John Steinbeck

Sweet Thursday

Alawander Bouston 

On a certain day in the shouting springtime great clouds of orangy Monarch butterflies, like twinkling aery fields of flowers, sail high in the air on a majestic pilgrimage across Monterey Bay and land in the outskirts of Pacific Grove in the pine woods. The butterflies know exactly where they are going. In their millions they land on several pine trees – always the same trees. There they suck the thick resinous juice which oozes from the twigs, and they get cockeyed. The first comers suck their fill and then fall drunken to the ground, where they lie like a golden carpet, waving their inebriate legs in the air and giving off butterfly shous of celebration, while their places on the twigs are taken by new, thirsty millions. After about a week of binge the butterflies sober up and fly away, but not in clouds: they face their Monday morning singly or in pairs.

Jaden Nelson

Steinbeck did not let me down. I was sort of expecting to like this less than Cannery Row, but I think it was just as good in its own way. ST was more character and plot based, but Steinbeck really made it work in this book. I saw characters develop and some wholesome drama occur (which I actually really liked in this situation). I think I like the beautiful writing and themes in Cannery Row a little more because I think ST was missing the sort of "soft magic" that Cannery Row has which I can't quite seem to put my finger on. Not at all sure about the rating, I'll just go with this for now.

--some tabbed pages:
->"There are people who will say that this whole account is a lie, but a thing isn't necessarily a lie even if it didn't necessarily happen." end of chapter 8 I don't entirely know what this means (it makes more sense if you have the chapter as context, but I just liked the idea of this phrase.

->"He didn't sleep well and his dreams were shaped like mushrooms." end of chapter 11Wow! even classics can have lol moments!(that was sarcasm, but this was funny to me)

->* Old Jay talking to Doc* " You feel to me like a woman who has never had a baby but knows all the words. There's a lack of fulfillment in you. I think you have violated something or withheld something from yourself- almost as though you were eating plenty but no Vitamin A. You aren't hungry, but your starving. That's what I think." endish of chapter 27 This is a cool analogy and brought me back to how amazing of a writer Steinbeck is.

updated note 11/23/19: not to toot my own horn, but I think "soft magic" was a good way to describe the feeling evoked by Cannery Row (and somewhat Sweet Thursday). I liked the books primarily because of this "soft magic," a feeling that Steinbeck creates with his writing in this book and others. It is hard to put to words, but it's a sort of quiet, content, ordinary, hazy feeling--like a gloomy day, but not necessarily sad or dark. I see that my attempt to explain "soft magic" has failed because I cannot find the words to accurately describe it. Eh- I guess I'll try again in another few years.

Cams Campbell

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!"


That was Doc talking to his rattlesnakes. 

As I said, the book made me think of my pals so I just ordered Cannery Row and sent it to one of those pals, the one that I think would enjoy it the most. I really should go back and reread it but I've got a borrowed John Le Carré book to get through for now, but Cannery Row is next up in my actual-book list.

Taylor Griffin

Gabe Cortez

Sweet Thursday (Penguin Modern Classics)

Erika

Ioana Kardos

Robert Miller

Olivia Holmes

Robyn Campbell

Returning to the scene of Cannery Row-the weedy lot and junk heaps and flophouses of Monterey, California-Steinbeck once more brings to life the denizens of a netherworld of laughter and tears, from Fauna, new headmistress of the local brothel, to Hazel, a bum whose mother must have wanted a daughter.

Sweet Thursday

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