East of Eden
by John Steinbeck
East of Eden
by
John Steinbeck
|
|
| published
|
1977
by Bantam Books
|
| first published
| 1952 |
| binding
| Mass Market Paperback |
| isbn
|
0553116088
|
| date added
|
12-06-06
|
|
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Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
everyone!!
I am on a golden roll of amazingly fantastic books!! East of Eden by John Steinbeck was our book club pick for this month. I almost didn't read it. You see, it's an old friend...and I ALMOST didn't re-read it... and that would have been tragic.
East of Eden is an epic story about good and evil. It tells the story of two families: the Trasks and the Hamiltons. It spans 3 generations and retells the Biblical story of Cain and Abel set in the Salinas Valley of Northern California.
Perspec...more
I am on a golden roll of amazingly fantastic books!! East of Eden by John Steinbeck was our book club pick for this month. I almost didn't read it. You see, it's an old friend...and I ALMOST didn't re-read it... and that would have been tragic.
East of Eden is an epic story about good and evil. It tells the story of two families: the Trasks and the Hamiltons. It spans 3 generations and retells the Biblical story of Cain and Abel set in the Salinas Valley of Northern California.
Perspective...life experience...testimony. Do they change who we are? Do they change our world view? Most definitely. The first time I read East of Eden I had just turned 17 years old. It was summer vacation and I was looking for a good book to read. This book had such a powerful impact on me that I clearly remember where I was when I read it (laying on the couch in our living room) and the feelings it provoked. At this time I had only the smallest fleeting shadow of religion and virtually no knowledge of the Bible, and not much interest in philosophy. This was about 4 months before Stacey and I met the Nolan sisters and I returned to church. The discussion between Samuel, Lee, and Adam about the story of Cain and Abel was so profound to me that I began scribbling in the margins, underlining/highlighting things, and actually "pondered" on the nature of man. I grabbed my scriptures untouched since my baptism and turned to Genesis and began to read. God works in mysterious ways...and the spirit recognizes truth. Free will...of course...that made sense to me. "Thou mayest..." I had no understanding of Mormon Doctrine and Free Agency. But something rang absolutely "true" to me...that we have a choice and it is that choice that defines who we are. Powerful stuff for a religionless, scriptureless, self-involved 17 year old.
Fast forward 18 years and what a difference those 18 years have made. What a gift it was to read this book again farther down the road of life. At 17 years old I identified with the rejected child and at 35 years old I felt more the emotions of a parent who doesn't ever want her children not to feel loved and accepted. When I came to the chapter on the discussion of Cain and Abel I wasn't blown away by the "truth" of "thou mayest..." I felt more like..."Yep! That's how it works". But I was struck again by how powerfully important free will is. Isn't that why we fight for freedom and for the freedom of those around us? Without freedom there is no free agency and without free agency there is no plan of salvation. It IS the oldest story...it is what we fought for in the premortal world...and it what we continue fighting for today. Freedom...choice...free agency...the ability to do "otherwise".
At 35 years old I am much more knowledgeable of the scriptures and what is the major theme of the Old Testament in particular? Choice and consequences. Simple huh? Not only that but as is pointed out in the Introduction of East of Eden written by David Wyatt that the Bible "Has only one set of first parents but many Cains and Abels: Ishmael and Isaac, Esau and Jacob, the Prodigal Son and his brother, Satan and Christ--in each one of these twosomes one is somehow lucky, or better, or preferred." (pg. xxii)
Steinbeck says: "The greatest terror a child can have is that he is not loved, and rejection is the hell he fears. I think everyone in the world to a large or small extent has felt rejection. And with rejection comes anger, and with anger some kind of crime in revenge for the rejection, and with the crime guilt--and there is the story of mankind."
Some are put off by Steinbeck and his details and descriptions. I have criticized him myself while reading Grapes of Wrath. I felt like...come on...enough of the scenery let's get back to the story but in East of Eden I loved his details and descriptions. Steinbeck was also criticized by reviewers by leaving the story every so often for his monologues. I must say that at 17 years old I too found it annoying but at 35 years old I loved it. You see I have since developed a deep love of philosophy, politics, and history. I am continually reminded that history repeats itself. Each generation is always surprised that we feel and can relate to the same things as generations past. Many of Steinbeck's monologues that were relevant to the story which takes place in the late 1800's and early 1900's were also applicable to the time Steinbeck wrote the novel, the 1950's, and are still relevant today in 2008.
I particularly loved this quote:
"I don't know how it will be in the years to come. There are monstrous changes taking place in the world, forces shaping a future whose face we do not know. Some of these forces seem evil to us, perhaps not in themselves but in their tendency to eliminate other things we hold good...when our food and clothing and housing all are born in the complication of mass production, mass method is bound to get into our thinking and to eliminate all other thinking...has entered our economics, our politics, and even our religion, so that some nations have substituted the idea collective for the idea of God. This in my time is the danger. There is great tension in the world, tension toward a breaking point, and men are unhappy and confused. At such times it seems natural and good to me to ask myself these questions. What do I believe in? What must I fight for and what must I fight against." (pg. 131-132)
Steinbeck wrote that he worried about his monologues and commentaries that "...had he not too often stopped the book and gone into discussions of God knows what. His only answer was 'Yes, I have. I don't know why. Just wanted too. Perhaps I was wrong.' " I don't think he was.
If it isn't blatantly obvious I LOVE this book!! One of my all-time favorites. Steinbeck is a genius and this book is his crowning glory. I love books that you come away from still have you thinking...for days...weeks. Was Adam Trask like what the original Adam would have been like if he had never fallen and only Eve did? WHY was Cathy the way she was? Are monsters born or created? What happens to Cal and Abra? What happens to Cal's children? Does the cycle continue? Is the cycle broken? Why is there only one lovable woman in the story?
