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.

One of my favorite books. Have read it several times! ( )

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. ( )

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. ( )

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. ( )