Kristine here.
It's been about a year since I read East of Eden (EoE),
so my thoughts on the book may be a little shoddy.
(my friend introduced the idea of book journaling -
recording favorite quotes + reactions + ideas while reading -
the other day, and I wish I'd started this while reading EoE!)
Here are some of my recollections and impressions:
- Context: I read EoE whille visiting Korea for 2 weeks last summer. I'd just completed an internship in the Philippines that entailed a lot of traveling and 'practical work,' so I was hungry to leisurely contemplate on human nature and with an American author. I finished EoE within 1.5 weeks, amidst frantically meeting up with friends and exploring the motherland.
- Reading: A few chapters into the book, I could not put the book down. Each word - phrase - sentence - paragraph - passage was seeped with insight. Steinbeck's writing style, tone, and themes resonated on spiritual, social, and ideological levels.
- Characters: All of them - Adam, Cathy, Lee, Cal, Aron, Abra, et al - are richly textured. Although they stand for specific qualities/struggles (i.e. Cathy as 'pure evil'), they are still layered and striking, some more than others, as in real life. I found my reactions to Cal to be particularly moving - I did not know whether I pitied him, understood him, or was fed up with him - actually all of the above that resulted in celebrating with him. I love that a character can evoke such a range of emotions.
- Response: EoE left an indelible mark on my views of the human experience, God, and what good writing can do. While writing on oft-written themes of redemption, depravity, love, generational sin, Steinbeck's take seems fresh, yet rooted. Passages on timshel are especially enlightening and richened my understanding of man's relationship with God and decision-making.
- Adaptation: Upon returning to the States, one of the first things I did was to watch the movie version. It was a lost cause from the start - anytime I love a work immensely, I have a negative reaction to other renditions (a habit I am trying to get rid of). All this to say, I fell asleep 30 minutes into the movie. The pace was super slow, the characters were watered down, and regardless of how much I love James Dean, I felt the characters were miscast. Jet lag may have affected my viewing, but I still have no desire to finish the movie.
- Steinbeck: Other Steinbeck works I'd read prior to this was The Red Pony and Of Mice and Men - good novels, but not on the same level as EoE. I'm currently reading Grapes of Wrath, but it's not eliciting the same fervor and passion to read that EoE did. There's something about EoE that holds a special place in my heart in my esteem for literature... I actually felt changed after reading EoE, and I think that is really remarkable when books can do that. I think Steinbeck would agree with my esteem for EoE over his other works, as he said about East of Eden:
It has everything in it I have been able to learn about my craft or profession in all these years... I think everything else I have written has been, in a sense, practice for this.Well said, Mr. Steinbeck. Thank you for writing such a thoughtful masterpiece.