READ THIS BOOK!! If you've already read it...read it again.
I rate it: EXCELLENT!! ...less
Read in February, 2008
i been lovin' on this book REAL hard. don't know how else to put it, really. too many different directions for praise. i adore the characters in this story, even the chillingly evil ones. and i love the short little chapters that steinbeck just shoved in every once in a while in order to assert his musings on the state of america. or writers. or war. or life. here's probably my favorite chapter in the whole book--it's one of the few random times Steinbeck writes in second person:
"Yo...more
i been lovin' on this book REAL hard. don't know how else to put it, really. too many different directions for praise. i adore the characters in this story, even the chillingly evil ones. and i love the short little chapters that steinbeck just shoved in every once in a while in order to assert his musings on the state of america. or writers. or war. or life. here's probably my favorite chapter in the whole book--it's one of the few random times Steinbeck writes in second person:
"You can see how this book has reached a great boundary that was called 1900. Another hundred years ground up and churned, and what had happened was al muddied by the way folks wanted it to be--more rich and meaningful the farther back it was. In the books of some memories it was the best time that ever sloshed over the world--the old time, the gay time, sweet and simple, as though time were young and fearless. Old men who didn't know whether they were going to stagger over the boundary of the century looked forward to it with distaste. For the world was changing, and the sweetness was gone, and the virtue too. Worry had crept on a corroding world, and what was lost--good manners, ease and beauty? Ladies were not ladies any more, and you couldn't trust a gentleman's word.
There was a time when people kept their fly buttons fastened. And man's freedom was boiling off. And even childhood was no good any more--not the way it was. No worry then but how to find a good stone, not round exactly but flattened and water-shaped, to use in a sling pouch cut from a discarded shoe. Where did all the good stones go, and all simplicity?
A man's mind vagued up a little, for how can you remember the feel of pleasure or pain or choking emotion? You can remember only that you had them. An elder man might truly recall through water the delicate doctor-testing of little girls, but such a man forgets, and wants to, the acid emotion eating at the spleen so that a boy had to put his face flat down in the young wild oats and drum his fists against the ground and sob 'Christ! Christ!' Such a man might say, and did, 'What's that damned kid lying out there in the grass for? He'll catch a cold.'
Oh, strawberries don't taste as they used to and the thighs of women have lost their clutch!
And some men eased themselves like setting hens into the nest of death.
History was secreted in the glands of a million historians. We must get out of this banged-up century, some said, out of this cheating, murderous century of riot and secret death, of scrabbling for public lands and damn well getting them by any means at all.
Think back, recall our little nation fringing the oceans, torn with complexities, too big for its britches. Just got going when the British took us on again. We beat them, but it didn't do us much good. What we had was a burned White House and ten thousand widows on the public pension list.
Then the soldiers went to Mexico and it was a kind of painful picnic. Nobody knows why you go to a picnic to be uncomfortable when it is so easy and pleasant to eat at home. The Mexican War did two good things though. We got a lot of western land, damn near doubled our size, and besides that it was a training ground for generals, so that when the sad self-murder settled on us the leaders knew the techniques for making it properly horrible.
And then the arguments:
Can you keep a slave?
Well if you bought him in good faith, why not?
Next they'll be saying a man can't have a horse. Who is it wants to take my property?
And there we were, like a man scratching at his own face and bleeding into his own beard.
Well that was over and we got slowly up off the bloody ground and started westward.
There came boom and bust, bankruptcy, depression.
Great public thieves came along and picked the pockets of everyone who had a pocket.
To hell with that rotten century!
Let's get it over and the door closed shut on it! Let's close it like a book and go on reading! New chapter, new life. A man will have clean hands once we get the lid slammed on that stinking century. It's a fair thing ahead. There's no rot on this clean new hundred years. It's not stacked, and any bastard who deals seconds from this new deck of years--why, we'll crucify him head down over a privy.
Oh, but strawberries will never taste so good again and the thighs of women have lost their clutch!"
...less
Read in December, 2007
recommends it for:
everyone!
I finished this last night and afterwards, I lay back on my pillow extremely satisfied just thinking about it. It's so rare that I read something that delights me from beginning to end. While there were a few turns on the journey that confused me and seemed to take the book in a different direction, his connecting all the characters, the stories and do it with profound meaning is nothing short of brilliant. And to do it through his own person history, and one of the oldest stories of the Bible o...more
I finished this last night and afterwards, I lay back on my pillow extremely satisfied just thinking about it. It's so rare that I read something that delights me from beginning to end. While there were a few turns on the journey that confused me and seemed to take the book in a different direction, his connecting all the characters, the stories and do it with profound meaning is nothing short of brilliant. And to do it through his own person history, and one of the oldest stories of the Bible only adds to his brilliance.
I'm always surprised when I love a classic. Perhaps because there are a lot that I haven't liked, or merely tolerated, but this was a joy to read. The characters are so multi-dimensional and interesting that their stories and development become almost personal. Adam, Samuel, Lee, Abra, Cal, Aron, Kate/Cathy and even Liza were real for me. Their homes were real. Their towns were real. Best of all, the consequences to their actions were real.
How do you summaraize East of Eden? It's a story about good and evil. But most of all, it's a story about choice. For me, the central part of the book was the realization made by Lee, Adam and Samuel when they were dissecting the story of Cain and Able and their offerings. In one translation, the Lord rebukes Cain's offering by saying, "If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him."
It was while reading a different translation that Lee, a Chinese servant, noticed a difference. In it, rather than saying "thou shalt rule over him" it said "do thou rule over him" They noticed that it wasn't a promise, it was an order. Such a difference got Lee wondering what original word different translations came from.
After years of studying with Chinese philosophers and a rabbi, the consensus was that the original Hebrew word, Timshel, actually means "Thou mayest". Therefore, the bible does not order that man triumph over sin or promises that it will. It says that the way is open. For if thou mayest...that mayest not.
