It's funny. When I first read Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday years ago, I preferred Sweet Thursday, but now, on re-reading, I don't think that it is nearly the book that Cannery Row is. Perhaps it has to do with the plot. Cannery Row didn't have much of a plot and so it could lapse into lyrical passages and descriptive asides as the need arose. It felt timeless. Sweet Thursday relies much more on the plot--the coming together of Susie and Doc, and also relies a lot more on dialog. It's just not quite as subtle, I guess. And the humor feels a little more strained, a little more forced. None of this is to say that Sweet Thursday isn't an enjoyable read--Steinbeck far outshines any of the other authors that I've read in the past few years except maybe for Hemingway in For Whom the Bell Tolls--but it didn't seem to hold up as well as Cannery Row in this re-visit.
Author: Steinbeck, John
Date Published: 1954
Length: 8 hr 59 min
Narrator: Farden, Jerry
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