East of Eden

This is my Book Of the Month- May- June 2017, with GR group- The Reading For Pleasure Book Club, Category: Classic Group Read.

When I read the blurb and started this book, I thought I am going to be reading about two feuding families but then I was absolutely wrong. This book is not anything as simple as a feuding families dynamics can be and I do not say this lightly. It in fact is a complex book with wide range of human emotions and behavior.

n  "To a man born without conscience, a soul-stricken man must seem ridiculous. To a criminal, honesty is foolish. You must not forget that a monster is only a variation, and that to a monster the norm is monstrous."n

Even though I may not have met people with the nature and behavior as of the characters in this book in my life, after reading this book I felt I know all these people personally. I was able to understand their reactions and their decisions in many instances as if they were my own.

It also made me sit back and think about each person's choices and their journey in life. The ultimate end is the same but it's all about the life you live and the choices you make to get there.

n  "When a man comes to die, no matter what his talents and influence and genius, if he dies unloved his life must be a failure to him and his dying a cold horror. It seems to me that if you or I must choose between two courses of thought or action, we should remember our dying and try so to live that our death brings no pleasure to the world."n

And then how with the same beginnings and the same upbringing siblings have different lives. One may become successful and the other may lead a normal life whereas the third can be a failure. Life sure can be unpredictable at times.

This book also has one of the most evil characters I have ever met and I was never sure what she will do next. But then there are some amazing characters in this book that balance everything out. Just like in real life we meet all kinds of people, few good and some not as much.

There are no major twists and turns or ups and downs but it is more like real life, there can be some surprises in life but the start and end for everyone remains the same.

I know I am not able to do this book justice in this review. But to all folks out there who want to read a story with varied set of characters that makes us realize how life can be and how it can change at any given time, this is a perfect read.

ریویوو نوشتن برای «شرق بهشت» که یکی از آسان خوان ترین کتاب های زندگی ام بوده، بنظرم سخت ترین کار جهان است. هرچه فکر میکنم نمیدانم از کجا باید شروع کنم، از کجا حرف بزنم و حتی دقیقا نمیدانم احساسم را با چه کلماتی بیان کنم، ظاهراً برای حسم به بعضی کتاب ها هم مثل بعضی آدم ها هنوز کلمه ای اختراع نشده است.
با این حال میتوانم با اطمینان بگویم کتاب های «جان استین بک» از تأثیر گذار ترین کتاب های زندگی من بوده اند و خواندشان چیزی را در من تغییر داده اند که نمی دانم چیست. این احساس را اولین بار وقتی خیلی سال پیش «خوشه های خشم» را خواندم تجربه کردم و بعد با «ماه پنهان است». و حالا امروز با پایان بردن «شرق بهشت» همه آن احساسات شگفتی، بیچارگی، حسرت، اندوه، دلتنگی، سرخوشی و چیز های غریب دیگر تکرار شدند.
از زمانی که تازه الفبا را آموختم و روزنامه های بابا را خواندم تا پانزده سالگی که تحت تاثیر هورمون های بی قرارم هر کتابی که ذره ای اروتیسم داشت بلعیدم، تا وقتی به شدت مذهبی شدم و منتهی الامال کتاب محبوبم شد و بعد تا زمانی که دنیای ادبیات را با کتابخانه خاک گرفته همسایه کشف کردم، هرچیزی که خوانده ام مرا تغییر داده است؛ تغییری که خودم متوجهش نشده ام یا حسش نکرده ام اما بی شک اتفاق افتاده. بعضی کتاب ها اما جوری تاثیر گذارند که آدم تغییر را در وجود خودش حس می کند. انگار کلمات این کتاب ها روی هم مثل بلوک های آجری می نشینند و در قلبت مغزت جانت خانه می سازند، از آن خانه های جادار و دلباز که قرار است تا آخر عمرت آباد بمانند و آبادت کنند. داستان «شرق بهشت» برای من همین کتاب است، کتابی که بخشی از جانم شده و تاثیرش قلبم را می فشارد.
.........................
ممنونم از دوستان خوب و خیلی خیلی خیلی عزیزم محمد و سعید که فایل صوتی این کتاب رو بمن هدیه دادند ‌(⁠*⁠˘⁠︶⁠˘⁠*⁠)⁠.⁠｡⁠*⁠♡⁩
و حقیقتا به جرات میتونم قشنگ ترین حس دو ماه اخیر رو تونستم باهاش تجربه کنم. این کتاب نوری بود در تاریکی جهانم ، حتم دارم برای شما هم که الان تصمیم میگیرید بخونیدش همین طور خواهد بود.
....
کاش یه درصدی از فروش کتاب یا فایل صوتیش رو حداقل بهم بدن با این ریویوو ‌ಠ⁠﹏⁠ಠ⁩

