Sweet Thursday (1954) is John Steinbeck's sequel to 1945's Cannery Row (previously reviewed here).Sweet Thursday tells what happens in Cannery Row after WWII: Doc returns from serving in the war; Fauna takes over Dora's Bear Flag Restaurant; Mack and the Boys still live in the Palace Flophouse; Lee Chong has left; and Suzy, a new character, moves in to the Row. Like Cannery Row, Sweet Thursday details the intersections of the lives of these and other characters.
Because I throughly enjoyed Cannery Row, I had high hopes for Sweet Thursday. However, many of the elements that distinguished Cannery Row were not present here. These included the gorgeous descriptions of the coast and of the town itself. In Sweet Thursday, the evocative descriptions were fewer and less magical. Sweet Thursday's minor character plot lines were also less interesting and less developed than Cannery Row's.
I was happy that the plot still focused on Doc, because he is one of Steinbeck's most interesting characters. Doc remains honest, helpful, friendly, and, of course, likable in Sweet Thursday. I was disappointed, though, that Steinbeck left many loose ends in Doc's story. After I'm introduced to a great character, I want to know what happens to them.
With few exceptions (like Toy Story 2 and The Godfather Part II), the original is better than the sequel and that is also true with Cannery Row. I rate Sweet Thursday three out of five stars, because it lacks many of the elements that made Cannery Row so perfect.
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