeck's "Cannery Row", but also to re-discover the warm-hearted life lessons contained within.

Perhaps Steinbeck never should have bothered writing this novel, since it's simply a sequel to his infinitely entertaining and unsurpassable "Cannery Row." Whereas the latter book is more a series of lovingly written vignettes about Monterey in the late 1930s than a straightforward novel, "Sweet Thursday" (which deals with the same characters and places in the late 1940s) does not have the same feel, involving a more coherent story and more "character development." This is why some of the magic and charm is taken away from characters like Doc, Hazel and Mack - although one could argue that Steinbeck brought these characters down to earth by showing them as normal people subject to change and aging (i.e. Doc's rather odd version of a mid-life crisis). Even though it is a much weaker literary work than its predecessor, "Sweet Thursday" is still engaging and very, very funny.

The master Steinbeck is back with a sequel to Cannery Row that features the same incredibly natural dialogue and economical insight into the psychology of every character. A few years have passed since Cannery Row and a wholly appropriate amount of transition and change have occurred in both the setting and the lineup of characters. I recommend reading some other book by someone else between Cannery Row and this one to substitute for the passage of time. It is also likely to highlight how Steinbeck is truly one of the greatest dialogue writers that has ever picked up a pencil.

I had read Cannery Row several times before I got my hands on a copy of Sweet Thursday. I was skeptical that a sequel could possibly live up the epic greatness Cannery Row and I was worried that Steinbeck would somehow ruin the wonderful characters of the "palace flophouse." Sweet Thursday is every bit as magical as Cannery Row. The new characters are beautiful and the old characters are so expertly polished that they shine brighter than ever. The book picks up the lives of the Row characters a few years after the events of the first book. Steinbeck masterfully chronicles the rise of an unlikely hero as a frightening crisis threatens the Western Biological Supply. The only mistake I ever made was seeing the movie based on Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday. It was horrible - a crime against Steinbeck.

Steinbeck's posthumous eulogy to best friend "Doc" Ed RIcketts, and the sordid and saintly characters of Cannery Row. Like it's predecessor, CANNERY ROW, Steinbeck's world of the homeless, and harlots is not one to eschew - but one that leaves the reader wishing to "taste" its rich diversity.

This isn't too ambitious, but it's nearly everything else. It's a sweet tongue-in-cheek story about a bunch of characters in Cannery Row, Monterey (where I went in June!) who live in the same community and stick their necks out for each other and roll through the days with fun and vigour. It's got friendship and romance and humour and a page-turning style of writing. It's about their way of life and the beauty of coastal California. It also has a wonderful love story between Doc and Suzy, the type that makes you go, "Aww ... " when they finally get together.
At heart, the message is - everyone needs someone, and every man needs a woman. I can definitely do with that. This is a true literary page-turner, something all too rare in fiction.

A beautiful character study that both soothed me and entertained me from beginning to end. Steinbeck is a master storyteller who knows just how to portray the everyday lives of humans in compelling ways.

I had read Cannery Row several times before I got my hands on a copy of Sweet Thursday. I was skeptical that a sequel could possibly live up the epic greatness Cannery Row and I was worried that Steinbeck would somehow ruin the wonderful characters of the "palace flophouse." Sweet Thursday is every bit as magical as Cannery Row. The new characters are beautiful and the old characters are so expertly polished that they shine brighter than ever. The book picks up the lives of the Row characters a few years after the events of the first book. Steinbeck masterfully chronicles the rise of an unlikely hero as a frightening crisis threatens the Western Biological Supply. The only mistake I ever made was seeing the movie based on Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday. It was horrible - a crime against Steinbeck.

Steinbeck's posthumous eulogy to best friend "Doc" Ed RIcketts, and the sordid and saintly characters of Cannery Row. Like it's predecessor, CANNERY ROW, Steinbeck's world of the homeless, and harlots is not one to eschew - but one that leaves the reader wishing to "taste" its rich diversity.

This isn't too ambitious, but it's nearly everything else. It's a sweet tongue-in-cheek story about a bunch of characters in Cannery Row, Monterey (where I went in June!) who live in the same community and stick their necks out for each other and roll through the days with fun and vigour. It's got friendship and romance and humour and a page-turning style of writing. It's about their way of life and the beauty of coastal California. It also has a wonderful love story between Doc and Suzy, the type that makes you go, "Aww ... " when they finally get together.
At heart, the message is - everyone needs someone, and every man needs a woman. I can definitely do with that. This is a true literary page-turner, something all too rare in fiction.

A beautiful character study that both soothed me and entertained me from beginning to end. Steinbeck is a master storyteller who knows just how to portray the everyday lives of humans in compelling ways.

Steinbeck has a unique ability to portray simple exploits of life and weave them into lessons of life that we should all know. He understands the ideosyncracies of the human spirit and subtleties that many individuals don't often pick up on. This is a great, relaxing read, from which many of us can learn a great deal.
Many readers may disagree with my analogies, but with Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday, Steinbeck is actually a lot like a Seinfeld. He can take seemingly uninteresting situations, and develop them into humorous portrayals of quirky people. He takes personalites that everyone is familar with, and just stretches with a little neuroses.

