East of Eden by John Steinback

This month's post is contributed by a guest author, Joy G.   Joy is actually the one who first introduced me (Dorothy) to give East of Eden the ol' college try, and I've loved it since I first cracked the binding on it.  But enough about me, let's hear it from her! 

Joy G. says....

As a guest blogger sitting in for my two sisters I have the pleasure of reviewing one of the best novels I have ever read.  East of Eden by John Steinbeck, is also the only of Steinbeck’s books that I like at all.  So if you have ever read any of his other books and thought, “Darn that was depressing,” get ready to celebrate because he actually wrote something that was not a sucking void of depression.  There are so many things I enjoy about this book, that I would be unable to enumerate them all in this post.  I will do my best to give you a quick and dirty version.

Steinbeck introduces us to a number of characters in this book who you will fall in love with.  These people are rich and varied and truly alive even when in the midst of terrible pain.  One of the characters you are unlikely to adore is Kate.  She is one of the most evil characters I have ever met in the pages of a novel.  She makes Sauron, the White Witch, Voldemort and some of the other villains of our day look mild.  The reason for this is not due to some side plot wherein Kate can blast people with her laser beam eyes.  Instead what is so chilling about her is that she could be real.  Her evil is at once subtle and like an impenetrable wall that crushes everything good and beautiful in its path.  If you have ever read another gem entitled People of the Lie by M. Scott Peck, which is Dr. Peck’s discussion of a psychology of human evil, then Kate will already be a familiar entity.  If you have not be prepared because she is not someone you would want to invite for dinner or fall in love with for that matter.

As I already stated the book is far from depressing, so it does not just have a great villain.  Another aspect of the story that I cherish every time I re-read it (about once every couple years) is the way Steinbeck told the story.  East of Eden, he proposes, is a telling of his family history interwoven with another famous family, that of Adam and Eve.  This wonderful tapestry draws you into a story that at its center is an interior struggle between good and evil in the hearts of Eden’s men and women.  His retelling of the Genesis story is refreshing and as well done as Lewis’ retelling of the Cupid and Psyche myth, Till We have Faces.

The last thing I will share is that of the stories setting.  Steinbeck paints a picture of California as it was during his childhood and before.  As with everything else this book has to offer the backdrop of the book is subtle, complex and entwined into the story to deliver a work of fiction that many refer to as Mr, Steinbeck’s opus.  I must say I agree entirely.

My sincere hope is you get yourself a copy, possibly a bottle of red wine, and you curl up in front of your fireplace to fall in love with this novel.  If you do not have any of those things but the book it will still deliver, I promise.  It will leave you longing for more, and you will be compelled to return and rediscover the richness of this story again and again.

Cheers to at least one not depressing Steinbeck novel!

Joy