East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Pages: 601
Rating: 4 out 5

Synopsis (from Amazon.com):

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. Here Steinbeck created some of his most memorable characters and explored his most enduring themes: the mystery of identity; the inexplicably of love; and the murderous consequences of love's absence.

Review:

I was pleasantly surprise by "East of Eden" having been tortured in high school by another one of John Steinbeck's works "The Grapes of Wrath". In my mind "East of Eden" is a much better book that the "The Grapes of Wrath" reading it did not feel like torture and I did not fall asleep once while reading it.

This is not a plot driven story. There is no huge climax or elaborate conflict that needs to be overcome. It is all about the characters. The characters are all wonderful and mulit-faceted. Steinbeck really thought them all out well and it worked. They kept the story moving forward and kept me interested in it. In "East of Eden" Steinbeck shows the best of people and the worse of people. There are dreamers, romantics,physcos, the hole nine yards. I think it is an excellent example of a character driven novel.

There is a lot of imagery and sometimes in seemed unnecessary and heavy handed. But Steinbeck did want to write a novel about Salinas, so to him it was important. Not so much so for me, because I could envision easily a dusty western back drop.

It was really hard for me to rate this book. It was not a page turner for me. I could (and did) put the book down for several days and pick up were I left off, very easily. While the story was engaging it was also long. So, breaks were necessary. I gave it a 4 because of how well written and planned it was. It probably would not be the first book I would recommend to a friend but if someone asked if I read it and wanted an opinion I would not hesitated to encourage them to read it.