East Of Eden Work Of Genius

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	• East of Eden Israel Joshua Singer Vanguard Pr, 1976 average customer review:based on 268 reviews
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highly recommended

Very Interesting

once i got the shippment from amazon, i open the book to check it, and i start read the first page, by the time i recognise that i should contenue what i was busy with, i found that i reach to page 50, and i am still reading, very reach with variables and .... what can i say here, "Drawing With Words"

East Of Eden Work Of Genius

John Steinbeck is recognized as a literary genius and he won the nobel prize for literature and rightly so. This book is the literary equivalent of a nuclear detonation. It is brilliant beyond belief. It makes the works of many other authors pale in comparison. If your a reader of the
great classics of 20th Century Literature then you must read this book.

John

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A book that stays with you

I wasn't sure what to expect when I read East of Eden. I certainly wasn't expecting to be swept away in Steinbeck's eloquent prose or on the edge of my seat, barely able to wait for the ending and yet not really wanting the book to end. At times this was difficult to read--Steinbeck is a master of showing the depravity of humanity--and at other moments you're blown away by his understanding of the good in all of us as well. He shows us that life is about the choices that we make, and not about the blood in us. Genetics have nothing to do with what our life can become, and Steinbeck works this into the novel beautifully. This book grips you and doesn't let you go even after you finish it. It tears away at your pre-conceived notions about life--and takes your breath away with the truth of humanity and what we are capable of--both for good and for evil.

Hauntingly, painfully beautiful in places, and just plain painful to read in spots, East of Eden is truly a masterpiece. It's not always easy to read, but even when you're disturbed beyond reason at what is happening, you can't stop reading. It's hypnotizing. Definitely one of my favorite books of all time.

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Knocked For A Loop

When I bought this book, Steinbeck could not have been further off my radar. I suppose I expected a solid, picaresque novel that was good in a musty "literature" sort of way. I could not have been more wrong. I don't think that I have ever been punched in the gut more times by a work of art. The mixture of mythology and gritty realism never felt forced, in fact it made the story even more fluid and vicious. It is a wonderfully sad, dark, violent and oddly hopeful chronical of human frailty, loyalty and weakness. It is one of the supreme achievements of the art (all forms, not just literary) of the 20th century. After I read this, I bought everything by Steinbeck that I could get my hands on and buried myself in eleven more of his works before coming up for air.

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An Epic Family Classic

Steinbeck's epic novel, `East of Eden' is a depiction of his family's history in the Salinas Valley in California. Often the backdrop of many of his novels, `...Eden' is certainly more autobiographical than most of his works. The story branches off just like a family tree, and organically the characters blossom into full life.

Beginning with Cyrus Trask during the late 1800's, we develop a Jacob and Esau rivalry between his boys Charles and Adam. Cyrus is a martinet, so overbearingly so, that Adam joins the army just to get out of his sight. Later, when he returns, the boys have become men and continue their conflict, except Cyrus has died and left a small fortune to both of them. Much of the novel focuses on the transition each one takes to acquire land and place their wealth in the right direction.

From there Adam is the central focus of the story. He falls in love with a woman named Catherine (also Cathy or Kate) who is a local prostitute. Through him she bears a pair of twins, Caleb and Aron, who are destined to be as different as Adam and Charles were. Adam truly adores Kate despite her livelihood, but the relationship turns tempestuous. While he finds it easy to forgive her transgressions, he can't seem to tame her wily nature.

The remainder of the novel follows the aspirations of Adam's family, including Kate, whose conniving ways provide a colorful backdrop as Adam attempts to keep their mother's identity a secret until they are old enough to process her place in their lives. Many subplots intertwine with Aron being an aspiring college bound preacher who falls in love with Abra, a preacher's daughter, while Caleb tries to win his father`s affection as an entrepreneur at home. As a heartwarming touch, Lee, an Asian-American housekeeper, adds much to the drama as a second surrogate parent of sorts.

Reading Steinbeck's classic is delightful. I found the 601 pages to be a trademark page-turner from one of my favorite American authors. While I'll always revere 'The Grapes of Wrath (Penguin Classics)' as his most powerful classic, I now understand why `East of Eden' is considered among the upper echelon of his great works. 'The Winter of Our Discontent' and `Of Mice and Men' have an emotional immediacy that are his trademark, but his expertise is no less apparent in this novel with his ability to weave such an intricate and absorbing tale from beginning to end.

As poetic prose, Steinbeck's timeless work has been reaffirmed by becoming one of Oprah's prized "Book of the Month" selections.

(On a personal note, I'd like to add that 'The Red Pony' was the only Steinbeck novel I ever read in school. Apparently my educators saw the wisdom of leaving his legacy to my free time when I could savor his novels because I wanted to--and not because I had to. I read `Of Mice and Men' during summer break during college, but I read the bulk of his famous works during the early nineties. Enjoy.)

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

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 inexplicability of love; and the murderous consequences of love's absence.

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