The sequel to Cannery Row.
The intervention of the Second World War has changed things. Gay is dead. Lee Chong has sold the grocery (and, Mack fears, the deeds to the Palace Flophouse) to crooked Joseph and Mary. Dora has died and bequeathed the brothel to Fauna; a new girl called Suzy has joined the team of girls. Doc wants to contribute something to science but can't write the paper and his dissatisfaction with life casts a gloom over the Row. The general diagnosis is that he needs a dame. Is Suzy the one?
The characters are all there, the wise observations are all there, it is as funny as Cannery Row. Perhaps the main difference is that the plot is more prominent; the interchapters that made Cannery Row such an anarchic pleasure are fewer and further between. There seems to be less observation and more device. It's not such a great book as Cannery Row but that is like saying that Ben Jonson is not such a great writer as William Shakespeare. Sweet Thursday is hugely entertaining and the main newcomer, Suzy, is one helluva dame.
Selected quotes:
- “Mack could tell a ghost how to haunt a house.” (Prologue)
- “How few men like their work, their lives - how very few men like themselves.” (Ch 3)
- “The end of life is now not so terribly far away - you can see it's the way you see the finish line when you come into the stretch - and your mind says, ‘Have I worked enough? Have I eaten enough? Have I loved enough?’All of these, of course, are the foundation of man's greatest curse, and perhaps his greatest glory. ‘What has my life meant so far, and what can it mean in the time left to me ... What how I contributed in the Great Ledger? What am I worth? ... Men seem to be born with a depth they can never pay, no matter how hard they try. It piles up ahead of them. Man owes something to man.” (Ch 3)
- “What can a man accomplish that has not been done a million times before?” (Ch 3)
- “Doc threw himself into his work, hoping, the way a man will, to smother the unease with weariness.” (Ch 3)
- “It's always hard to start to concentrate. The mind darts like a chicken, trying to escape thinking even though thinking is the most rewarding function of man.” (Ch 6)
- “She had a fine walk, thigh and knee and ankle swinging free and proud, no jerk and totter the way so many women walked as they fell from step to step.” (Ch 6)
- “You never feel real good if you never been a sucker.” (Ch 7)
- “There are people who will say that this whole account is a lie, but a thing isn't necessarily a lie even if it didn't necessarily happen.” (Ch 8)
- “I want to take everything I've seen and thought and learned and reduce them and relate them and refine them until I have something of meaning, something of use.” (Ch 10)
- “It's a fact that if he's left alone a guy practically always marries the wrong kind of dame.” (Ch 11)
- “The injustice in the theory of private ownership of real estate was descending on them.” (Ch 14)
- “The delphiniums were like little openings in the sky.” (Ch 19)
- “There aren't many days like that anyplace. People treasure them. ... Old people sit looking off into the distance and remember inaccurately that the days of their youth were all like that. Horses roll in the green pastures on such a day and hens make a terrible sunny racket.” (Ch 19)
- “There ain't never been no dame went out first time with a guy she liked that wasn't scared.” (Ch 22)
- “You look back at every mess you ever got in and your find your tongue started it.” (Ch 22)
- “They ain't nobody was ever insulted by a question.” (Ch 22)
- “The nicest thing in the world you can do for anybody is let them help you.” (Ch 22)
- “Thing people like most in the world is to give you something and have you like it and need it.” (Ch 22)
- “He probably knows more secrets than any man in the community, for his martinis are a combination of Truth serum and lie detector. Veritas is not only in vino but regularly batters its way out.” (Ch 23)
- “S-l-o-w-ness - It gave meaning to everything. It made everything royal. She remembered how all the unsure and worried people she knew jumped and picked and jittered. Just doing everything slowly, forcing herself, she felt a new kind of security.” (Ch 23)
- “Of all our murky inventions, guilt is at once the most tedious, the most comic, the most painful. Was it planted by the group pressure of the tribe to keep the potentially dangerous individual off balance?” (Ch 30)
- “He watched life as a small boy watches a train go by - mouth open, breathing high and light, pleased, astonished, and a little confused.” (Ch 30)
- “Mack ... considered life hardly worse than a bad cold.” (Ch 30)
- “She has all the convictions of the uninformed ... not only sure for herself, but sure for everyone.” (Ch 33)
July 2025; 206 pages
First published in 1954 by William Heinemann
My Pan paperback edition issued in 1958
Books by Nobel Laureates reviewed in this blog can be found here.
A detailed synopsis of the plot
Doc is dissatisfied with life. He is experimenting on octopuses but he’s finding it impossible to write his paper. The other residents of the Row reckon he needs a dame.There;s a new girl in town. Suzy joins the brothel, now run by Fauna, even though she isn't really cut out for that kind of job.
