One day, on a trip from somewhere to somewhere else, we happened to stop at the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, California. If you've never been to the Steinbeck Center, but you happen to be in Salinas and can spare a bit of time, you should definitely visit; it's a very interesting place.
While we were there, I stopped by the gift shop and picked up a copy of Sweet Thursday, a Steinbeck work that I wasn't familiar with.
Sweet Thursday is a sequel to the much more famous Cannery Row, and returns to the same setting and the same characters, for the most part. Cannery Row was set before WWII, Sweet Thursday was set after WWII, and there are many other ways to compare and contrast the two.
I think that if you liked or loved Cannery Row, you'll probably like or love Sweet Thursday just about as much. And, possibly, if it's been a while since you read Cannery Row, you might like Sweet Thursday even a bit more, since it will bring nostalgia and reminiscing about those earlier stories and how much you liked them and how nice it is to read some more about all those kooky characters.
Of course, the converse is true: if you found Cannery Row to be gimmicky and shallow, you probably won't enjoy Sweet Thursday
Happily for me, I was in the first camp, and I enjoyed Sweet Thursday very much.
It helps that I have always loved reading Steinbeck, and it also helps that the format of Sweet Thursday, with its three to eight page mini-chapters, is pretty much ideal for a commute-time reader, who has a scant 15 minutes of uninterrupted ferry-boat time for the occasional read. It was wonderful to carry Sweet Thursday around in my backpack, and pick it up when I had a few spare minutes, and read just one chapter, or maybe two.
Stretching it out this way may have even made me like Sweet Thursday better; I don't know. I think although it is quite short and easy to read, it was not actually meant to be rushed through, but rather to be sipped and savored, reflecting on those earlier times.
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