East of Eden

by John Steinbeck

Review of East of Eden by John Steinbeck

         I loved this book. Definitely worth reading!!! Very detailed relationships, your really feel like you get to know the people and the places. I love authors who can actually PUT me IN the book. GREAT read!  

East of Eden by John Steinbeck was reviewed by Melissa Davies

         As you might guess by the title, East of Eden is an allegory based on the Garden of Eden as recorded in Genesis. And so it is about what every powerful novel is about: good and evil and how they blend in human nature. The book is constantly setting up opposites like light vs. dark, good vs. evil, rich vs. poor, strong vs. weak, starting and ending with the complicated realtionships between two sets of two brothers, one who is favored above the other (alluding to Cain and Abel). It includes a wonderfully articulate portrayal of a sociopath, a wise fool, a good but troubled father, a broken man, an angel, and finally a young man with the potential to decide where to take his life. It is this ability to choose, the only native ability given to all fpeople rom the very beginning, that is celebrated in this beautiful novel. Steinbeck is the only American author I have read that delves as close to the human soul as Russian authors like Dostoevsky and, to a lesser degree, Tolstoy.  

East of Eden by John Steinbeck was reviewed by Melissa Davies

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