Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

This the thread for the July 2025 buddy read of Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck

I'm going to be a bit late starting this one. Too much going on in real life, but will join in asap and really looking forward to it.

Same for me, I’ll not be starting right away. I have to pick up a book at the library. Looking forward to some Steinbeck!

I'm good with starting late.

Great! I like to be starting with everyone if I can. Excited to get to this one.

I have the book, and can start whenever everyone else is ready.

I'm running behind and relieved to hear we're starting this one late! I too am really excited about this one.

I am starting on the 4th. June reading is running into July.

I'm so glad everyone is starting late. I won't be able to start until the end of this week

Greetings! Steinbeck fan here and looking forward to sharing thoughts on this one.

While doing some preliminary research, I discovered that Steinbeck wrote Sweet Thursday with the intention of adapting it into a Broadway musical. The result is the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Pipe Dream in 1955. Apparently, it was not a commercial success.

Just discovered the steinbecknow.com website.

Nice, I really like Steinbeck and enjoyed this one. I'll try to find my copy and chime in. Thanks for the reminder of the website Kimberley. I have been wanting to visit the Steinbeck Museum here in California. Maybe one of these days.

How interesting about the musical, Kimberly. I have to say, it sounds like a terrible idea! :-(

I've started, and after the first few chapters, I've settled into reading a little bit each day and am loving it. Is hopptedoodle the perfect word or what? I think I like a lot of hoopteoodle in my reading!

I'm on Chapter 11, a point where there is a bit of wandering around the area, which sent me on a search for some old pictures. Here's one I liked:



I hope everyone else chimes in with their thoughts when they get started.

Thanks for the photo, Kathleen. I've enjoyed researching a bit beyond the book itself as well. I discovered there's a Cannery Row monument with multiple bronze figures and Steinbeck at the top. There's a National Steinbeck Center [steinbeck.org] with some great pics. Love the large wall display for the book Travels With Charley!

I'm half way though the book and look forward to sharing thoughts with the group after everyone jumps in. Hey, what do they call the day after Sweet Thursday? WAITING FRIDAY :)

I have just barely started with only 2 chapters finished. I was glad for the interlude of what has happened to everyone since we last saw them. Doc comes back to his warehouse not being taken care of like he expected and to find a new owner at the market where the chinaman used to be. I wonder if Steinbeck is reflecting this cultural change because it’s what was happening at the time? The new guy’s background is quite all over the place but he sounds like a criminal to me.

About 70% through.
The town is very different after the war. Steinbeck writes of his personal sadness about the post-war changes throughout then country in his nonfiction book Travels with Charley: In Search of America. I am getting much the same vibe--the disappointment.

Cynda, it's interesting that you mention the disappointment vibe. When I read Sweet Thursday, I'm trying to reflect on what had happened in Steinbeck's personal life a few years before this was published. His best friend, marine biologist Ed Ricketts [Doc is modeled on him], died tragically, and then he went through his second divorce not long afterwards. Interestingly, he wanted this work to be "light and fun," hence the musical/theatrical piece it inspired. The Forward in my copy suggests that "Significantly rooted in personal experience, memory, longing, and emotion, Sweet Thursday foregrounds the struggle of individual consciousness in (and through) language." The Forward also suggests that if Cannery Row represented the way things "were," then Sweet Thursday became the way things might have happened to Ed and didn't."

Certainly, the empty sardine canneries and overall tone suggest a lot of changes between the two time frames of the books.

Yes, Kimberly, the divorce also influenced his writing of Travels with Charley.

I am at 50% and quite pleased with some of what Steinbeck is experimenting with here because I am not usually a fan. I'll add some other thoughts later.

I’m eager to hear your thoughts Sam. I took a while to get into this one. Many of the events or encounters seemed haphazard but maybe that was the vibe he was going for. It came together for me by the end.