Brilliant! Because that's what I think! Agency is so important to Heavenly Father that he allowed 1/3 of His children to leave him permanently. Of course we have a choice over sin.
Steinbeck leaves the story briefly in Chapter 34 when he writes a short essay about the one story that exists. He says,
Humans are caught - in their lives, in their thoughts, in their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty, and in their kindness and generosity too - in a net of good and evil....A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean questions: Was it good or was it evil? Have I done well -- or ill? In uncertainty I am certain that underneath their topmost layers of frailty men want to be good and want to be loved. Indeed, most of their vices are attempted short cuts to love. When a man comes to die, no matter what his talents and influences and genius, if he dies unloved his life must be a failure to him and his dying a cold horror. It seems to me that if you or I must choose between two courses of thought or action, we should remember our dying and try so to live that our death brings no pleasure to the world. We have only one story. All novels, all poetry, are built on the never-ending contest in ourselves of good and evil. And it occurs to me that evil must constantly respawn, while good, while virtue, is immortal. Vice has always a new fresh young face, while virtue is venerable as nothing else in the world is.
This is what his book is about it. Man's struggle over good and evil. In a completely human story, Steinbeck captured THE story with his characters and storylines. This is a book I happily recommend to anyone and will buy for my all-time greatest books library....less
bookshelves:
classics
Read in January, 2007
An interesting interpretation and portrayal of good and evil, ignorance and perception, love and revenge. I was amazed by Steinbeck’s ability to convey a point using metaphor and descriptive genius. I found myself longing for conversations similar to those had by the story’s characters. Their words had such depth, candor, insight, and truth. I wonder what it might have been like to have had a conversation with Steinbeck, would he have had ability to move the heart and mind like his character...more
An interesting interpretation and portrayal of good and evil, ignorance and perception, love and revenge. I was amazed by Steinbeck’s ability to convey a point using metaphor and descriptive genius. I found myself longing for conversations similar to those had by the story’s characters. Their words had such depth, candor, insight, and truth. I wonder what it might have been like to have had a conversation with Steinbeck, would he have had ability to move the heart and mind like his characters do? Would he perceive the intentions behind the words and thoughts and be able to squeeze them to a head of truth?
After I finished, I laid for a long time in the dark with my face turned to the wall. Despite whatever tendencies of blood that we come into this life with, or lived experiences that turn us in one direction or another, we have no excuse for acting the evil part. We are not preconditioned to fail or succeed. We have the privilege and promise that we can choose for ourselves; we are agents unto ourselves—the kings and queens of a world of future experience.
We are not perfect; we are all bad. Life can be nasty, brutal and short or it can be rich, bright, and lasting. We are the agents, but we cannot expect perfection from ourselves. As soon as we do, we should also expect disappointment, anger, and self-loathing. The worst of it comes when we are unable to accept our own streaks of darkness. The shadows are created by light and we have the potential for greatness—always. What makes people choose goodness or darkness? When we have such brilliance in us, why do we choose to shroud it with secret acts of deception?
Can any good come of the lust for power, money, and sated desire, when what we really want is to be loved? Why is it that when this love is denied we can seethe with hatred and seek revenge? If we can’t have the goodness we seek in love, why do we often fill the void with darkness instead of warm empathetic understanding? How strange that we willingly choose to rot; to live lives of sorrow when golden goodness is free for the taking.
What is it in us that enjoys nursing pain? We choose to believe that we are unique in our filth or sadness. We are alone, we are victims, we are misunderstood. Why do we find pleasure in nurturing this gloom? Maybe it is necessary to fully appreciate our moments of goodness and triumph; we close our eyes and savor the melting of bitter chocolate so to retain in memory the contrast of wild strawberries.
Maybe it is easier to wallow in our fallen state than to meet the pressure of perfection. To believe that we are noble is to expect nothing less than greatness in ourselves. Yet it is only by believing in our promise that fallen hopes can emerge; we can only conceive of our depravity by realizing our potentiality. Maybe the greatest among us are also those with the darkest moments of self-loathing.
I am grateful for the moments of despair, of sorrow, of self-judgment and condemnation. I am also grateful for the moments of clarity when I can raise my face contented towards the sky and love everything that is in me—appreciating all that I am and each of the experiences that have helped me arrive.
Many more thoughts about this book that crept up through the reading. I resonated with Tom and empathized with his passion—grateful that I have it in much smaller measure, or have learned to contain it over the years. I felt sorrow for his character and the many artists, dreamers, creators, inventors, and believers over history that have thrown themselves without reserve into the human condition—only to lose their lives and sanity in the process. I envy Samuel’s wisdom, humor, creativity, vitality, and reach. I respect Cal’s humanity and struggle, and Lee’s quiet dignity and strength.
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Read in August, 2003
Rated: A+
Sometimes a kind of glory lights up the mind of a man. It happens to nearly everyone. You can feel it growing or preparing like a fuse burning toward dynamite. It is a feeling in the stomach, a delight of the nerves, of the forearms. The skin tastes the air, and every deep-drawn breath is sweet. Its beginning has the pleasure of a great stretching yawn; it flashes in the brain and the whole world glows outside your eyes. A man may have lived all of his life in the gray, and th...more
Rated: A+
Sometimes a kind of glory lights up the mind of a man. It happens to nearly everyone. You can feel it growing or preparing like a fuse burning toward dynamite. It is a feeling in the stomach, a delight of the nerves, of the forearms. The skin tastes the air, and every deep-drawn breath is sweet. Its beginning has the pleasure of a great stretching yawn; it flashes in the brain and the whole world glows outside your eyes. A man may have lived all of his life in the gray, and the land and trees of him dark and somber. The events, even the important ones, may have trooped by faceless and pale. And then -- the glory -- so that a cricket song sweetens his ears, the smell of the earth rises chanting to his nose, and dappling light under a tree blesses his eyes. Then a man pours outward, a torrent of him, and yet he is not diminished. And I guess a man's importance in the world can be measured by thier quality and number of his glories. It is a lonely thing but it relates us to the world. It is the mother of all creativeness, and it sets each man separate from all other men.