........
خطر اسپویل

No, I can’t write a review about East of Eden. It ended up being too epic, to compelling, too amazing for me to be able to find any words to describe it. I think I’ll just leave here what I found on, for example, page 4: “You can boast about anything if it’s all you have. Maybe the less you have, the more you are required to boast”; Or this one on page 33: “The direction of a big act will warp history, but probably all acts do the same in their degree, down to a stone stepped over in the path or a breath caught at sight of a pretty girl or a fingernail nicked in the garden soil.”; Or this one (I really liked this one) found on page 90: “No one who is young is ever going to be old.”. And how about this one one on page 260: “When a man says he does not want to speak of something he usually means he can think of nothing else”. Just one more, this one on page 530: “But isn’t silly, this preoccupation with small time units. One thing late or early can disrupt everything around it, and the disturbance runs outward in bands like the waves from a dropped stone in a quiet pool.”

RESPECT

welcome to...(MAY)ST OF EDEN!!

this might sound like my month/title puns are getting worse and worse, but wait until we get to the reveal on this one.

by being excited i have definitely cursed myself into forgetting to do it.

every month, elle and i read an intimidating classic in a couple chapters a day all month long. MIDDLEMARCH MARCH was a raging success, but TENANT OF WILDAPRIL HALL sucked hard.

to heal ourselves, we're revisiting a book we know we love. we're also doing it with our book club!

constantly living the dream.

follow along on instagram or discord!!

timshel, b*tch.



DAY 1: CHAPTERS 1 & 2
hope someday to love anything as much as john steinbeck loved the land of california. anyone who gets a bit snoozy over in-depth nature descriptions, today's exposition central might be a little tough to get through, but this gets to be sooo worthwhile and scandalous!!


DAY 2: CHAPTERS 3 & 4
"She smiled at Adam, and he closed his eyes."
there is truly more characterization and relationship development in that single sentence than there is in some entire books i've read this year.

in love with the exploration of adam's absence of a mother and charles' absence of a father and who it makes each of them. steinbeck is unbelievable when it comes to characterization and to relationship dynamics, and it's never clearer than in this, his family saga masterpiece. some really compelling chats going on in the east of eden channel - i'm having so much fun with this book and you guys already!


DAY 3: CHAPTERS 5 & 6
in this year of reading i've noticed myself really enjoying unlikable characters - which is good because they are so absurdly trendy right now. loving reading this book because it's slightly different - even with characters who Should be unlikable, like charles, i care about him a lot.

i think steinbeck's writing is just that good - he can indicate powerful emotions in just a few words or one action (i'm thinking in particular of charles and the clean versus unclean house). heart destroying!


DAY 4: CHAPTERS 7 & 8
cathy...in many ways the original girlboss. steinbeck's ability to explore the full spectrum of good and evil while managing to create not only Believable and Convincing characters but also characters you care about is truly one of a kind. many classic authors are unable to write a real-seeming depiction of a person with bad intentions (think about the brontës, for example), and johnny boy is managing not only to do this but to get me invested in what happens to each and every one of them. a master.

i apologize if this is less analytical than other entries (and elle's lovely one for today). i had to read this drunk because i couldn't watch my precious basketball team lose sober.

it's what steinbeck would have wanted.


DAY 5: CHAPTERS 9 & 10
my sister and i have a saying: "men are so tender with each other." it started when one day in a bagel shop a guy behind us in line looked at another guy who came in and went, "bro, i was JUST thinking about you!" and now we notice sweet stuff like that all the time. say what you will, but men love each other a lot.

relatedly, i loved this chapter about charles and adam and their complicated love for each other. and i loved more of cathy's villain origin story, and the line "No one who is young is ever going to be old."

i hope this month of reading never ends!


DAY 6: CHAPTERS 11 & 12
strawberries really DON'T taste as good as they used to.

(best way to describe how the passing of time feels that i've read.)


DAY 7: CHAPTERS 13 & 14
it is day 10.
i am in a life slump i recently misdiagnosed as a reading slump, but now i am attempting to get myself back on this glorious biblical retelling bandwagon come, well, hell or high water.

i don't know how many ways there are to say that this is one of the great character books of all time, but i hope chapter 14 and its loving and wonderful depiction of olive is taught in creative writing classes. in the general east of eden channel we're having a fun talk about steinbeck's female characters - i find them compelling beyond reasonable expectation for a dude from old times!!


DAY 8: CHAPTERS 15 & 16
i know steinbeck isn't perfect, but i do find his attempts at subverting traditional bigoted stereotypes very compelling - blaming adam for his inability to see through cathy; creating full and complex female characters; and in these chapters, the character of lee.

these are flawed depictions, even still, and maybe i'm giving too much credit, but i appreciate the effort!!


