Flawed at times, magnificent at times. Steinbecks last truly great book (in my mind) is a big, messy, kitchen sink sort of stew-- he throws everything in, and most of it works. The vast gallery of characters is fascinating, and he makes everyone interesting, flawed, and real, except, sadly for the Caleb and Aaron. These two characters are the thinnest of all the main characters to me, and the last 100-200 pages suffers for that. Adam, though, and his wife are fantastic, as are the Hamiltons, who have the veneer of reality (autobiogrpahy) to them. It's often hard to tell where the book's going, and in truth, it has no real plot to speak of-- things sort of move along until the stop. Much like "War and Peace", it reflects the flow of life as it washes over many different people-- that's the real reading joy.

It's hard to make a sprawling epic like this perfect, but Steinbeck gives it his best, literally. There's so so much to love about the book, I was glad it is what is, warts and all.