I don't know how it will be in the years to come. There are monstrous changes taking p[lace in the world, forces shaping a future whose face we do not know. Some of these forces seem evil to us, perhaps not in themselves but because their tendency is to eliminate other things we hold good. It is true that two men can lift a bigger stone than one man. A group can build automobiles quicker and better than one man, and bread from a huge factory is cheaper and more uniform. When our food and clothing and housing all are born in the complication of mass production, mass method is bound to get into our thinking and to eliminate all other thinking. In our time mass or collective production has entered our economics, our politics, and even our religion, so that some nations have substituted the idea of collective for the idea God. This in my time is the danger. There is great tension in the world, tension toward a breaking point, and men are unhappy and confused.
At such a time it seems natural and good to me to ask myself these questions. What do I believe in? What must I fight for and what must I fight against?
Our species is the only creative species, and it has only one creative instrument, the individual mind and spirit of a man. Nothing was ever created by two men. There are no good collaborations, whether in music, in art, in poetry, in mathematics, in philosophy. Once the miracle of creation has taken place, the group can build and extend it, but the group never invents anything. The preciousness lies in the lonely mind of a man.
And now the forces marshaled around the concept of the group have declared a war of extermination on that preciousness, the mind of man. By disparagement, by starvation, by repressions, forced direction, and the stunning hammerblows of conditioning, the free, roving mind is being pursued, roped, blunted, drugged. It is a sad suicidal course our species seems to have taken.
And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual. This is what I am and what I am about. I can understand why a system built on a pattern must try to destroy the free mind, for that is one thing which can by inspection destroy such a system. Surely I can understand this, and I hate it and I will fight against it to preserve the one thing that separates us from the uncreative beasts. If the glory can be killed, we are lost. (Part 2; Chapter 13-1)...less
Read in May, 2008
recommended to Tom by:
Josh Egan
recommends it for:
Humans
I developed a very personal relationship with East of Eden. My best friend recommended it to me stating that he saw me in some of the characters. Needless to say, I saw my image reflected so often in Steinbeck's cast, that if someone knew what aspects to draw from each persona, they could stitch together another Tom. The themes and essays hit so close to home that I experienced at times both self-enlightenment and naked discomfort.
To me, East of Eden is a definitive synopsis of the huma...more
I developed a very personal relationship with East of Eden. My best friend recommended it to me stating that he saw me in some of the characters. Needless to say, I saw my image reflected so often in Steinbeck's cast, that if someone knew what aspects to draw from each persona, they could stitch together another Tom. The themes and essays hit so close to home that I experienced at times both self-enlightenment and naked discomfort.
To me, East of Eden is a definitive synopsis of the human condition--a compelling, disturbing, and glorious essay on the human struggle that every descendant of Adam and Eve must engage. The first basic human need is physical survival. Steinbeck explores this theme in many writings as his characters cling to the unforgiving land. When physical survival is assured, humans forage just as voraciously for emotional needs--acceptance and love. As the human body starves when the land yields briars and thorns in place of crops, so does the human spirit starve when it encounters rejection in place of love and acceptance. To cope with emotional starvation Steinbeck's rejected characters resort to sin. They try to buy love with gifts; they try to replace love with sex; they attack and sabotage those that have the affections they crave; they murder; they committ suicide. The rejected feel condemned to a dark destiny, but Steinbeck proposes that a dark existence is a choice, not a condemnation. God cast our ilk from Eden, where the basic human needs were perpetually met (but not appreciated for Adam and Eve could not have known the difference). However, He left us with a gift that separates us from the beasts, that allows us to harness the land, that guides us towards love and acceptance, that trumps sin, and that makes us divine ourselves. This is the knowledge of good and evil, free agency, or as Steinbeck refers to it, 'Timshel', Thou mayest. Free agency is both the greatest gift and the greatest struggle mankind will ever know.
A dangerous and pathetic tendency of mankind is to believe that our character and life is predestined, that we are born evil and will die evil and are there is nothing to change this course. It is the serpent's lie that no matter how enthusiastically we oppose our "destinies" we are just fighting back an ocean with a toothpick. Spare me this irresponsible lazy rubbish. We are masters of our own destinies. We may live east of Eden, but we don't live in Hell. Ours is a place to choose, struggle, grow, and scrape together a noble existence regardless of the dryness of our lands and the rejection of our brothers. Maybe it is my conviction of free agency that makes Cathy Ames one of the scariest villains I have ever encountered in any media. The idea of a human born to evil, a monster who can only choose sin is horrifying. Cate is one hell of a villain. I think she scares me so much because I am afraid that she actually exists. The chapter about her cooking her parents was one of the best passages of horror I have ever read. I felt the evil in her eyes as she chewed Samuel Hamilton's hand when he was trying to deliver her babies. She could not stand his goodness, and she could not stand the idea of sharing God's creative power by bringing life into the world. Cathy Ames is Thee Queen Bitch of Villains.