I'm planning on reading this, but I slipped up on my scheduling and placed my library hold for it in late June. So I'm still waiting on it. Hopefully I'll get to read it next month!

Lori wrote: "I’m eager to hear your thoughts Sam. I took a while to get into this one. Many of the events or encounters seemed haphazard but maybe that was the vibe he was going for. It came together for me by ..."

I'll finish Tuesday and add my thoughts then.

I have finally begun and just 2 chapters in. I'm glad there is a touch of humor running through this, because it also has a very sad vibe, which change and war losses can certainly explain. I loved the story of Henri the artist and the boat. The trick was mean, but I couldn't help laughing at him thinking the boat was going to sea while he slept.

Something like 11 million American vets returned home wanting to marry and start families. This is the era of the Baby Boom. I think many of us here are Baby Boomers. People lived anywhere they could with family, in groups like at the flophouse here or the old train boiler even where (view spoiler)[Suzy (hide spoiler)] lived. It would take a great deal of ingenuity to decorate that! No wonder (view spoiler)[Doc (hide spoiler)] was surprised.

Glad you've begun, Sara. Ah, Henri and his boat. :-) What a crew this is! You'll find this reads really fast. I've been forcing myself to slow down, but will probably finish in a few more days.

Yes Cynda, definitely a babyboomer here, whose father had his own stories to tell about that time right after the war. I agree there is a personal sadness to this book, as you mentioned above, but it feels like sadness covered a little by a resolution to be positive (but I may be influenced by my own father there). Maybe all of Steinbeck's writing is a little like that?

I think the WWII returning vets made a conscious effort to build a better world and life. They had come through the fire and they recognized the opportunities before them. I wonder if they didn't feel like they owed it to their fallen comrades, who would never have to chance, to have families and live good lives.

I am 50% already. The story has a marvelous flow and seems to be a tighter thread to me than Cannery Row. I am finding Suzy a refreshing addition--a bit of sass and a load of unfiltered honesty.

@ Sara. I agree a recommitment to life :)

@ Kathleen. Now that you mention it.. . . .Yes often a sort of longing, I think. . . . My parents were far too young to be vets. I am among the last Baby Boomers. My brothers were not Boomers but Gen X.

"Sweet Thursday" is funny and shows goodness in characters that would be easy to write off initially. The book is about transformation, acceptance, love, loneliness, and good intentions written in an irreverent tone. It has many exaggerated comic situations that are based on realistic emotions.

I enjoyed the references to mid-century cultural items that set the novel in the post-war period. Steinbeck also refers to numerous literary works. An eclectic playlist could be made from the book where jazz, classical, African-American, and popular musical pieces were played. I had the feeling that Steinbeck was having fun writing it. The book started out slowly, but picked up after a few chapters. Overall I found the book to be very entertaining.

I liked all the experimenting Steinbeck did with his prose in the novel, which I think was appropriate for the time even though stylistically it might come off uneven. I am going to take a pot shot at pointing out some of what I like in analyzing one of the chapters in my next post. But, I though this was a very interesting read.

I agree about the cultural references and music, Connie. And it's also so evocative of the Monterey area. Here's a lovely video of the butterflies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rpkjc...

I can't wait to hear your analysis, Sam! I look forward to discussing this when everyone's done. It felt to me like Steinbeck was showing how much we need each other, and I was so glad he wrote a (view spoiler)[happy ending for Doc (hide spoiler)].

What a lovely book this was and I felt a bit of a departure from Steinbeck's usual style. The closest I can think is Travels with Charley: In Search of America, which I think someone else mentioned earlier. I'm very interested in hearing your thoughts, Sam.

When I finished, I realized this was really a homage to his friend, in which he supplied the (view spoiler)[happy ending most of us wish for and few of us get. You can seldom have a character that everyone loves and make him come off real, but Steinbeck achieves that with Doc, IMHO. (hide spoiler)]

I agree, Kathleen, that this is a book about camaraderie, the need for community and affection. I imagine there was a real recognition of this following the war, and the movement from small established communities to suburbia had already begun in the mid-50s.

