This is my second Steinbeck book, after reading Cannery Row earlier this year. I enjoyed that book, and liked this one much more.
I mostly read this for fun; I didn’t try too hard to dig up the deep meaning although there is clearly a lot that could be analyzed. But I think Steinbeck made the symbols pretty clear in this book, and I definitely appreciated them. As someone whose entire experience with bible reading is reading the Cain and Able story on Wikipedia before starting this book, I appreciated that they broke Cain and Able down and analyzed it in the story—saved me some work. I thought the themes were nice and appreciated the final takeaway, but didn’t find the message particularly groundbreaking.
Steinbeck’s depictions of California nature are beautiful, and the familiarity he shared with the wet-dry patterns of northern California’s seasons made me appreciate the beauty of these seasons a bit more (previously I would say my attitude towards California seasons was more along the lines of contempt).
East of Eden also feels like a window into life at the time. I found this quite nice, of course I don’t know the accuracy but I felt like I got a great feeling and appreciation for what it must have been like to live and hold relationships in this time and place.
Overall, it was fairly gripping—I stayed up late reading it several nights—and it made me think a good bit. Its message is quite nice, but even more I enjoyed the writing and the history. I thought it was a great read.
Please, though, let’s bring back those trains! To Salinas multiple times a day? Sounds like Eden indeed.