I found other characters even more interesting than Cathy, but to expound on that here would be to strip my clothes and stand naked before anyone that reads this. I have never related so personally to a book. East of Eden receives my heavy recommendation. Steinbeck nailed the human story with this one. ...less
Read in August, 2007
recommends it for:
16 years of age or older
So, I'm going to take a stab at this...before I get too busy and before I forget what I've read -- and thought. (I've already moved on to another book...;-)
Overall, I thought this was a masterful piece of work - and realized this on the first page. I've glimpsed around a little bit on the internet and know that J.S. has received some criticism for this book (along with praise, too), but I didn't look too closely because I wanted my thoughts to be my own. I definitely saw/heard some pretty ...more
So, I'm going to take a stab at this...before I get too busy and before I forget what I've read -- and thought. (I've already moved on to another book...;-)
Overall, I thought this was a masterful piece of work - and realized this on the first page. I've glimpsed around a little bit on the internet and know that J.S. has received some criticism for this book (along with praise, too), but I didn't look too closely because I wanted my thoughts to be my own. I definitely saw/heard some pretty laudatory reviews though, and therefore I had pretty high expectations for this book. Needless to say, it didn't let me down.
Don't get me wrong, there were points when I wondered, "Why is this book considered to be great?" and "Where is this going?" and "What does this mean?" But as I went along with it, I fell in love with it. I guess partly because it did make me think those things, and those things - and the way they were written - made me want to keep reading. (As simple as it may sound, this is always a basic sign of a good book, in my opinion, as there have been many that I have started and not gone back to.) I will admit it was not always an easy book to read; not a fluffy book that you could pick up here and there. I felt like I had to really prepare myself and focus for when I was going to read this, which is largely what kept me from getting it read on time.
So what did I like about it? J.S.'s keen insight into characters, people, families and their motivations. The people were very real, and developed, and flawed, and multi-dimensional. Cathy/Kate is probably the best evil character that I have ever encountered who was human (yet inhuman?). And how could anyone not be sad when the great Sam Hamilton died? You mourned him along with the other characters who mourned him. And then of course, the writing. Very accessible writing, and for the most part, it kept things moving along (although I know some feel/felt it was bit bogged down with description in some places). However, as things would be moving along, there would be a profound observation dropped into an ordinary paragraph, seamlessly and poetically, and yet without seeming overbearing. For example, on page 530: "One thing late or early can disrupt everything around it, and the disturbance runs outward in bands like the waves from a dropped stone in a quiet pool." These gems were all over the place - you could mine the book for them and be rich.
So overall, here is my summary: amazing, scary, powerful, direct. It reaches to the core of what people are really like.
P. S. Thought the historical background info was educational, too. ;-)
P.P.S. Even though I thought this book was really great, I'm getting into my old fashioned teacher / critical mode: I am reserving 5 stars for excellence beyond compare. If I could give this book a decimal rating, it would probably be about a 4.5, or on a letter grade scale, perhaps a A-. A+ and 5 stars is heaven at this point - attaining the unattainable. Looking back at my earlier reviews, and the my distribution of 5 star accolades, this seems unfair. Perhaps I'm getting stauncher in my reviews? Perhaps, it's because there was such truthful telling of real evil that exists in most of us in this book that it taints my scoring of it? Hmmmm. Another good sign of a good, perplexing book. But my vote remains. For whatever reason, it feels right....less
Read in January, 2006
recommended to Mme. Bookling by:
Jessica Gomes
recommends it for:
well, everyone i have met in the last two years!
And i finally finished.
Another thing about the re-read, it takes quite a bit longer! But I am so immensely satisfied that I did it, and I will do it again!
2nd reading: Dec 2007-April 2008
I have been immensely enjoying that a re-read means I go way slower through the text - finding words with meaning, rather than simply being all-consumed by the plot (which is oh so fabulous, by the way)
I also found my favorite chapter this time around. Cal gets the very first taste of how much his fath...more
And i finally finished.
Another thing about the re-read, it takes quite a bit longer! But I am so immensely satisfied that I did it, and I will do it again!
2nd reading: Dec 2007-April 2008
I have been immensely enjoying that a re-read means I go way slower through the text - finding words with meaning, rather than simply being all-consumed by the plot (which is oh so fabulous, by the way)
I also found my favorite chapter this time around. Cal gets the very first taste of how much his father has endured and he loves him ferociously enough to sacrifice himself to build up his brother, Aron. In my fav chapter, Adam finally wakes up from his pain long enough to realize that he doesn't know his own son. The dialogue and gripping language that ensues moves deeply in my core. Daddy issues much? :)
And Steinbeck’s fascinating psychological motif, basically summed up to say that all humans have one need: love. If they are loved, they will be more willing to embrace the choice to overcome evil. If they have never been loved, they will be less able/willing to overcome their evil. In this way, Cal and his mother are set up as foils...and the reader's heart hopes so desperately for Cal. (BENJI, Steinbeck is also a hope whore!)
At the core of the argument about timshol I find that I disagree with Steinbeck. I really believe our lives are destined by a greater entity and our paths are chosen for us, even more than we are willing to admit. I do not feel controlled or manipulated by my destiny, in fact, I believe that the cosmos or god (pick your term) are mysterious enough, so entirely OTHER than my human understanding, that it can weave my choices into a pre-existing destiny. I will take issue with anyone (including my beloved John) who says that man always has the ability to simply pull himself up by the bootstraps and overcome his lot in life. Many are simply not equipped to deal with their own destiny, and this is the responsibility of god. But these are my theological thoughts...
That being said, Steinbeck sells his hope into the most gorgeous mini-pill of optimism and redemption that I cannot but swallow and flourish at the imbibing of his words.
First Reading: Jaunary 2006
I picked up East of Eden on a friend's recommendation. I remember being surprised that it read nothing like Grapes of Wrath--no unabashed socio/political themes or propaganda.
East of Eden was Steinbeck's favorite work; it also took him most of his life to complete. He takes a myriad of storylines and expertly weaves them into this novel. Steinbeck states about East of Eden: "It has everything in it I have been able to learn about my craft or profession in all these years." He further claimed: "I think everything else I have written has been, in a sense, practice for this."