I found this a delightful read and so happy to have finally gotten to it.

Thanks for sharing the video about the butterflies, Kathleen.

Sara, I agree that the book was a lovely homage to his friend Ed (Doc). It was sad that the real Doc did not have the upbeat ending of the book. It must have been very difficult for Steinbeck to have to deal with his best friend's death around the same time as his divorce from his second wife.

I'm looking forward to your comments about Steinbeck's experimentation, Sam. "Cannery Row" and "Sweet Thursday" are certainly different in tone from "The Grapes of Wrath."

I agree about the different tone, and yet ... there is something in Steinbeck--a sort of hopeful sadness--that I find in all of them, even Travels with Charley: In Search of America. I think for me, Sweet Thursday benefited from the groundwork Cannery Row provided, eclipsing it a little because of that.

I only started and finished this the other day. I had too many things getting in my way. I'm so glad that I didn't blow it off because I absolutely loved it.

It's been 8 years since I read and loved Cannery Row, but I still remembered Doc and the intimacy of the area and it's inhabitants. Shortly after reading that, I saw the 1982 Movie "Cannery Row" but it turned out that despite the name, it was really based on this book. It had Debra Winger as Suzy and Nick Nolte as Doc. I love those actors so I loved the film even though it was dated. Because of that I was picturing Nolte and Winger as I read this.

Here is a trailer from Youtube if anyone is interested and the whole film is on Amazon Prime
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8bYT...

Sue wrote: "I only started and finished this the other day. I had too many things getting in my way. I'm so glad that I didn't blow it off because I absolutely loved it.

It's been 8 years since I read and lo..."

Hi Sue, I haven't seen the movie yet. I think I can see Nolte as Doc. Thanks for sharing.

That's interesting. I'll have to find the movie and give it a whirl.

I don't have the time for deep analysis right now but pay attention to what Steinbeck does in Chapter 22-23 of this novel as an example of Steinbeck writing humor, without IMO, falling into one of his usual faults of becoming too sentimental. (view spoiler)[

We begin in Chapter 22 with Fauna prepping Suzy for a date with Doc. The dialogue in this chapter is smart, funny, and worthy of any stage or film comedy. It is a bit dated for us but I think it still works and the hard-boiled slang terms are perfect and it is filled with gems like where Fauna after having Suzy empty her purse on the bed advises her on what belongs and what doesn't. "Here, take my comb--throw that one away. Ain't nothing tackier than a comb without teeth." Along with grooming Suzy, Fauna is imparting advice that is meant to able her to win a man's heart, and the advice is somewhat sound for the time and circumstances even if it might not be feminist friendly.

Moving to chapter 23 we have the date and again the chapter is full of little details that help the comedy. Most of the advice Suzy received that feminists might not like involved Suzy humbling herself and catering to the male. But part of the comedy is that Suzy usually acts the exact opposite of how she has been advised to act for this date. So we get to watch Suzy struggling not to acy herself during the date while we kind of hope she fails to restrain herself and explodes all over Doc like she did prior. And I love how Steinbeck balances our desire to see the couple succeed with out desire to see another clash between them. I think part of this works for me because Steinbeck had a reputation for misogyny and here he almost seems to be poking fun at himself, but regardless it works for me.

"I like a fire," Suzy said. "Once we had a fireplace where I lived."

Doc said, "You're petty. Yes, by George! You're pretty!"

Suzy swallowed the first words that rose and swallowed the second ones and ended up by dropping her eyes and saying, "Thank you" softly.
(hide spoiler)]

You pulled out a great quote from the story, Sam, that had me laughing too. Both Doc and Suzy were so likable that the reader hoped it worked out for them.

I had some time at the end of the month to fit this one in so I read it. I enjoyed it, probably more than Cannery Row. I must be a closet romantic.

Here's my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...