Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Book Review: East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Writing Style-8.1
Originality-8.1
Plot-8.0
Literary Merit(whatever that means)-8.4
Overall-8.2
Man, this book was awesome. Maybe not quite Grapes of Wrath awesome, but still incredibly awesome nonetheless.
This is one of those books where you savor every single sentence. It doesn’t matter about the context, you just love the way each word is put together. Steinbeck’s writing has a very southern quality to it. You could rip the cover off this book and change the setting from California to Yoknapatawpha and I could easily believe that it was Faulkner’s.
There are a ton of stories in here and a ton of characters and a ton of themes. It’s a very meaty book. But not difficult to read at all.
Unfortunately, I’m behind in my reviews so it’s been awhile now since I read this and some of it escapes me now. But, essentially there are two families, the Trasks and the Hamiltons, and it covers a couple of generations of these families. The story of the Trasks is really a bit more important to the central theme of the novel and certainly more compelling.
There are many biblical allusions, as there were with The Grapes of Wrath, but the most obvious is the story of Cain and Abel. First, Cyrus Trask has two sons named Charles and Adam. Then, Adam has two sons named Caleb and Aron. Both generations involve an intense, very intense, sibling rivalry and each set of brothers strives fiercely for approval from their father. In both cases, the “C” brother is more mean-spirited and extremely jealous of the “A” brother, not just for the fact that the fathers favor the “A” brother but also for the love of a girl.
I think the main theme here is your ancestry and where you come from developing the type of person that you are in life. But, it’s not so much the “sins of the father” thing as it is “approval of the father, sins of the mother” in this instance. It’s kind of murky, I’m not sure if the ending affirms that we can break with the past or not. Or, if it’s more about the source of the strife or evil in mankind and where that comes from. Do you blame Adam or Caleb/Cain (or Cathy/Eve)? Not sure. But, I think the point with stories like this is not so much about what the author’s philosophy or intent is as much as the universality and identifiability of the characters and their actions. I’d love to hear some thoughts from anyone who’s read it.
At any rate, don’t let this deter you from reading it. I think that everyone should give this one a try. I don’t like it quite as much as Grapes of Wrath, but it might actually be a more enjoyable read for the average reader.
Originality-8.1
Plot-8.0
Literary Merit(whatever that means)-8.4
Overall-8.2
Man, this book was awesome. Maybe not quite Grapes of Wrath awesome, but still incredibly awesome nonetheless.
This is one of those books where you savor every single sentence. It doesn’t matter about the context, you just love the way each word is put together. Steinbeck’s writing has a very southern quality to it. You could rip the cover off this book and change the setting from California to Yoknapatawpha and I could easily believe that it was Faulkner’s.
There are a ton of stories in here and a ton of characters and a ton of themes. It’s a very meaty book. But not difficult to read at all.
Unfortunately, I’m behind in my reviews so it’s been awhile now since I read this and some of it escapes me now. But, essentially there are two families, the Trasks and the Hamiltons, and it covers a couple of generations of these families. The story of the Trasks is really a bit more important to the central theme of the novel and certainly more compelling.
There are many biblical allusions, as there were with The Grapes of Wrath, but the most obvious is the story of Cain and Abel. First, Cyrus Trask has two sons named Charles and Adam. Then, Adam has two sons named Caleb and Aron. Both generations involve an intense, very intense, sibling rivalry and each set of brothers strives fiercely for approval from their father. In both cases, the “C” brother is more mean-spirited and extremely jealous of the “A” brother, not just for the fact that the fathers favor the “A” brother but also for the love of a girl.
I think the main theme here is your ancestry and where you come from developing the type of person that you are in life. But, it’s not so much the “sins of the father” thing as it is “approval of the father, sins of the mother” in this instance. It’s kind of murky, I’m not sure if the ending affirms that we can break with the past or not. Or, if it’s more about the source of the strife or evil in mankind and where that comes from. Do you blame Adam or Caleb/Cain (or Cathy/Eve)? Not sure. But, I think the point with stories like this is not so much about what the author’s philosophy or intent is as much as the universality and identifiability of the characters and their actions. I’d love to hear some thoughts from anyone who’s read it.
At any rate, don’t let this deter you from reading it. I think that everyone should give this one a try. I don’t like it quite as much as Grapes of Wrath, but it might actually be a more enjoyable read for the average reader.
Comments:
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Hey orni,
Have you read One hundred years of solitude yet? This book reminds me a bit of it. It follows several generations of a family as they establish themselves in a new frontier sort of town and borrows heavily from the Book of Genesis. It's also beautifully written.
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Have you read One hundred years of solitude yet? This book reminds me a bit of it. It follows several generations of a family as they establish themselves in a new frontier sort of town and borrows heavily from the Book of Genesis. It's also beautifully written.
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