For a while I’ve been meaning to email myself a list of Steinbeck books I’ve read/need to read so that when I’m at a bookstore I actually know which ones to acquire in my quest to get through them all.

After reading “Sweet Thursday,” I finally compiled the list and have completed 11 of them with 17 to go.  Though I’ve read the longest ones already, so I consider myself roughly halfway there.

The unread Steinbeck section of my bookshelf

Part of the reason for making the list is that I want to read the rest more or less in order, because in this case, “Sweet Thursday” takes place in the same place as “Cannery Row.”  It’s not necessary to read “Cannery Row” first, but there are a few references that make more sense if you have.

Oddly enough, I meant to grab a different unread Steinbeck from the stack, but I’m glad I ended up reading this one because it’s actually one of my favorite of his I’ve read in a while.  This town is populated with a lot of charming people who have a ton of faults, but just try so hard at life that you can’t help but to root for them or at least laugh at them with empathy.

I’m sure I’ve touched on this in every Steinbeck post before, but if you wanted an epic biography for yourself, he’s the guy you would want following you around.  His descriptions are so unique.

There’s a character named Doc, the town’s smart guy who helps everyone and often ends up getting hurt when their best-laid plans to repay him spectacularly blow up.  One day he’s out in the countryside and meets a stranger:

“This one was a big, bearded stranger with the lively, innocent eyes of a healthy baby,” Steinbeck writes.  “He wore ragged overalls and a blue shirt washed nearly white, and he was barefooted.  The straw hat on his head had two large holes cut in the brim, proof that it had once been the property of a horse.”

Every element of that is nothing short of epic. In another scene, Doc ends up at a diner in Monterey, which is run by a guy named Sonny Boy.  Steinbeck paints him as the precursor to the Dos Equis “Most Interesting Man in the World.”

“Sonny Boy can say ‘good evening’ and make it sound like an international plot.”

Sometimes the context of a great line is not important at all.  Like this, which needs to be on a t-shirt:

“There is nothing reassuring about the smile of a tiger.”

Late in the story, the manager of the brothel across the street is getting one of her girls, Suzy, ready for a date she has set up with Doc, and drops this pearl of wisdom that applies pretty much to all humans:

“You know, Suzy, they ain’t no way in the world to get in trouble by keeping your mouth shut,” she says.  “You look back at every mess you ever got in and you’ll find your tongue started it.”

If tigers ever start talking, we’re going to have a serious problem.