Sweet Thursday

I just finished this one this morning. Utterly, utterly brilliant. I read Cannery Row a while ago and bought Sweet Thursday a while ago too. Since the bairns came along, my books tend to be consumed in audio fashion rather than in the more tangible paper form. As we were travelling to Scotland and back recently and would be spending time in a B&B, I thought I would take a book along. I grabbed this one off my shelf and was hooked right from the start.

It's hard to describe why this is so good. Being blessed with a poor memory, I really don't recall much of what happened in Cannery Row. I do recall how much I enjoyed it though, and having forgotten its plot didn't mar my enjoyment of Sweet Thursday at all (it's a sequel, in case you didn't get the connection).

The plot is simple: it's a love story. Not much else to it than that at the plot level. It's at the writing level that it really breathes. The characters are wonderfully crafted and the book is full of depth without seeming deep. There's a whole bunch of philosophy in the book and it will certainly warrant a second read. Although it's set a million miles from where I grew up, both in geographical and temporal terms, it reminds me of just that. It could quite easily be me and my pals from back in the day if we were still in the same little town and had never ‘settled down'.

Doc went on, “Let me put it this way: there is nothing I can do. They say of an amputee that he remembers his leg. Well, I remember this girl. I am not whole without her. I am not alive without her. When she was with me I was more alive than I have ever been, and not only when she was pleasant either. Even when we were fighting I was whole. At the time I didn't realize how important it was, but I do now. I am not a dope. I know that if I should win her I'll have many horrible times. Over and over, I'll wish I'd never seen her. But I also know that if I fail I'll never be a whole man. I'll live a gray half-life, and I'll mourn for my lost girl every hour of the rest of my life. As thoughtful reptiles you will wonder, ‘Why not wait? Look further! There are better fish in the sea!' But you are not involved. Let me tell you that to me not only are there no better fish, there are no other fish in the sea at all. The sea is lonely without this fish. Put that in your pipe and smoke it!”

John Steinbeck found something funny in Monterey, California. The three novels he set in the city make up the author's three most recognized comedies (his only comedies, I believe, with the exception of the satirical ...Pippin IV). In Sweet Thursday, Steinbeck returns to the characters and setting of his earlier novel Cannery Row. Some of the Row's characters have moved on and others have moved in. If you've read Cannery Row or Steinbeck's first visit to Monterey, Tortilla Flat, then you're already aware of the type of story at hand.

Of the three, I enjoyed Sweet Thursday most. In part, I believe this is because of the style of comedy Steinbeck employs in Sweet Thursday. In his earlier novels, much of the hilarity relies on drunken antics. Sure, drunk people can do funny things, but you can only laugh at a village of drunken idiots so long before you begin to feel bad for them and the comedy loses its effect. In Sweet Thursday the laughs are more situational and character driven.

Another reason I think Sweet Thursday succeeded more in reaching me is due to the structure of the novel—it felt more like a complete novel. Although Steinbeck's earlier comedic attempts certainly had an overarching story, they descended into many vignettes that were entertaining, but took me out of the story. With Sweet Thursday the entire story centers on curing the loneliness that ails Doc. There's romance and sacrifice and only the occasional drunken moment. Lastly, Sweet Thursday seemed to me the most simple and profound of the three novels.

Given my dramatic nature, Steinbeck's more comedic novels could never take the place of greats like East of Eden, The Grapes of Wrath, or The Winter of Our Discontent, but I enjoyed my visits to Monterey nonetheless. And I wonder, what is Monterey, California, truly like?