We are storytellers and to feed our mind, we feed it books. Book clubs around here are prevalent and this is a review of one of the latest selections.

Let’s play word association. John Steinbeck, go.

East of Eden.
Grapes of Wrath.
Of Mice and Men.

If you’re a major Steinbeck fan, you just might say Cannery Row. And if you say Cannery Row, you just might be interested in its sequel Sweet Thursday.

Set in Monterey on the California coast, Sweet Thursday is what they call the day after Lousy Wednesday, which is one of those days that are just naturally bad. Returning to Cannery Row (a dinghy neighborhood with junk heaps & weeds), John Steinbeck brings back most of the same characters for new adventures. Reuniting with Mack, Doc and Hazel made me laugh out loud on several occasions (a good sign), and I ended up underlining a lot of passages from the book (another good sign, I love me some underlinable sentences).

Steinbeck writes in such a way that you have to re-read certain sentences because they’re at once so simple yet resonate such truth:

“It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it.”
“When people change direction it is a rare one who does not spend the first half of his journey looking back over his shoulder.”
“There’s a hole in reality through which we can look if we wish.”
“These things, however, are known about greatness: need gives it life and puts it in action; it never comes without pain; it leaves a man changed, chastened, and exalted at the same time – he can never return to simplicity.”

This is a good book – it’s sweet, it’s simple, it’s light-hearted. Love, happiness and loneliness are central themes with great highs and lows included. There is more humor here than the first book and, perhaps because it is longer, I felt the story was more substantial in some ways, less in others.

I recommend it. Perfect for a summer read.

-Krista