From its unorthodox narrative structure, to its towering characterizations, to its unfettered morality, the talking heads of the day panned East of Eden for being too grandiose for its own galoshes. Published in 1952, it parables the biblical tale of Cain and Able as experienced through the lens of two families as they struggle and triumph against a backdrop spanning the American Civil War to WWI, primarily in the setting of Salinas, California.įollowing its release, the book fast became the bestselling novel in the United States, but at the time critics did not share the public’s enthusiasm. The above quotation was drawn from the foreword provided by John Steinbeck for his novel East of Eden. Pain and excitement are in it, and feeling good and evil thoughts-the pleasure of design and some despair and the indescribable joy of creation.” Perhaps a close re-read will reveal why he chose to include her at all.“Nearly everything I have is in it, and it is not full.

Of course it doesn’t erase the lamentable choice of having a character called “the nigger'. That was remarkable when the book was published 70 years ago, I imagine. Major props to Steinbeck for creating Lee as a central and fully formed character of Asian ancestry in the American West at the turn of the 19th century. I didn't think they resolved anything in the discussion, but I enjoyed reading it. I did enjoy the discussion on why God chose not to accept Cain’s offering, because I’ve never understood why God rejected it. The first read is merely a cursory one to determine whether a book is worth the time. I will East of Eden again, if time allows it. Steinbeck wrote a journal as he created the novel and I need to read it to glean what I missed. Yet, even she did not live up to the expectations created for her, I felt. She’s the center of this tale modeled on the biblical story Cain and Abel. When that girl showed up in chapter 8, I was all in. Tragedy and love, struggle and joy, characters and.there is no one else in literature like Cathy Ames. I felt like for all the setup, people’s lives were just.lives. This set up an expectation that was never met. I can’t see any great question posed or answered other than that, and it bothers me because the book starts out with a grand scope, focusing on families of the Salinas Valley near Monterey Bay in the early 1900s. Seems to me Steinbeck answers a question, “what is life?” His response: It goes on. I read all 601 pages but the narrator remains a mystery to me. Someone said to me, “wait until you see who the narrator is.” I guess I missed it because I still don’t know.

East of eden book