East of Eden By John Steinbeck

This is yet another brilliantly written epic tale from John Steinbeck. It covers the lives of several generations of families in the Salinas valley, both the good and the bad. We learn how one tragic event can influence the lives of others as well as future generations. We also hear how events ultimately have a habit of catching up with us in the future. This is a long book, but do not let that put you off, you become fully engrossed in the lives of all of the characters and no doubt feel empathy towards some of them. I would definitely recommend this book to those who enjoy really getting to know the characters and their deeply entwined lives. East of Eden I've read a lot of Steinbeck's work but had avoided his longer novels out of laziness really. I tend to avoid books with the word epic in the description. Silly me.

I found myself totally immersed in East of Eden, its flawed characters (some lovable for all that, some the reverse), the world naturally moving from one generation to the next, the human dramas, successes and injustices, the struggles for survival against the folly of Man and the forces of Nature. Steinbeck's insights into the human condition remain thought provoking even in the 21st century.

I found most of the characters likeable, which pulls you through the novel, but the monsters in the mix keep up the tension brilliantly.

I suspect this is a book I shall periodically re read. However, the over long analysis in the foreword almost put me off reading it altogether, so I skipped that and found it useful to read after I'd finished the novel itself. Kindle The story of how two generations of an extended family live their lives in misery and strife, and then die, usually horribly.

I give up. In The Grapes of Wrath at least there was some glorious writing amid the misery, but here the writing ranges from mediocre to poor, with some of the most unrealistic dialogue I’ve ever read. The Chinaman who manages to convey all the worst stereotyping while supposedly showing how silly the stereotyping is. The ranchers who sit around discussing the meaning of the Bible, including varying translations of the original Hebrew. The spell it out in case you miss it religious symbolism laid on with a trowel. The women who are all victims or prostitutes or both. The casual racism. And the misery. The misery. Oh, woe is me, the misery!

Looking at my notes for my first reading session of about fifty pages, I see that one man lost his leg in war, one wife died of suicide after contracting gonorrhoea from her adulterous husband, wife #2 is dying of consumption, one brother beat another to a pulp, and a father has gone off after his son with a shotgun. Admittedly no one could say nothing ever happens, but it’s hardly a barrel of laughs. At this point I was wondering if the rise in use of anti depressants could be dated to the time when Steinbeck was included on the curricula of schools and colleges.

Then there’s the evil woman â€" you know, the one who destroys good men by tempting them with her nasty womanly sex stuff. Not that I’d call Steinbeck a misogynist, exactly â€" he really hates all of humanity. But his hatred of men is pretty much all to do with violence and greed while with his women it’s all to do with sex and with their little habit of causing the downfall of men. Not that the women enjoy any of it â€" by my reckoning at least three of them killed themselves, a couple contracted sexually transmitted diseases, several were beaten up by various men and the solitary “happy” one had a stream of children and spent her entire life in drudgery, cooking and cleaning and then watching her children go off and make a miserable mess of their lives.

I do feel sorry for Steinbeck â€" I assume he must have had a rotten life. But I’ve decided to stop allowing him to strangle my hard won joie de vivre while emptying my half full glass. I finished this one, and sadly feel that it wasn’t worth the effort â€" and boy, was it an effort! Into each life some rain must fall, for sure, but Steinbeck is a deluge. I’m putting up my umbrella, and writing Steinbeck off my reading list permanently. And I feel happier already East of Eden Do we need to read another story of family generations, the good and bad that we think and do, and the coat of redemption? This book represents the zenith: the parallel between the Trasks and the first foray of the US into a World War. The interaction between those who do for good and those who do not, no matter how good the luck and how the robber baron legacy counts for nothing in the moral stakes. Marvel at Steinbeck at his best. A must read East of Eden Because East of Eden was written in 1952 it is not cluttered with the false sentimentality that is found on soo much modern writings. The story concerns the interwoven lives of two families living in the Salinas Valley in California just before the outbreak of the first world war. It is also a study in sibling competitions for the affections of parents and at times makes for uncomfortable reading. The most unforgettable character in this story is Cathy Ames for reasons that any reader will always remember. This is a superb book. English

I finished reading this about 2 weeks ago and have now had time to ingest it for a while. This is easily in the top 5, if not top 3, or perhaps, in time, even THE top book I have ever read. I love Grapes, Cannery Row, and Mice & Men, but I love this one even now. It's a timeless classic about good and evil and the privelege of choosing which one we want to be defined by.

The digital version of the book (c 2011) I read contained way too many typos though At least 50 100 that I noticed, including some that actually altered the meaning of what Steinbeck originally wrote. Poor QC pick it up, publishers. Still, the book that Steinbeck wrote is so great that I can't let that detract from its 5 star ness English With the title of East of Eden, one would think this was a straight retelling of the Cain and Abel story in Genesis; it is so much .

This is a story of family, honor, love, pain, success, failure and free will. The Cain and Abel parallel runs through 2 sets of brothers and even the 2 woman involved with each set. In Charles and Adam then Cal and Aron, there is the perception of good and bad. With Cathy and Abra, it seems a little black and white. However, the ideal of free will changing a path is always there. The characters always have a choice.

The novel highlights 2 generations of the Trask family with the relationships between the father's & sons, brothers, and the woman who impacts each generation of men. There is also the contrast of the poorer but content Hamilton family which also plays a part in both generations.

This book has everything from drama to a small mystery to romance. It is a definite must read in a lifetime. Personally, I have to reread it every few years because, in addition to everything else, I find it to be a story of redemption and hope.
Timshel. East of Eden This is a story about the endurance of the human soul, about choosing to be who you would like to be rather than believing you were cut with a mold that can’t be broken. But also it’s a story about forgiveness, the freedom of choice and the long road one must walk between one’s beginning and one’s end, and all the causes and effects in between.

