East of Eden

by John Steinbeck

Hardcover, 601 pages

English language

Published Aug. 4, 2002 by Penguin Books.

ISBN:: 978-0-14-200065-6
OCLC Number:: 48177186

(20 reviews)

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 California’s Salinas Valley, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families—the Trasks and the Hamiltons—whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.

Adam Trask came to California from the East to farm and raise his family on the new rich land. But the birth of his twins, Cal and Aaron, brings his wife to the brink of madness, and Adam is left alone to raise his boys to manhood. One boy thrives nurtured by the love of all those around him; the other grows up in loneliness enveloped by a mysterious darkness.

First published in 1952, East of Eden is the work in …

First published in 1952, East of Eden is the 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 love's absence. A masterpiece of Steinbeck's later years, East of Eden is a powerful and vastly ambitious novel that is at once a family saga and a modern retelling of the Book of Genesis.

--jacket flap

1 edition

Eduardo Santiago reviewed East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Review of 'East of Eden' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Whew. I feel like I've just been run over by the proverbial slow-motion train. I even saw it coming, yet remained a willing participant in the wreck. I'm still not sure what that says about me or about this book.

First things first, though: if you haven't read this, do not do so until at least 2019. It is wretchedly depressing to read about human monsters while knowing that those very same are walking freely in the U.S. Congress and White House. Wait until that's just a bad memory.

All right. It's the future now, flying cars and all. For some reason you want my opinion on whether to read this or not, and why. I don't think I can answer that. There's much I found wrong: it can be heavyhanded at times, preachy or treacly. I stuck with it even so. It's predictable—deliberately so, that's part of Steinbeck's gimmick—I stuck with it even so. Manipulative, ditto. And yet... beautiful too. The Hamilton and Lee characters are a little too perfect, the rest just a little too flat, too convenient as mere plot devices. Even so, even so, I found myself drawn in. And Steinbeck's big sweeping question (no spoilers here), I'm not entirely sure he answered it in the way he thought he did. Or was that his point? And that, dear reader, is a topic I'd love to go into with you, because I think it's one of the big questions. So maybe you could read this as a favor to me, to discuss over brandy one fine evening.

One thing I can say I owe to the book: I feel a reinforced desire right now to live; to see; to be awake; to love.