Final thoughts on Sweet Thursday and first and last

Aw nuts. I started out liking this and actually I didn't dislike it but once it degenerated into a story to find Doc a woman and the woman that was picked for him since her introduction in chapter 4 was too young, coarse and dumb for him, the story began to sag. I couldn't quite buy the raffle party that was a surprise would-be wedding either, not even in the fantastical universe of Cannery Row.

Doc and Fauna would have been a match worthy of each other. She's older than him. I'm not certain by how much. Steinbeck preferred a 21 year old hooker instead.

What I liked: Old Jingleballicks, the candy bar stealing Seer, Fauna and her astrological charts that she uses as an excuse to give people advice, all of the characters from Cannery Row. Hazel fretting that he would be President of the United States. The concept of Doc having the top, middle and bottom voices. All the literary allusions ("Whom the Gods destroy, they first make nuts" is a chapter heading. Mack unexpectely spouting Shakespeare.)

I also liked the satire of the Bear Flag cook Joe Elegant and his novel (with the great, pretentious title "The Pi of Oedipus") which Steinbeck uses to get in a dig at one his critics, Anthony West. Joe is shown in one seen writing a letter that starts out "My dear Anthony West, it was sweet of you..." West wrote a particularly negative review of East of Eden for the New Yorker which prompted Steinbeck to wonder to a friend in a letter why West feared the book so much (the footnotes also cattily and correctly point out that Steinbeck had the last laugh.)

Poor Steinbeck wanted so much to give Doc a happy ending though and I certainly can't begrudge him that. It was also the last novel he wrote about California so it was full of bittersweet farewells. I reminded me of the ending of Grease a bit (so corny I'm kind of embarrassed to admit it's one of my favorite movie endings of all time. We go together like Rama Lama Lama, eh whatever. RIP Jeff Conaway.) Old Jingleballicks turned Doc into a foundation so his work could be financed by him finally instead of Jingle stealing Doc's lab equipment and mooching booze. The boys rigged a raffle to buy him an expensive microscope-and also to get him the deed to their house which it turned out Lee Chong had secretly deeded to them when he sold the grocery. And, sigh, Doc and the not that interesting but could have been worse Suzy drive off into the sunset together.

I'm curious about the movie but I'm not sure I want to subject myself to it, seeing as how the Steinbeck estate famously didn't like it (and from what I know of it, it's more Thursday than Row.) At least they fired Raquel Welch from the part of Suzy before filming began.

First line:

When the war came to Monterey and to Cannery Row everybody fought it more or less, in one way or another. When hostilities ceased everyone had his wounds.

Last line:

Mack said, "Vice is a monster so frightful of mien, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings." He put his arm around Hazel's shoulder. "I think you'd of made a hell of a president," he said.

I love that Mack gets the last word.