DAY 9: CHAPTERS 17 & 18
so much to find interesting about cathy as a character, including how her role facilitates reflection on who is responsible for evil. not only is cathy not the only person expected to take accountability for her amorality - she almost isn't!

for whatever reason, we can blame adam for his blind devotion, liza for her lack of superstition, sam and lee for their self-doubt, the sheriff and deputy sheriff for their inability to recognize what's before them, all more easily than we can blame cathy for her own nature.


DAY 10: CHAPTERS 19 & 20
it's hard trying to do actual analysis for this book every day.

skipping that today because i have the kind of sinus headache that makes you empathize with the cartoon character-shaped balloons at grocery store checkout lines. just going to say cathy is crazy i could read about this wild gal forever.


DAY 11: CHAPTERS 21 & 22
it's day 15. this may seem like a disaster, but really i'm just so enjoying savoring this book!!! i can't make myself binge it.

the other book we're reading for our book club this month is conversations with friends, and while the two have almost nothing in common beyond the fact that they are part of the rare and mighty few i've five starred, there is something similar to me...perhaps just in the fact that both are as if the smartest and most interesting people you know sat and talked about the most important and fascinating topics in the world, and the best writer you could think of summarized it all.

not a bad setup. both i feel endlessly grateful for. both i could read forever.


DAY 12: CHAPTERS 23 & 24
there's something almost insulting about the death of a character. my favorite characters are like family members i can return to every time i open their book - a story that kills them ruins the perfection of that illusion. if the hamiltons of reality can't live forever, the hamiltons of fiction at least should.

anyway, here finally we have the pun reveal: TIMSHEL, BABY! thou mayest. in other words - MAYST OF EDEN.

tearing up and it's not even at my own joke.


DAY 13: CHAPTERS 25 & 26
don't mind me, just in a state of mourning.

fortunately i have approximately 89 other excellent characters to get me through.


DAY 14: CHAPTERS 27 & 28
doubling up today because of my most insane hobby: putting 6 or 7 books on my currently reading and reading them chapter by chapter, one at a time.

it is bliss for the focus-challenged nerd in your life.

it's odd - as i read this book i have this sense of foreboding, not only for having read it before, and not only because of that déjà vu knowledge that a retelling provides, but because there's this shakiness to everything in this story. fundamentally east of eden is about the tenacity of people and the precariousness of life.

anyway. even as i know what's to come, on so many levels and for so many reasons, i'm illogically crossing my fingers for the best for all of them.


DAY 15: CHAPTERS 29 & 30
the most wonderful part of this book (if you'll forgive that i've probably called a hundred parts the most wonderful) is the complexity and realism of the characters. none truly good, none truly evil.

sometimes you want to shake cal, and a lesser writer would let you hate him, but goddamn instead in chapter 30 he breaks your f*ckin' heart.


DAY 16: CHAPTERS 31 & 32
i love dessie and tom so much it hurts my heart.

what mental illness is it when you would literally trade your own happiness if made up fictional characters from 70 years ago could have a happy life?


DAY 17: CHAPTERS 33 & 34
possibly the only character i dislike in this entire book, which includes one of the most enduring depictions of pure evil in fiction, is will.

i can't bear a capitalist, and i adore tom. f*ck you, will. let the man have his acorns.

anyway, i'm crying again.


DAY 18: CHAPTERS 35 & 36
i think it'd be tempting to say that steinbeck is depicting a person of color who craves servitude, and there is evidence of that. but more so i don't think steinbeck sees lee as a servant, and in turn, adam and cal and aron don't either. they're a family. lee doesn't return saying starting a bookstore was too hard - he comes back because he was lonely.

obviously there's nuance to this and its own kind of problematic-ness, but it's nice to see the nice things.


DAY 19: CHAPTERS 37 & 38
i don't find adam to be a very compelling character, so it's odd to read two greats (cal and lee) discussing how he's the best man they know.

i'm like, out of this all star lineup?!


DAY 20: CHAPTERS 39 & 40
oh, i love sweet cal. to have a sibling you love can be such a complicated thing.


DAY 21: CHAPTERS 41 & 42
god damn it. steinbeck won't let me dislike even one character. coming out swinging making me like will goddamn hamilton too.

there are dozens of characters in this book, and every single one of them is a person. i mean, every single one has a history that made them who they are, has weaknesses that came from somewhere and dreams and disappointments. how do you even do that?

this book is miraculous.


DAY 22: CHAPTERS 43 & 44
i haven't met a man in my entire dating life (and i'll be honest with you, it's extensive), with a full awareness of the way in which men can create their idea of a woman and then cast it on to a real human, and call that falling in love.

but i just read john steinbeck do it.


