East of Eden

A great read. Another classic into my head. I will not forget these characters.

The war between good and evil

It starts out a little slow, hard to follow or to imagine where he is going but 2/3 into the book your hooked! Read it all the way through and you will have your eyes opened!

Author got lost in the telling.

Some have a good story and know how to tell it. Some have a good story and turn it into a bad one because they don't know how to tell a story. Some are so good at telling stories that they can turn a bad story into a good one. Some don't know what a good story is, so they tell a bad story thinking it's a good one. Some have a good story and know it's a good story and know how to tell a good story and still blow the project because they identify too closely with one or more characters (incidents) and wind up emphasizing the wrong incident (character).

One hesitates to say that Steinbeck should never have written about women. 'Of Mice and Men' (and a couple of his short stories) stand in the way of that particular assertion. But I will say without hesitation that Steinbeck should not have written about Kate. I don't know who she really was, because I am not a Steinbeck scholar and I'm too curious about other things to bother myself with him. But -- reading 'East of Eden' -- it's obvious that 'Kate' beat him like a gong while he knew her and he never fully recovered from the beating. He was scarred for life before they got through with each other.

The telling of this story was altogether too much for him. He was too close to it. He tried to make it into more than it was. He lost control in the middle of the telling, lapsed into some outrageous (even ridiculous) tirades about her multitudinous sins and depraved character and made an utter ass of himself in the process. It's no wonder she was able to beat him so.

I'll give him two stars on 'East of Eden:' one because it's a stinker and the other because he tried real hard to hammer it into a decent book. Too bad Kate got the better of him once again.

Good Buy

A hardcover copy in very good condition, minus the dj. A bargain that replaces a book I lost years ago.

East of Eden

This is a timeless book. It is such a deep story that after 600 pages I was sad to see it end. I wanted to know what happened after the book ended and I am glad that I took the time to read it. I spent the entire book rooting for the main Character and hoping that the darkness would lift for him. There are not a lot of happy moments in this book nor is it a light ,feel good book. If you are looking for that, then this is not the book for you.