Fauna does Hazel's horoscope and predicts that his inescapable destiny is to become President of the United States. Eddie offers: ‘We’ve weathered some pretty bad ones.’
Mack realises that the Flophouse belonged to Lee Chong and then Lee Chong sold his business to Joseph and Mary who perhaps doesn’t realise that he owns the Flophouse but when he gets the tax demand for it he will at which point he will want to collect rent from Mack and the boys. Even if they kill Joseph and Mary, someone will inherit their house. Mack comes up with the plan to raffle the Flophouse to buy Doc the big new microscope he needs and make sure that Doc draws the winning ticket.
Every time Doc and Suzy meet, they end up shouting at each other. Nevertheless, Fauna persuades them to have dinner together (she'll pay) at Sonny Boy's. She also persuades Mack that the raffle will also be an engagement party with a fancy dress (Snow White) theme.
The Night Out: When Doc sees Suzy, whom Fauna has decked to the nines, he scarpers back home to put on a next-tie. Doc and Suzy dine at Sunny Boy’s. Sunny Boy has been primed, the table is ready, laid perfectly, the cocktails ready mixed. The menu sorted. Fauna has organised everything and they fall in love.
At the party Doc wins the Flophouse ... and then reveals (but only to Mack) that Mack already owned it. Lee Chong deeded it to Mack and paid ten years tax on it. He didn’t tell Mack because he was afraid Mack would sell it. Mack asks Doc never to tell anyone and to hold on to the house because otherwise Mack would sell it. Doc agrees to rent the house to Mack.
Every time Doc and Suzy meet, they end up shouting at each other. Nevertheless, Fauna persuades them to have dinner together (she'll pay) at Sonny Boy's. She also persuades Mack that the raffle will also be an engagement party with a fancy dress (Snow White) theme.
The Night Out: When Doc sees Suzy, whom Fauna has decked to the nines, he scarpers back home to put on a next-tie. Doc and Suzy dine at Sunny Boy’s. Sunny Boy has been primed, the table is ready, laid perfectly, the cocktails ready mixed. The menu sorted. Fauna has organised everything and they fall in love.
At the party Doc wins the Flophouse ... and then reveals (but only to Mack) that Mack already owned it. Lee Chong deeded it to Mack and paid ten years tax on it. He didn’t tell Mack because he was afraid Mack would sell it. Mack asks Doc never to tell anyone and to hold on to the house because otherwise Mack would sell it. Doc agrees to rent the house to Mack.
DSuzy makes her appearance as Snow White, the bride. Doc tries to react well but Suzy reads his face and runs off. Fauna follows and Suzy reveals she loves Doc.
Suzy goes to the Golden Poppy and asks Ella for a job, she’ll work for free. She buys some furniture and moves into the boiler that Sam Molloy and his wife used to live in.
Hazel consults everyone he can to try and get Doc and Suzy back together. Suzy says she wants no part of Doc unless he gets sick or busts a leg.
Joseph and Mary decides to 'have a whack at' Suzy but she slams the door on him, catching his hand in it. Doc fights him and almost throttles him to death. J&M and Doc have a drink and then they gather flowers. Doc dresses smart and pays a formal call on Suzy. They talk and she tells him she is over him. He says he’s going to La Jolla to collect specimens.
Hazel realises what he must do. He gets a base ball bat. Doc wakes up with a broken arm.
Suzy offers to drive Doc down to La Jolla. She goes to Mack for emergency lessons on how to drive.
Mack presents Doc with the scientific apparatus bought with the takings from the raffle ... but instead of a microscope it is a telescope.
Suzy goes to the Golden Poppy and asks Ella for a job, she’ll work for free. She buys some furniture and moves into the boiler that Sam Molloy and his wife used to live in.
Hazel consults everyone he can to try and get Doc and Suzy back together. Suzy says she wants no part of Doc unless he gets sick or busts a leg.
Joseph and Mary decides to 'have a whack at' Suzy but she slams the door on him, catching his hand in it. Doc fights him and almost throttles him to death. J&M and Doc have a drink and then they gather flowers. Doc dresses smart and pays a formal call on Suzy. They talk and she tells him she is over him. He says he’s going to La Jolla to collect specimens.
Hazel realises what he must do. He gets a base ball bat. Doc wakes up with a broken arm.
Suzy offers to drive Doc down to La Jolla. She goes to Mack for emergency lessons on how to drive.
Mack presents Doc with the scientific apparatus bought with the takings from the raffle ... but instead of a microscope it is a telescope.
Doc and Suzy drive away from Cannery Row.
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