Loved loved loved, except the ending. ( )

I'd read it again. Important lessons. ( )

"And now that you don't have to be perfect, you can be good"

I picked up a pack of strawberries from the store the other day and it was a fun coincidence to see that they came from the Salinas Valley, CA. It is the very same place where most of the story in East of Eden takes place and where Steinbeck was from.

East of Eden is a generational saga about two families through which Steinbeck explores a multitude of philosophical topics: nature of good and evil, duality, love, family, duty, etc. Above all, it's about making choices and being in charge of your own destiny.

It reads like a parallel life and I found myself very invested in it. Steinbeck's craft is palpable - he is both a master storyteller and has a great sense of time and place. But above all, he feels for those characters that represent the whole of humanity, no matter how horrific some of them are. The novel is filled with Biblical references that never seemed over the top while I was reading it. Actually, the retelling of the biblical story of Cain and Abel strangely works.

This is just fantastic literature with unforgettable characters (Lee, Samuel, Cathy). I can't think of many books that top the experience of reading this. It never feels dated. ( )

Two families, two sets of brothers, a well-known Biblical tale, and one important location are central to this magnum opus of one of American’s best-known writers in the first half of the 20th century. East of Eden is an ambitious novel by John Steinbeck that is essentially a historical fiction novel of the Salinas Valley that is a double allegory for the Biblical Cain and Abel.

Steinbeck used his family history, his hometown’s history, and the Biblical story of Cain and Abel to form the backbone of this 600-page literary classic. Focused on the Hamiltons—based on Steinbeck’s maternal family—and the Trasks, were within Cain and Abel is repeated in succeeding generations, the story is also a fictional history of Steinbeck’s home region of the Salinas Valley in Central California. There is a slew of characters that come off the page at comes off as actual human beings, though many of them if we met them would wonder if they had gotten any psychological help and if not would hope they’d get it. The Biblical allegory centers around one man, Adam Trask, first as the Abel to his younger half-brother Charles’ Cain and then as the “father”—biologically it could also be Charles, legally it was Adam, and essentially it was Lee who I’ll get to further down—of Cal and Aron who repeat the Biblical allegory in a different way. Early on Adam is sympathetic given his childhood, but after the “breakup” of his marriage he becomes a human nonentity which allows the repetition of the Biblical story. The twins undisputed mother Cathy/Kate Trask (nee Ames), could be in the allegory the Devil or the Talmudic Lilith who was the Biblical Adam’s first wife but didn’t want to be dominated and became a baby killing demon in Jewish folklore, is an amoral psychopath who is able to hide her amorality from all but a few observant individuals. Then there is poor Lee, a Chinese manservant to the Trask family that essentially is Cal and Aron’s dad but could only do so much with Adam around and was in this ambiguous position of sage relative and hired help, but along with Sam Hamilton is the best character of the entire book. Looking overall at the story, it is very engaging and a page-turner to me yet also frustrating with Adam’s wanton disregard of his sons thus allowing the family drama to repeat itself.

East of Eden is considered by John Steinbeck as his magnum opus, it was certainly ambitious with this allegorical approach that was mixed with a fictional account of the author’s home region. ( )