Steinbeck’s masterpiece, for to call it anything less is impossible, has left me with a sense of loss. When I came to the end of this epic tale of family and humanity, I felt abandoned simply because I ran out of words to read. I wanted to carry on in his characters’ lives, spying on their darkness, watching them evolve and bloom and outrun the forces haunting them. No book has made me feel quite so much sadness and excitement at once. Perhaps because I’m a writer, I relished the painterliness of Steinbeck’s prose. I turned every single one of its six hundred and one pages at a furious pace, and yet I indulged and languished and roamed the landscape he had painted for me, and me alone.

The story is so personal, a reader might feel it is written for her. It is a story we must hear, a story we know, a story with which we can connect, as we do with all the ones passed down from civilization to civilization. We commune with great stories, religious accounts, epic tales, because we see ourselves most readily in them, and as Lee (one of Eden’s finest characters) says, that’s why we keep telling, and retelling, them from one generation to the next. Steinbeck draws on the Old Testament, turning over the story of Cain and Abel and making it his, for us anew. And because we see ourselves in itâ€"our good and evilâ€"we devour his retelling as though it were medicine to save our soul, the cure for all our ails. But perhaps I exaggerate, indulging in the power of the writer a little too much. Or maybe I do feel my soul a little shaken by my experience, swept up in the writer’s magic. Either way, I am satisfied to credit Steinbeck for my joy at venturing into his Eden.

And it is the great landscape, the backdrop of his tale that speaks most readily to the reader. Steinbeck’s setting is in fact a large part of the whole. Like the characters he unearths, the soil on which they stand seems to reach for the sky, yearning to live too. You can’t read East of Eden without experiencing the tan valleys of Northern California and the lush green dales of Connecticut. You see his East and his West, you practically smell the air of each, and you believe the world he creates to be the same one in which you live. The opening of the book sets you up for that, tells you, dear reader, you will feel every ounce of nature’s beauty just as the narrator does; her dangerous flirtations, her permanency, her changeability, her gales, her forces, her perpetual and enduring spirit. We do not simply live in nature, but come from it. We embody it; all her forces. I think Steinbeck reminds us of this in such subtle and rare ways it seeps into the subconscious as we follow his narrator through the story of Adam Trask, Samuel Hamilton, and all the characters in between and after.

“I remember my childhood names for the grasses and secret flowers. I remember where a toad may live and what time the birds awaken in the summerâ€"and what trees and seasons smelled likeâ€"how people looked and walked and smelled even. The memory of odors is very rich.”

Effortlessly, Steinbeck strings you along with his prose, fooling you into not seeing the great and gargantuan task he is laying before you. “Timshel,” he teaches you. “Thou mayest,” the two words from Genesis that seem to speak most profoundly, for they admit to free will, and your ability to choose to rule over sin. John Milton’s Paradise Lost also speaks of this freedom, one in which man has often stumbled, misunderstanding his disobedience, his choice between good and evil. Steinbeck examines this idea throughout the narrative, and shows you the outcomes of those who struggle with the same, and it is in their differences that choice becomes apparent.

I have said little about the characters, the plot, the style and themes, and yet I have said everything I can about a work that has touched me so deeply. I will leave you with this short quote, said once again by Lee, the Chinese American who is the most philosophical, and enlightened of Steinbeck’s family of characters, the sage most inborn to the writer:

“But ‘Thou mayest’! Why, that makes a man great, that gives him stature with the gods, for in his weakness and his filth and his murder of his brother he has still the great choice. He can choose his course and fight it through and win.” Kindle What can possibly be stated about this book that already hasn't been? This book is easily one of the best pieces of literature out there by one of the best writers that has ever graced this earth. Most reading experiences are often described as journeys, but this one is quite literally so. The story goes across generations of characters and the lives they lead. Even when I found myself attached to a character and upset when their part in the story was over, I found myself becoming attached the new ones introduced. I believe Steinbeck is one of the few authors that can pull off this kind of stature without it making parts of novel better than the others and keeping consistent quality. The journey this book provides may be very long, but well worth it.

Physical Book Itself:
The Centennial Edition is in my opinion, the best choice to purchase. With a very nice soft feel cover, and wonderful cover art, decent size, and proper font size, makes it the most comfortable to read.
The Penguin Orange Edition is wonderful in terms of cover art and its rubber feel but the font size is way too small and crammed together, making it hard to read. More of a collectors purchase than the edition you will want to actually read. buddhism East of Eden had been on my reading list for 15 years. I wish I had read it then! This book is a gift to the mind and heart. One of the many brilliant things about this book is the beautiful character development transcends the time period and geographic location. It is about the human condition, the exploration of good and evil and the ability to discover your own path. I will read this book again and again. Thank you, ​John Steinbeck! The only downside is, I am having a tough time finding my rebound book. So far, everything pales in comparison. English

A masterpiece of Biblical scope, and the magnum opus of one of Americas most enduring authors, in a commemorative hardcover edition

In his journal, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck called East of Eden the first book, and indeed it has the primordial power and simplicity of myth. Set in the rich farmland of Californias Salinas Valley, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two familiesthe Trasks and the Hamiltonswhose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.

The masterpiece of Steinbecks later years, East of Eden is a work in which Steinbeck created his most mesmerizing characters and explored his most enduring themes: the mystery of identity, the inexplicability of love, and the murderous consequences of loves absence. Adapted for the 1955 film directed by Elia Kazan introducing James Dean, and read by thousands as the book that brought Oprahs Book Club back, East of Eden has remained vitally present in American culture for over half a century. East of Eden