East of Eden

East of Eden by John Steinbeck


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
So, I'm going to look "bad" by saying that I really liked this book, but I felt that the author was too ponderous at times and took a lot of words to state (and re-state) his point. Next time I read a Steinbeck, I'm going to listen to it on CD so that I'm not so tempted to skim-read the redundant or pontificating parts.

That said, I enjoyed Steinbeck's theme of the good and bad in all of us and how it is up to us choose what part we act on. He seemed to favor characters with a bit of bad in them that they could learn to master. His "good" characters like Adam and Aron came across like milk toast. (As someone who would be more classified on that end, I didn't find that reassuring.) I suppose that was the author saying that good and bad need a healthy balance like Sam Hamilton or Lee. On the flip side, without balancing a bad person could be someone like Cathy who was a shrieking disaster (but fun to read about.)

By the way, weren't the stories between Adam/Charles and Aron/Caleb pretty redundant? Just wondering.

Steinbeck is a great author and a must read.

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