Steinbeck gives birth to fully formed characters about as well as any modern author, and the characters in "Sweet Thursday" are some of the loveliest in literature. They all have their warts; they all have their peculiarities; they all expose a little heart sometimes as well. I'll bet you'll find a bit of yourself in this tossed-salad of humanity. I loved "Cannery Row" and Steinbeck doesn't miss a step in this sequel. You don't have to read "Cannery Row" first, but I'd recommend it. And if you liked "Cannery Row", you have to read "Sweet Thursday".

In his early career when Steinbeck was married to Carol Henning, Joseph Campbell had a very public, and for John, a very painful, flirtation with her. As the rumor goes, Steinbeck got revenge by lampooning Campbell with the charactger in SWEET THURSDAY, Joe Elegant.

"Joe Elegant was a pale young man with bangs. He smoked foreign cigarettes in a long ebony holder and he cooked for the Bear Flag. ...He sneered most of the time, and except at mealtime kept to himslef in his little lean-to behind the Bear Flag from which the rattle of his typewriter could be heard late at night."

p. 133 "After lunch Joe Elegant read Fauna his latest chapter. He explained the myth and the symbol. 'You see,' he said, 'the grandmother stands for guilt.'
'Aint she dead and buried?'
'Yes.'
'That's a kind of a messy guilt.'
'It's the reality below the reality,' said Joe Elegant.
'Balls!' said Fauna." (Fauna's the madam of a cheap bordello.)

I don't regard this as one of Steinbeck's better books, but Ch. 23, "One Night of Love," stands out for how it conveys a deep understanding and compassion for humanity and the transformational power of love. Steinbeck rarely comes right out and talks about love, but he does here and in a way that proves he's given it a lot of thought. Here, Doc and Suzy (a woman engaging in prostitution out of desperation) are dining in a restaurant in Monterrey (they've not yet had sex):

"The shock of a necktie was leaving Doc. He looked across the table and smiled at Suzy and he wondered, What is beauty in a girl that it can come and go? This Suzy did not faintly resembble the tough hustler who had screamed at hm the night before. He raised the coctail glass. 'You're pretty,' he said. 'I'm glad you came with me. Here's to both of us.'

Suzy swallowed a gulp, held back her tears, and waited for the spasm to pass."

Suzy's a prostitute. Doc knows she is, yet he treats her as a lady, and she behaves like one. Suzy turns heads when she walks in the restaurant. The maitre d' defers. Doc wore slacks, tie and jacket. This isn't a paid transaction, either, it's a bonifide date, arranged by Fauna, Suzy's boss and a trusted friend of Doc's. The entire book is worth this one restaurant scene in this one chapter.

John Steinbecks Cannery Row is one of his masterpieces. Sweet Thursday the sequel is not as good but solid nonetheless. Sweet Thursday is not as episodic as Cannery Rom and it is more philosophical and a stronger romance element but this is not always good the romance and philosophy sometimes dont work. INparticular the romance seems forced. The novel maintains a lot of the humor of Cannery Row and one doesnt need to read Cannery Row to enjoy Sweet Thursday though it would not hurt to do so

This novel is Steinbeck's sequel to his very successful CANNERY ROW, which was published in 1945. The book revolves around Doc and the prostitute Suzy; everyone in Cannery Row thinks that Doc needs to get married (his life is in a funk), and that Suzy is the best prospect (her honesty is her key feature). Doc isn't sure he agrees with everyone else about getting married, and Suzy doesn't think she's worthy of him. But the inevitable must occur, of course, and with everyone doing the best they can to get the two together, they finally decide to tie the knot.

Steinbeck had a musical comedy in mind when he wrote this, but his attempt at lighthearted humor is not his forte. The big party with the goofy costumes is more silly than funny; better is when Suzy describes the man who would be perfect for her and Doc tells her that's him to a T, but she doesn't believe him. The ending is fairly predictable as the two principals stumble toward it. Not one of Steinbeck's major achievements.

I almost never bother to write a negative book review but on Sweet Thursday I'll make that exception. I have read every single book that John Steinbeck published and I enjoyed every single one of them, except this one. It rambled on and on, wasn't focused in the least, didn't hold my attention. I only kept reading because I expected it to get better. But it didn't and I must confess, I never made it much more than half way through it.
It is odd too, because Steinbeck is a real master, a fabulous writer, creator of stories and charters that will outlast most of us. But this one didn't get it for me, this one could have used more editing. Still, one dog out of so many great books, it is a darn good record. By the way, just finished reading Down to a Soundless Sea, by his son, Thomas Steinbeck, and I was quite impressed with it...great stories, fine writing. Check it out and take a pass on Sweet Thursday.

Sweet Thursday is a dynamite book. It is a sequel to Cannery Row, set after World War II in the same location with some of the same characters.

Steinbeck is always insightful and unerringly descriptive but he wants to drift into the dark and depressing. He is certainly at his positive storytelling best here, though, and I feel like I'm sitting with him in the lab, sipping Old Tennis Shoes, and listening to him spin out this delightful yarn.

