"Perhaps the best conversationalist in the world is the man who helps others to talk."

This is a hard book to review, mostly because I'm not really sure why this turned out to be such a compelling read. It's like a character study spanning a generation, where everyone's thoughts and motives are center stage. The main "meat" of the book surrounds Adam and his family, though several other characters come in and out of frame that play a large role in how Adam develops. The time period spans from 1862 to the outbreak of World War I, and for your time spent you really start to develop an understanding and an interest in this family who settles in Salinas Valley, California.

If we're being honest here, I really thought this was going to be a DNF book for me. If it wasn't for literally everybody around me telling me how good this book is and me not wanting to deal with defending myself for the rest of my life, I probably would have put it down within the first third or so. I found this book to really drag in the beginning, which is what prevents me from giving it a full five stars. It pulled me in hard once things start to come together and you find out how all the pieces you were introduced to in the beginning fit, and I found the rest to be a very satisfying (if long) read.

I also wasn't fully satisfied with Kate/Cathy and her resolution. We can see her slow descent into paranoia and suspicion, but her deciding to suddenly kill herself (I say suddenly, when it's clear she's been planning it a while) felt out of character from what she was set up as. Steinbeck made an attempt to set her up as a sympathetic, pitiful character in the end, but I still don't think it makes up for how she got there.

Can we also just talk a second about how awesome a character Lee was? The dude really carried the family on his shoulders, I swear.

So, all in all, I'm very glad I gave this book so many chances and stuck with it 'til the end. It's a satisfying book to have read. I'm glad I listened to my friends (for once).