Any one who comes to the novel from the famous film adaptation starring James Dean will be surprized, for the roots of the novel run much deeper than the film, which is based only on perhaps a third of the novel. This is not so much the story of brothers Aaron and Caleb Trask as it is the story of their parents, Adam Trask and Catherine Ames. And in "Cathy" Ames, Steinbeck creates one of the darkest characters in all of 20th Century American Literature, a creature devoid of virtually anything recognizable as human emotion. Fleeing from a past that includes murder, perversion, blackmail, and prostitution, Cathy assumes an angelic demeanor and lures the emotionally needy Adam Trask into love and marriage. And when she no longer requires his protection... she destroys him.

It is the stuff of classic melodrama, but in Steinbeck's hands it becomes more than melodrama; it becomes a novel that alternately reads at leisurely pace and then suddenly reads with the speed of a whirlwind, a tale that forces us to consider the nature of good and evil and the legacies we may leave for later generations. For Adam and Cathy have two sons, and in the wake of their tragedy they will be left to fight out issues of moral choices, right and wrong, and love and hate in the sun-drenched Salinas Valley of California, the "golden west" of the "new world" as it rushes headlong into the modern age. It is a novel epic in history, geography, and morality.

Some will find the novel's constant reference to the story of Cain and Able more than a little obvious; others will find it too meandering, filled with too many side-issues and minor subplots. Still others may be put off by the very slow way in which the novel gathers itself during its first hundred or so pages. But once the pieces are in place, Steinbeck suddenly pulls the threads together to create one of the most remarkable tapestries in American letters--a tapestry that has no clearcut boundaries and that, for all its simplistic tone, offers little in the way of simplistic answers to the issues it raises. Flawed, yes, but a great novel by a master of the form, so great that its flaws become intrinsic to its virtues. Strongly recommended.


If Salinas is East of Eden; is Monterey Eden?   July 11, 2004
 30 out of 31 found this review helpful

This one's dark folks. I have to say I didn't expect Steinbeck's "East of Eden," to catch me the way it did. The themes Steinbeck struggles with are epic--the relationship of men within the family, good and evil, human nature. Critics derided the novel when it came out and it may have left Steinbeck struggling to write in his waning years, but the Nobel prize he received shortly after "East of Eden's" release was truly deserving. Truly deserving because of the work of "East of Eden," and not despite it.

I read the wonderful and incomparable biography "John Steinbeck, Writer," by Jackson J. Benson before tackling "East of Eden," and it tainted my expectations. Some criticisms of the novel I found initially true. Steinbeck seems to be more straightforward and writes more of what's on his mind instead of letting the story and characters breathe these things naturally. At some point in the novel that approach strikes me as breaking the novelist dictum of, "show don't tell." Steinbeck does a lot of telling. Surprisingly enough, in the end, this slight misstep strengthens the overall story. It puts you in the mind of Steinbeck and allows the reader to gain a deeper understanding of the dark dark nature of some of "East of Eden's" characters.

Steinbeck always tended to have a dark side, but "East of Eden," is a stark look at the underbelly of humanity. However, while we are looking at the underbelly of a seemingly upright community of Salinas, we also see that humanity is redeeming. Some of the very incomprehensible evil within a person is matching by a boundless capacity for good. How can that be? This is why Steinbeck's "East of Eden," surpasses the better known and wider read, "The Grapes of Wrath." Steinbeck seems to accept human nature and not sugar coat. He tells it like it is.

Steinbeck struggled and struggled to write and finish "East of Eden." The scope of what he was trying to attempt was extremely daunting...almost debilitatingly so. Steinbeck tried to retell the story of "Genesis," set in his hometown of Salinas...drawing from his own life, the town's life, the times between the Civil War and World War I. He pulls it off with quite some characters...Adam Trask and his twin sons Caleb and Aron, their mother--the completely evil Cathy/Cat/Kate, Adam's evenly evil and good brother Charles, the sage Chinese Lee, and the beautiful of mind, body, and spirit love interest of no less than Caleb, Aron, and Lee...Abra. I think to call, "East of Eden," lacking in story and characters is severely missing the mark. Another criticism of the book is that the Chinese character of Lee is a racial stereotype. I didn't find this to be the case. Lee seems to be a multi-dimensional character that if anything deepens the understanding that his ethnicity takes a back seat to his humanity. Another criticism is that the character Kate is too evil...to the point of dehumanization. Steinbeck's portrayal of Kate may have roots in his failed relationships but it does not come across as misogynistic. He balances this out with other female characters, such as Abra, that have capacity for the gamut of human characteristics. Kate's portrayal of evil makes the character more real...more frightening...and indicative of human evil that, regardless of philosophy, tends to surface from time to time.