I really resonated with the themes he masterfully explores throughout--depravity, beneficence, love, and the struggle for acceptance, greatness, and the capacity for self-destruction, and especially of guilt and freedom. It ties these themes together with references to and many parallels with the biblical Book of Genesis.
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Read in September, 2007
recommends it for:
Literary readers, classics readers, religious readers, philosophy readers
It’s funny that a novel inspired by the tales of the fall of mankind and the first murder is one of Steinbeck’s most optimistic books, but it is. To its final hundred pages, characters still freely care for one another and hold hopes; horrible things happen, but not to everyone, and they don’t overwhelm everyone. Better yet, Steinbeck’s story makes the case that optimism is a vital part of the longevity of the Biblical origin stories. The scene where two characters metafictionally discus...more
It’s funny that a novel inspired by the tales of the fall of mankind and the first murder is one of Steinbeck’s most optimistic books, but it is. To its final hundred pages, characters still freely care for one another and hold hopes; horrible things happen, but not to everyone, and they don’t overwhelm everyone. Better yet, Steinbeck’s story makes the case that optimism is a vital part of the longevity of the Biblical origin stories. The scene where two characters metafictionally discuss the importance of the tale of Cain and Abel is one of Steinbeck’s most provocative dialogues in fiction or non-fiction.
The way he weaves allegory, allusion and original content is fascinating. The sprawling story of three generations of the Trask family is interesting enough on its own, but all the facets of the narrative make it compelling to analyze and savor, if not re-read. [I]East of Eden[i/]’s composition has a wonderful array of layers of interpretation, as its characters freely reference the religion that their author is alluding to, and their interpretations are often far off the mark that readers will make. Some of the Biblical allusions are blunt and dangerously obvious, but there are plenty of subtleties, as though the novel is trying to wring out meaning on every possible level of prose expression. While inspired by it, [I]East of Eden[/I] is not about remaking the Bible, but unpacking the importance of certain relationships, specifically those between Adam and nature, Adam and God, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Cain and Adam, Cain and God, and Cain and Eve. There are also several interesting characters (and relationships between characters) that don’t have Biblical analogues, and indeed much of Steinbeck’s fictional world is a far stretch from Genesis. Along with its transformation of religious themes into pragmatic and moral events, this originality should make [I]East of Eden[/I] compelling for secular readers. The shifting intensity of Steinbeck’s symbolism and allegory may bother some, especially since readers may think re-telling the Biblical stories is his main purpose; however by the middle of the book it becomes obvious that finding the relevance of these stories to modern life is his real purpose. Once you understand that the novel is more rewarding and entertaining.
While it’s difficult to say this is a better or worse book than [I]The Grapes of Wrath[/I], it is certainly a more versatile book. With all of its hardship, it is nowhere as desperate, and the writing is considerably more experimental. Early scenes display his theatre-like dialogue and sweeping descriptions (both of landscapes and lives), while later passages imitate and match all the strengths of other American heavyweight writers like Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allen Poe. His many approaches reveal his one glaring weakness (Steinbeck simply could not write good children’s dialogue), but serve to highlight every strength of his amazing literary career....less
A friend recommended this book to me as Steinbeck's best, and as a somewhat reluctant Steinbeck reader in the first place (I'd read Of Mice and Men in high school), I wasn't ecstatic to begin reading it--as I did at said friend's insistence. I will admit to a certain prideful stoicism in doing so--I felt like I was doing something supposedly "good for me," like avoiding trans fat or reading Beckett. But as I read I discovered that I liked it--Steinbeck had written an expansive, multi...more
A friend recommended this book to me as Steinbeck's best, and as a somewhat reluctant Steinbeck reader in the first place (I'd read Of Mice and Men in high school), I wasn't ecstatic to begin reading it--as I did at said friend's insistence. I will admit to a certain prideful stoicism in doing so--I felt like I was doing something supposedly "good for me," like avoiding trans fat or reading Beckett. But as I read I discovered that I liked it--Steinbeck had written an expansive, multigenerational novel in which he himself was a character, and he'd done so without the slightest apology or self-consciousness. Any meta-narrative about how the narrator (John Steinbeck) came to know all the intricate details about the private and inner lives of other characters, any wry concession to embellishment or (well) fiction, is refreshingly absent. He simply tells the story.
Which, for the most part, seems like it could have been written in the Victorian period that the novel takes as its prehistory. Specifically, it might as well be a great big old Russian novel that happens to take place entirely in America. There's family drama, deceit, struggle, and momentary triumph over despair. Here the notions of Good and Evil are bandied about in a serious way, and while in my own heretical post-modern viewpoint the old dialectic is sort of silly, I found myself taking it seriously as framed in Steinbeck's story. He succeeds because even the evil characters are given real, human complexity. There was never a point, for me, that I lost all sympathy for Catherine, who as a girl kills her own parents just because she can. My main quibble with Steinbeck--and one that I think is problematic for his whole outlook on the world, for all its good and evil--is that over and over Catherine is described as somehow lacking some fundamental thing; Steinbeck never says it so directly, but basically Catherine is drawn to do evil because there is something lacking in her that otherwise might be able to understand good in others. Crudely, she hates because she can't love. But do "evil" people really lack something fundamental? Would it not have been more affecting for Steinbeck to have drawn a character without the excuse of incompleteness, who nevertheless commits heinous acts? Or are the complete people incapable of absolute evil?
Such is the trouble with Evil. It's an easy out, its own excuse. For the sake of argument, you could paint an entire culture, or even an axis of countries, say, as Evil, and it would save you from having to seriously analyze their human complexities and motivations. Steinbeck has the excuse of being dead and, I think, a Victorian writer somehow trapped in the future. Our only excuse is laziness....less
Read in April, 2007
recommends it for:
any American lit fan
This book is mind blowing. It is John Steinbeck at his sharpest. He said that every author really only has one "book," and that all of his books leading up to East of Eden were just practice--Eden would be his book.
