East of Eden

East of Eden has to be one of the finest books every written by an American author. Over the years, I've read it about four times -- this was my first listen. Every time I read it again, I saw new things, new connections, new nuggets of insight I hadn't seen before -- this time, listening to it, that happened again. I lived for many years in Steinbeck country -- Pacific Grove, Monterey County -- so among the things I loved were the achingly beautiful descriptions of the countryside, the people, the farmers. A hundred years have passed, but many things in the Salinas Valley haven't changed -- it's still the "Salad Bowl" of the US, so when Adam Trask tries to ship lettuce to the east coast, that's probably based on a real story. I loved the tales of Salinas' early days, with the whorehouses, the churches, women wearing gloves - or not. (Come to think of it, there probably stilll are whorehouses there too) All in all, it's just a magnificent family saga, in every way. Makes you laugh, makes you cry. Incredible book -- and Richard Poe did a wonderful job narrating -- his "Lee" came fully to life for me, and I thought he made the very different characters of Caleb and Aaron clear, just by their voices and how they spoke. Really excellent book -- thanks Audible!

This is a story of family, nuclear and global. The story centers around twin brothers Aaron and Caleb Trask, yet it becomes perhaps more a story of their parents, Adam and Catherine. Cathy is a dark character, a friend of murder, perversion, blackmail, and prostitution, devoid of humanity and Adam is just the opposite.
And there is Lee, the family servant who becomes both mother and father to the twins as the two parents abandon the boys for their own disparate reasons.
The mood and setting are tangible; the story epic. I'm so happy to be able to listen ( terrific narrator) to one of my favorite authors.

This book has helped me better understand myself and other people from my life. Powerful message and griping story. Nararator Richard Poe does an amazing job.

Loved the book, couldn't wait to get all the outcomes of each very interesting character. Lots of them die, which I am not sure is terribly realistic, though this was an epic of three generations, and yes, folks die. But I am thinking that JS killed some off just to get back to the main story of the Trasks. I have read some analyses of the story, and many critics panned the book for its poor structure and irrelevancies. I think it was a terrific book/story. As the climax began to build, I was expecting a bigger bang at the end. I am sorry that it sort of fizzled. As I look back on it and think over all the characters, I might charge Steinbeck with using the character of Lee as too obvious a device for Steinbeck's own voice.

Much like Tolstoy, JS is quite the philospher/moralizer, and he needed to constantly pound home his personal ideals; he used Lee to do that. The character of Cathy-Kate was obviously made from JS's own vengeance over something, yet he is not a mysoginist. in fact other women characters were very likable, respectable, flawed and generaly human. I tried very hard to impose the template of the Cain & Abel story on the book, but there were so many generations and so many brothers, it's hard to know just what he was trying to do. JS did a great job of using the Biblical story and changing it to a modern day (early 1900s) fiction; the hand of God was everywhere.

It's a good investment of time, and yet I needed the Kindle copy to have and read along. Some passages were very deep, very lyrical, very thought provoking. I needed the text to be able to work through some of it.

Only the ending kept me from making this a 5-star read.

I will take on Grapes and Mice/Men. Since East of Eden was later than both of those, it will be interesting to see if the critics who cited the former as his peak and East of Eden as his less polished work were right. Did Steinbeck peak and wane with E/E? I look forward to both of them.

Absolutely fantastic book! No doubt about it, its in my top 5, maybe even 3 of hundreds......Just get it. You WONT be sorry. If you enjoy family epic dramas with an author who isnt afraid to do to his characters what most others wont, please get this book! I just downloaded another of his books and cannot wait to start tonight. Drama, love, hate, friendship, marraige, humor, brotherhood, family relations, culture, history, and on and on it goes. What more can I say????

I had always considered "Grapes of Wrath" the best book ever written. I figured for someone to write a masterpiece like that, their other books couldn't be any good. This book is so completely different and better in a lot of ways. I was blown away. Also, the narrator is absolutely flawless. I could listen to a 500 hour audiobook narrated by this guy.

As he wrote East of Eden, Steinbeck declared that he would not rush the telling of the story and he didn't. The story unfolds as It follows two generations of two different families in the Salinas Valley from the time of the Civil War through World War I. The Hamilton family is based on Steinbeck's maternal grandparents and their children. The book deals with the human condition and our ability to choose evil over good or good over evil. The characters are fascinating and the choices they make push the story onward.

East of Eden was published sixty years ago, but it never seems dated. Months after having read it the story still resonates and the characters are still strong in my imagination.

Honest, gripping, timshel

How the story evolves from Adam's childhood, through war and eventually through his death. I also really enjoyed Lee's contribution to the family and was always impressed with his wisdom. Cal's character was also really interesting.

Any of the scenes with Sam Hamilton and Lee. I really enjoyed the scene where they discussed the story of Cain and Able. Timshel

No, my commute is approx an hour and this novel took me about 3-4 weeks to get through.

Great novel, enjoyed it more than Grapes of Wrath. A must read!

This gripping story is both a history of an era in the US and an excellent character study of people living during this era. I found it impossible to put down! The good, bad, and blind in people's visions and actions are brilliantly depicted along with the steady and intelligent wisdom of the faithful Chinese savant/servant.

Excellent book. Enjoyed it very much. Narrator did an excellent job as well.