In my mind, Steinbeck's "Cannery Row," still stands out as his best (at least among his works I've read so far), but "East of Eden," solidifies his place among a very short list of greatest American authors. It is a work deserving of a Nobel Prize for literature...damn the critics to say what they will.
--MMW


a worthy read   May 22, 2003
 21 out of 29 found this review helpful

the first book i read by steinbeck was "the grapes of wrath" which was quite a feat at the time. while i enjoyed the book i wasn't sure i wan't to read more steinbeck. then i picked up "of mice and men" and knew i had to read more books by this author who had left me in tears at the end of a mere 150 pages. (by the way, i highly recommend both of those books)
when i picked up east of eden i had no idea what i would be beginning, besides a whopping 650 pages. the book started off a little slowly, but was intriguing becuase i live in california and have spent some time in salinas valley. then the story started to pick up, and i was into it. steinbeck put together a web of stories that introduced characters and wove together to from a massive literary net. i found each character to be as alive as my best friend; they were all developed to the fullest. every character spends their time as the main character of the book, and while it sounds confusing it is amazingly effective and paints a rich picture of each person. this makes the whole experience of the general story unique and more detailed than most authors could hope to achieve.
my favorite character in this book is lee, the chinese man who started off as a minor and creepy character but devolped into a person i could swear could visit me in the flesh and start an intriguing conversation. i recommend the book just for the experience of getting to know lee.
about halfway through there is a hefty discussion about the bible, and for an atheist like myself it was a bit of a turn off at first. but then i saw how steinbeck was using the moral of the story, and not examining the actual fictional or factual (whatever your belief) events of the story of eden.
i cannot comprehend how steinbeck turned out this monster of a novel. it is moving, exciting, somethines disturbing, and enriching, and is a feat of the human mind and spirit. i think steinbeck often is underappreciated as agreat american novelist, but after reading "east of eden" you will never be able to stop raving.


East of Eden   June 3, 2002
 18 out of 20 found this review helpful

As the title implies, East of Eden by John Steinbeck contains a plethora of biblical allusions. These allusions primarily stem from the first book of the bible Genesis as references range from Adam and Eve to Cain and Abel, even sometimes quoting the passages directly. The many parallels add interest to the novel as the reader is able to see the interesting interpretations presented by Steinbeck.

While this book does maintain a great tie to the Bible, knowledge of the Bible is not required for one to enjoy this novel. Steinbeck's masterful intertwining plots along with his thought provoking style are engaging, creating a desire to continue reading. His writing is not immensely difficult to read, yet was dense in incite. East of Eden causes one to question aspects of one's own character, leaving an everlasting impression on one's way of life. East of Eden was truly a pleasure to read. ...


Evil is temporal; Virtue is immortal.   June 19, 2001
 14 out of 14 found this review helpful

Steinbeck proposed four potential titles before he settled upon East of Eden. I looked up the phrase in the Bible and found that it appears twice in Genesis (3:24 and 4:16); both accounts denoting an instance where man experienced a separation from the blessings that God had intended for him. I think this is very significant as we consider what Steinbeck was writing about in his allegorical novel. He says in Chapter 34, "We have only one story. All novels, all poetry are built on the never-ending contest in ourselves of good and evil. And it occurs to me that evil must constantly respawn, while good, while virtue, is immortal."

The contest is in ourselves! Surely this is what East Of Eden teaches us while we enjoy the sweeping story, so well told. It is deadly realistic, as beautiful and revolting as is the actual human potentiality for good and evil. With brilliance, Steinbeck contrasts a sea of temperaments in these characters, and shows us all the while that life is much more than the choices we make, but it is never any less. Adam Trask is the representative of good intentions, of a conscience which responds to the good as the eye responds to the light. Samuel Hamilton also represents a similar (perhaps even more well-honed) goodness. But Adam is the one who has been deceived, by a force every bit as essentially evil as Eden's serpent in the tree. This is Cathy, a character so reprobate that evil isn't something she does, it's something she IS that INFECTS everything she does! After abandoning her twin boys Caleb and Aron to the care of their father (Adam) she returns to her life of debauchery. The boys grow up unaware that their mother is a serial murderer and owner of a whorehouse. Because Adam never fully recovers from his shame, his loss and disillusionment, he is not able to convey the appropriate unconditional (equally distributed) love to his sons. This leads to jealousy and rivalry in his boys, and is a generational replica of his own childhood.

How can one summarize such a vast epic story? But for me, one of the most powerful scenes and a turning point (perhaps the denouement?) is when Caleb finally sees his mother in all her non-glory, and says to her... "I don't have to be you." The reader can notice that really no-one is the same from this point on, there is a real unravelling here. For Cathy (now "Kate"), this marks the beginning of her own self-destruction, the awakening of her own conscience. She's been defied!

One of the tendencies of the modern age is to deny radically the absolute nature of conscience, reducing it to a matter of temperament, or to a product of history or social environment. But East of Eden plows right through a tangle of sociological, psychological, and historical half-truths to the elementray fact: CONSCIENCE EXISTS.