I could write a summary of the book, but it would be more trouble than it's worth. You will often hear it referred to as a "modern retelling of the Genesis story of Cain and Abel" but that is too simplistic. Steinbeck takes the story of Cain...more
This book is mind blowing. It is John Steinbeck at his sharpest. He said that every author really only has one "book," and that all of his books leading up to East of Eden were just practice--Eden would be his book.
I could write a summary of the book, but it would be more trouble than it's worth. You will often hear it referred to as a "modern retelling of the Genesis story of Cain and Abel" but that is too simplistic. Steinbeck takes the story of Cain and Abel and makes Cain (in the form of Cal Trask) the sympathetic character. Cal Trask does not act destructively for the sake of destruction, but he is desperately clawing for approval and love from his father, Adam, who prefers Cal's twin brother, Aron. The story isn't that pat, though--Cal and Aron really don't make their entrances as major characters until the last quarter of the 600 page novel. So, to say that this book is simply the retelling of Cain and Abel is to oversimplify the book. The main theme of the book is the desire within everyone for love, and how this desire can make people turn to destructive behavior.
This book has been criticized for being too verbose, meandering, inconsistently paced, and heavy handed in its parallel with the story of Cain and Abel. Yes, it is verbose and meandering, but that's Steinbeck. It gives a full picture of the Salinas valley. It gives you insights and perspectives you might not otherwise have. If anything, Steinbeck's constant forays into unrelated sidebars give the reader a break in pace, a rest that makes the more important parts of the books feel as though they flow more smoothly. As for the parallel with Cain and Abel, it is heavy-handed. That being said, the heavy-handedness didn't bother me. Going in to the novel with the expectation of it being a retelling of Cain and Abel (at least for some of the narrative) is enough to make the obvious references to Cain and Abel seem natural. If Steinbeck had given the impression that he was trying to hide the parallel, it would have been insulting. But Steinbeck isn't trying to hide it--he makes it clear that the story of Cain and Abel are an integral part of his story.
East of Eden is an amazing novel. Its strong points more than compensate for the very few shortcomings. Steinbeck is such a tremendous writer that his shortcomings become strengths. I highly recommend it....less
recommended to Morgan by:
Ruth and Cara
recommends it for:
adults
Taste is a funny thing. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, so to speak. That said, Steinbeck is not my cup o’ tea. However, I can agree with his most avid fans that he is a phenomenal writer. He engages you and makes characters so real it can be scary. There were paragraphs I read that made me want to do nothing but read it over and over, simply to re-live the magic of his words. I just don’t think his genre engages me the way others do. But I heard from friends, with very simila...more
Taste is a funny thing. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, so to speak. That said, Steinbeck is not my cup o’ tea. However, I can agree with his most avid fans that he is a phenomenal writer. He engages you and makes characters so real it can be scary. There were paragraphs I read that made me want to do nothing but read it over and over, simply to re-live the magic of his words. I just don’t think his genre engages me the way others do. But I heard from friends, with very similar taste to my own, that ‘East of Eden’ was worth my time. And I think it was, even if it took a lot of that said time.
I forced myself through the first 70 pages or so. I wasn’t too intrigued until Kate entered. Kate may be the most well written character I have ever encountered. Steinbeck worked the story miraculously to make you like, and hate Kate, the spawn of pure evil. You therefore understand what Adam was feeling. And that needed to happen, because if not, you would think of Adam as the biggest fool on the planet.
Even after Kate entered, there were moments I wanted to put the book down and walk away. But Amy, my book club partner-in-crime, convinced me over Thai food to keep reading. And I’m glad she did. Thanks, Amy!
What’s important is what I walked away with. And that was a very clear line of good and evil that is a bit fuzzy in our modern-day world. There was such a brutal honesty in that book. Today I think too often we play the “I did it for the good of whoever” card. We lie because we think someone can’t handle the truth, or because they would misuse it. But that isn’t our call. We are not God, and cannot imagine what act of kindness, or justice would do to someone’s soul. We must be truthful to a fault, and allow God to work through that. Adam gave Kate the money. I wouldn’t have, and that is where I fail.
Lee was by far my favorite character of the book. I think he conveyed that honesty, which was probably quite modern for the day. Most people would see the Easterner as un-biblical, but he lives the truth out in his Oriental way and often becomes the voice of reason.
I do recommend this book. I may not add it to my favorite book list. But, I keep thinking about it, and that is generally the sign of a great book in my mind. This has inspired me to read more Steinbeck (don’t assume I’ll be walking around with ‘Grapes of Wrath’ anytime soon!). It connects you. So, as it is in all of nature, thou mayest read this book. And I think it would be good for your soul.
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bookshelves:
fiction-classics
Read in February, 2008
A very good but not great novel.
As I sat with the book in my lap (mmm... nice paper, font and deckle edges) and was about to take the dive (it had been on my "must read to be a complete human being list" for quite a while) I had one slightly negative first impression and one extremely positive first impression of the author. On the negative side, his head shot, with steely gaze and poised cigarette, makes him look like a pretentious ass. On the positive side, the guy's motto/logo ...more
A very good but not great novel.
As I sat with the book in my lap (mmm... nice paper, font and deckle edges) and was about to take the dive (it had been on my "must read to be a complete human being list" for quite a while) I had one slightly negative first impression and one extremely positive first impression of the author. On the negative side, his head shot, with steely gaze and poised cigarette, makes him look like a pretentious ass. On the positive side, the guy's motto/logo is priceless... Pigasus - "To the stars on the wings of a pig." That just says it all! If I ever open up my coffee shop / second hand bookstore / art gallery / performance space / chess club I may have to name it Pigasus (bumping "Peace Frog" to second place).
