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East of Eden by John Steinbeck
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East of Eden

by John Steinbeck

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7,573116160 (4.44)190
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I’ve heard a lot about this book, and even the movie, for the past few years so it was my first choice when it came to picking a Steinbeck I had never read. After I started reading, many people commented on their like of the story.

I will admit that in the beginning it took me some time to get used to the Steinbeck style of writing and the story because it jumped around quite a lot before settling into the main focus.

East of Eden tells the story of the Trask family beginning with Adam and Charles Trask, two brothers who couldn’t be more opposite, their relationship, and their father and mother. The story continues through their lives until they are grown men.

It was very interesting as the story developed and not realizing until near they how how history repeats itself and how her parents create who we are. The development of Adam’s sons was most intriguing because Steinbeck never came out and said Cal is like this and Aron is like that. He showed the reader until all of a sudden a lightbulb clicked and you realized you were almost watching Adam and Charles relationship.

But it’s not just about this one family, it’s also about a familiar relationship with neighbors (the Hamiltons), the scenery (Salinas Valley), and working craft (farming).

What started off as a struggle to fully grip onto the story, turned into quick page turning and giving up all other novels to read only this. I highly recommend it.
blondierocket | Jun 28, 2009 |  
One of my favorite books. Have read it several times! ( )
elsyd | May 14, 2009 |  
Reams have been written on this epic, powerful novel, so I will not attempt a pithy little summary or analysis here. But what a revelation—that a classic work of literature can be read and enjoyed entirely outside of an academic setting, and that the reader can spend hours of pleasant reflection on the book’s meaning and themes without having to produce a paper on them. Perhaps it is time to rediscover literature outside of the glass jar lowered over it by academia. ( )
sturlington | May 4, 2009 | 1 vote
Well, I definately didn't like this as much as 'Grapes of Wrath' or even 'Of Mice and Men.' That is not to say I didn't enjoy it but for me it was not nearly as focused or powerful as his other works. A long rambling story of two families - The Trasks and the Hamiltons - who settle in the Salinas Valley in California around the turn of the century.

Parts of the novel were quite good - I especially enjoyed Sam Hamilton and the early years of his family; as well as Adam Trask's early life. However, I struggled more with warming up to the story of the Trask boys - they didn't seem like real people to me. And I got tired of reading about evil Cathy Trask. I just felt the pacing was all over the place - there was no sense of climax or really begining, middle, end.

Overall, it was a memorable and worthy read. Steinbeck is a fine, intelligent writer - worthy of his Nobel prize. I just think I expected to like it a bit more than I did - so in that sense a bit of a disappoinment. I guess I like his migrant farm worker schtick better. ( )
jhowell | Apr 30, 2009 |  
Relative to what Steinbeck was capable of I have to say that East of Eden is somewhat flat. The characterisation is, contra what many of Opera's Book Club have to say, uninspired, lifeless and over-simplistic. The Biblical allusions are tiresome, repetative and dull. The main protagonists are utterly one-dimensional. Catherine, the evil witch around which the central thrust of the novel turns, is utterly flimsy. Samuel Hamilton, the unnaturally morally good neighbouring farmer, and his small shrewish Presbyterian wife are highly irksome. Lee, the also hopelessly morally perfect Chinese servant is another totally pointless character.

The so-called 'insights into human nature' are at times nothing more than sententious trite compared to other canonical writers. The guilt complex is far better dealt with in other modern classics such as Crime and Punishment and The Scarlet Letter.

I really think this was a bridge too far for Steinbeck - a lamentable case of over-ambition. And it is lamentable. The most frustrating thing about East of Eden is that I finished the book thinking that this could have been utterly magnificent, but it's not. ( )
DavidHenry | Mar 27, 2009 |  
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Series (with order)
Canonical Title
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Awards and honors
Epigraph
Dedication
PASCAL COVICI
Dear Pat,
You came upon me carving some kind of little figure out of wood and you said, "Why don't you make something for me?"
I asked what you wanted, and you said, "A box."
"What for?"
"To put things in."
"What things?"
"Whatever you have," you said.
Well, here's your box. Nearly everything I have is in it, and it is not full. Pain and excitement are in it, and feelings good or bad and evil thoughts and good thoughts - the pleasure of design and some despair and the indescribable joy of creation.
And on top of these are all the gratitude and love I have for you.
And still the box is not full.
JOHN
First words
The Salinas Valley is in Northern California.
Quotations
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.
Once he had accepted the end as desirable, he should forget it completely and concentrate solely on the means.
There's that fallow land, and here beside me is that fallow man. It seems a waste.
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.
Maybe the knowledge is too great and maybe men are growing too small. Maybe, kneeling down to atoms, they're becoming atom-sized in their souls. Maybe a specialist is only a coward, afraid to look out of his little cage. And think what any specialist misses — the whole world over his fence.
Last words
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Book description
Often described as Steinbeck's most ambitious novel, East of Eden brings to life the intricate details of two families, the Trasks and the Hamiltons, and their interwoven stories.

Amazon.com Book Description (ISBN 0142000655, Paperback)

Today, nearly forty years after his death, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck remains one of America’s greatest writers and cultural figures. We have begun publishing his many works for the first time as blackspine Penguin Classics featuring eye-catching, newly commissioned art. This season we continue with the seven spectacular and influential books East of Eden, Cannery Row, In Dubious Battle, The Long Valley, The Moon Is Down, The Pastures of Heaven, and Tortilla Flat. Penguin Classics is proud to present these seminal works to a new generation of readers—and to the many who revisit them again and again.

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:08 -0400)

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