Buy this with Cannery Row and enjoy two thumping good reads.

I liked the sequel better than the original, a must read and I must advise you because I feel a fit coming on to stop reading after the three periods... Abandon all hope ye who continues to read...(three more periods, take note) I am reminded of me mum telling the story of how she had lost a gas cap to something and that she stuck a potato in the gas hole and fixed the problem. We all laughed at this story and to tell you the truth I knew that if I ever lost a gas cap the first thing I would do would riffle through the potato cabinet. As luck would have it I was riding my Yamaha 60cc Mini enduro and one day I noticed my gas cap was missing, I swear I did not pull this stunt on myself its just one of those be careful what you wish for things. Well my brother Charles Chadwick was keen on the idea of the potato solution and me not being very mechanical enlisted his help. We found a fine potato had to wittle it into a taper and then found it would not stay put when we raced so we took some duct tape and taped it over the gas hole and this worked until the potato shrank or I ran out of gas and had to untape my potato. Again fate came a knockin' and we found a gas cap that fit the bike but it was a little oversized so it looked like I had a pie pan on my gas tank, no problems it worked better than the potato. I need to call my mum and find out what sort of gas hole a potato works on, I'm just not ready to take this one out of my bag of tricks. Read Sweet Thursday , great read.

Is this book really out of print? John Steinbeck, one of our greatest American writers wrote many books and this is among his best. It is the sequel to Cannery Row, one of his most famous, and tells more about the lives of the characters created there. The movie, "Cannery Row", which is excellent, by the way, actually incorporates events from both books. I have read all of Steinbeck's books. I bought this one for my brother, as a present. He enjoyed it thoroughly. This is a good read for all ages.

New Hampshire, Singapore and Mr. Schilf: you are all absolutely right. There is more warmth, humanity and wisdom lovingly crammed into this beautiful story ... Those who only know the Steinbeck of Grapes of Wrath or East of Eden should meet the Steinbeck of Cannery Row, Sweet Thursday and Tortilla Flat. The greatness of the man is here. My favorite novel.

this is not a worthy sequel to cannery row, which is about as wonderful a book as any american has produced. sweet thursday itself rises not much above the level of a tv sitcom. prostitution here is treated like a warm, light-hearted profession, pure television sitcom hooey. i wish mr steinbeck had let cannery row stand on its own; for, while sweet thurday is an okay light read, it adds nothing to, and can only diminish the pleasures stored in one's memory of the classic original story. don't miss out on cannery row, or tortilla flat (another classic in the same vein), but feel free to skip sweet thurday, which is pure fluff compared to those two wonderful works. this book was a steinbeck mistake. i guess we all make them.

John Steinbeck is the only great non-Southern American author of the twentieth century who is not Hemingway and he's a genius and anybody who doesn't love this book unreservedly should apologize to whomever they're currently sitting next to, because odds are they've just let loose a petulant sigh for no good reason and made the other person feel self conscious, like they're in the way or imposing or something. Great book. Beautiful, glorious use of the English language, unlike this review.

It seems like Steinbeck tried a little too hard to be witty, too hard
to be philosophical, too hard to be human and sweet. What made the original
Cannery Row so enjoyable was its relaxed style and atmosphere. This book
is fun to read, but still is coerced. I guess sequels never do work out . . .

i enjoyed this book thoroughly. Like "Cannery Row", I found it to be pretty light hearted, although it did tackle some more serious issues at times. I enjoyed the broad spectrum of characters, i especially thought all the women at the Bear Flag Commune were hilarious. This book was really short, and i finished in a few days tops. Overall, i would recomend this to everyone, especially those who really enjoyed "Cannery Row", for this is a worthy sequal.

Love Steinbeck's writing!!
Sweet Thursday is great to read after Cannery Row. Both books have wonderful character development. I also love the setting of both books..... The old day north cali coast!

This is for sure one of my favorites. Steinbeck tries to be funny, human, and philosophical. He succeeds. This book pleases on many levels-it can be read as a light story, or for the philosophical value.

As a giant fan of Cannery Row, I resisted reading the sequel for years. There were many reasons to put it down along the way, especially early in the book. The prologue is Steinbeck at his absolute worst and stands in sharp contrast with the poetic opening of Cannery Row. In it he uses Mack to tell us that this book is an exercise in dialogue and that the plot will flow without interruption. Feels like a far cry from the love with which he writes in the first book and downright hacky. Steinbeck goes on to "plug and play" characters, using the template of the town to create utterly forgettable figures in Fauna and Joseph and Mary as replacements for Dora and Lee Chong. Sweet Thursday plays out like most bad sequels in that giving in to the temptation of bringing back beloved characters, the original magic wavers. Still, Steinbeck can move a story along and there are sweet moments along the way, just not enough to warrant seeking this book out.

Steinbeck is always a good read. This is a humorous and introspective novel that brings out hope, sadness, life's troubles, solutions to problems and interpersonal patterns and styles with amusement and flavor.