As for the book itself, Steinbeck quickly demonstrated an unpretentious mastery of the English language that effortlessly pulled me into the story and kept me reading. (The author of any 600+ page novel bears a significant burden up front to justify my expenditure of time and energy.)
Themes? Primarily, of course, it raises the question of free will vs. predestination, focusing on the existence or not of inherited tendencies towards sin and violence (the "children of Cain" hypothesis.) Timshel (Thou mayest) the Book of Genesis tells us, and is Adam's final pronouncement for his surviving son. The jacket cover promised an exploration of "the mystery of identity, the inexplicability of love, and the murderous consequences of love's absence." I didn't really get that from the book.
Though the "Cain hypothesis" is an ever-present shadow underscoring the lives and actions of the generations of Trasks and Hamiltons, to me the story derives its strength not from the theme, but from the energy of the characters and from the dynamism and scale of the plot. I quickly became invested in the unfolding saga of the Trask and Hamilton clans, and by Steinbeck's musings on life in turn of the century America, and this kept me turning pages at a rapid clip.
Though I am glad to have taken this journey with Steinbeck, I believe a truly great novel would delve more deeply into the primary or secondary themes. I also found Steinbeck's development of Cathy's psychology (and Adam's feelings towards her) slightly flat and unsatisfying. I am shocked to see her nominated by many reviewers here as one of the "all-time great villains of American lit." All I got is that somehow she was born (to fairly ordinary parents) with "a piece missing" and that was that.
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Read in September, 2006
recommends it for:
expectant fathers
Oh, strawberries don't taste as they used to and the thighs of women have lost their clutch!
And some men eased themselves like setting hens into the nest of death.
History was secreted in the glands of a million historians. We must get out of this banged-up century, some said, out of this cheating, murderous century of riot and secret death, of scrabbling for public lands and damn well getting them by any means at all.
Think back, recall our little nation fringing the oceans, torn with...more
Oh, strawberries don't taste as they used to and the thighs of women have lost their clutch!
And some men eased themselves like setting hens into the nest of death.
History was secreted in the glands of a million historians. We must get out of this banged-up century, some said, out of this cheating, murderous century of riot and secret death, of scrabbling for public lands and damn well getting them by any means at all.
Think back, recall our little nation fringing the oceans, torn with complexities, too big for its britches. Just got going when the British took us on again. We beat them, but it didn't do us much good. What we had was a burned White House and ten thousand widows on the public pension list.
Then the soldiers went to Mexico and it was a kind of painful picnic. Nobody knows why you go to a picnic to be uncomfortable when it is so easy and pleasant to eat at home. The Mexican War did two good things though. We got a lot of western land, damn near doubled our size, and besides that it was a training ground for generals, so that when the sad self-murder settled on us the leaders knew the techniques for making it properly horrible.
And then the arguments:
Can you keep a slave?
Well if you bought him in good faith, why not?
Next they'll be saying a man can't have a horse. Who is it wants to take my property?
And there we were, like a man scratching at his own face and bleeding into his own beard.
Well, that was over and we got slowly up off the bloody ground and started westward.
There came boom and bust, bankruptcy, depression.
Great public thieves came along and picked the pockets of everyone who had a pocket.
To hell with that rotten century.
Let's get it over and the door closed shut on it! Let's close it like a book and go on reading! New chapter, new life. A man will have clean hands once we get the lid slammed shut on that stinking century. It's a fair thing ahead. There's no rot on this clean new hundred years. It's not stacked, and any bastard who deals seconds from this new deck of years -- why we'll crucify him head down over a privy.
Oh, but strawberries will never taste so good again and the thighs of women have lost their clutch!...less
bookshelves:
literature
Read in September, 2003
(written 9-03)
"An ache was on the top of his stomach, an apprehension that was like a sick thought. It was a Weltschmerz... the world sadness that rises into the soul like a gas and spreads despair so that you probe for the offending event and can find none." 203-4
"Adam said, 'I've wondered why a man of your knowledge would work a desert hill place.'
'It's because I haven't courage,' said Samuel. 'I could never quite take the responsibility... There you have the differ...more
(written 9-03)
"An ache was on the top of his stomach, an apprehension that was like a sick thought. It was a Weltschmerz... the world sadness that rises into the soul like a gas and spreads despair so that you probe for the offending event and can find none." 203-4
"Adam said, 'I've wondered why a man of your knowledge would work a desert hill place.'
'It's because I haven't courage,' said Samuel. 'I could never quite take the responsibility... There you have the difference between greatness and mediocrity. It's not an uncommon disease. But it's nice for a mediocre man to know that greatness must be the loneliest state in the world... I believe that when you come to that responsibility the hugeness and you are alone to make your choice. On one side you have warmth and companionship and sweet understanding, and on the other - cold, lonely greatness. There you make your choice.'" 303
"Mr. Trask do you think the thoughts of people suddenly become important at a given age? Do you have sharper feelings or clearer thoughts now than when you were ten? Do you see as well, hear as well, taste as vitally? - Lee 431
Lee on Americans:
"We're a violent people, Cal. Does it seem strange to you that I include myself? Maybe it's true that we are all descended from the restless, the nervous, the criminals, the arguers and brawlers, but also the brave and independent and generous. If our ancestors had not been that, they would have stayed in their home plots in the other world and starved over the squeezed-out soil." 653
Had I recorded here everything I enjoyed from this book, it would have taken hours. It spans generations and a wide range of ideas and emotions. Not only is the "story" interesting, but the thoughts are profound and Steinbeck's writing is always beautiful. The theme of "lonely greatness" hit me especially hard as I am deciding what to "do" with my life. It seems as if I could be a successful clarinetist or have a family and a fulfilling home life. It is such a difficult decision and I can understand the struggles of these characters. Anyone would enjoy and learn from this book - even Oprah fans!...less
