Sweet Thursday

SWEET THURSDAY

by John Steinbeck

 

Award: Nobel Prize 1955

 

Nomination: National Book Finalist 1955

 

Date Read: February 8, 2022

 

Doc has returned to Cannery Row from the war but everyone in Cannery Row agrees that he’s just not his old self. Most of his old friends think he needs a wife and they devise ways of finding him one. With Suzy being a newcomer to Cannery Row, she becomes the one and only candidate.

 

As far as Doc’s work is concerned, he’s absolutely stuck. He realizes that to write the kind of paper that could be presented at the Academy of Sciences, he needs a $400 microscope, an unobtainable fortune at that time. The members of the flop house, however, get together to raffle off their building, fixing the raffle so that Doc wins. They know that Doc is too involved in his research to worry about collecting rent and paying property taxes on the building and the money they raise will all be put towards the microscope.

 

Fauna, who does everyone’s horoscopes on the row, believes Doc and Suzy are destined to get married because of their charts. She pays close attention to Suzy’s dress, manners, conversation, posture, hair, etc. in order to make her more enticing to Doc. At the masquerade raffle party, however, Suzy feels absolutely humiliated because she shows up in a wedding dress as her costume and at Doc comes to claim her but she loses her nerve at the last minute. She is clearly smitten and so is Doc. The only way Suzy will have Doc is if he needs her. 

 

So once again, Doc’s dear friends on Cannery Row come to the rescue and Hazel breaks Doc’s arm. Now that Suzy is needed, everyone can live happily ever after.

 

I absolutely love Steinbeck and his ability to see the humanity and goodness in every walk of life, often preferring the down-and-out as more interesting and relatable. He is a genius at character sketches and finding the good in people even when there isn’t a whole lot there. I will always cherish everything he has written and I loved this continuation of Cannery Row. The way everyone looks out for each other is so touching and makes me long for closer community.

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