DAY 23: CHAPTERS 45 & 46
i can suspend my disbelief as well as the next fiction reader, but kate getting taken down by some random dumb petty criminal man is not something i can get behind in terms of realism.


DAY 24: CHAPTERS 47 & 48
these short chapters are killing me. i'm used to 35 pages of this a day and now i'm having to catch up in order to get there. dire straits.

this also made me look up the etymology of the word "cupcake" - dates back to 1828! who knew. i just thought it was goofy to picture steinbeck at a pastel micro-bakery.


DAY 25: CHAPTERS 49 & 50
poor aron. poor cal. poor lee.

at least kate's still got it. in her way.

things'll get worse before they get better! (and by get better i mean they won't, really, and the book will end, and i miss the hamiltons.)


DAY 26: CHAPTERS 51 & 52
i do love dear abra. it's nice to know steinbeck was so capable of writing full female characters - he sure didn't in of mice and men. but then he hardly had the time, really.


DAY 27: CHAPTERS 53 & 54
the penultimate day. i'm going to miss this book so much it's embarrassing.

another theme i love in this book is an extension of the broader topic of good and evil - the idea of personal responsibility, and whether it's your right as a human being to be a truly good or truly evil person. adam and aron, who are sinless to the point of self-motivation, are marked by the sins of adam's father and of cathy. cal, despite his best efforts to be bad, is continually drawn toward good.

and then there's the cal and aron of it all.

what was really so bad about cal's and charles' gifts to their fathers? and was what cal did to aron really worse than his response to it? did cal kill aron, or did aron kill himself? or was it less personal than even that?

a real thinker. i'm not reading the last chapter today. i can't do it.


DAY 28: CHAPTER 55
all i can do to finish this, tear up a bit, reread the timshel passages, and stare at the wall for a while.


OVERALL
this is one of the greatest:
- retellings
- family dramas
- generational novels
- testaments to the power of the character
- books to build your life around
of all time.
i loved revisiting it very much.
rating: 5

Then the Lord said to Cain, 'Where is your brother Abel?' 'I don't know,' he replied. 'Am I my brother's keeper?'

In the famed Biblical tale of Cain and Abel, the two brothers both make an offering to God. God likes Abel's offer, but not Cain's; out of jealousy, Cain slays Abel, and then is marked by God.

East of Eden is John Steinbeck's rather lengthy ode to that story. It follows two families, the Trasks and the Hamiltons. It's the Trask family, though, that represents Cain and Abel, with two sets of battling brothers.

Steinbeck gets a lot of crap from literary critics. He is their Exhibit A as to why the Nobel Prize in literature is a crock. Steinbeck is a realistic writer; I guess, in order to be accepted by your peers, your writing has to be dense and semi-incomprehensible, ala Joyce. (Don't get me started on this. People who say they love Joyce are just part of a racket - a racket full of people who pretend to understand what no one else can understand, and to enjoy what no one else can enjoy, simply so they can understand and enjoy things that others cannot. It reminds me of that scene in Annie Hall when Alvy is standing behind that guy raving about Marshall McLuhan films).

I like Steinbeck's writing. It's simple and direct, and often elegant in its simplicity. There's no one better at describing a piece of geography, of making you feel what it's like to be in a certain place. Despite his simplicity, he creates complex characters. I never quite knew who to root for, who to like; my allegiances were always shifting.

Thematically, the book is about love, but then again, every story is a love story:

Maybe - maybe love makes you suspicious and doubting. Is it true that when you love a woman you are never sure - never sure of her because you aren't sure of yourself?

Love, in Steinbeck's world, is very complicated, and filled with suspicion and doubt. It also shares the same razor's edge with hate, the two grappling for supremacy.

The sprawling, digression-filled story centers on Adam Trask and Samuel Hamilton. Adam moves to Salinas from the East, leaving his brother Charles - complete with a scar on his forehead - behind. Adam is married to Cathy Ames, who is not exactly a shining beacon of womanhood. Adam buys a ranch near Sam Hamilton and his wife, Liza. Sam is a clever man who is good at everything but making money. He befriends Adam, and Adam's Chinese manservant, Lee. Cathy bears two children. They are twins (natch): Aron and Caleb. (Get it? C and A...Cain and Abel, Charles and Adam, Caleb and Aron...it's called a parable because it's simple). Cathy ends up leaving to open a brothel, and Adam is brokenhearted. He really loved Cathy:

A kind of light spread out from her. And everything changed color. And the world opened out. And a day was good to awaken to. And there were no limits to anything. And the people of the world were good and handsome. And I was not afraid anymore.

The book meanders on. You meet characters; the characters disappear or die. There are a lot of subplots spinning around the main thrust of the narrative, which is the eventual - and tragic - replaying of the saga of Cain and Abel, starring Caleb and Aron.

This book is brutal, and surprisingly so. There are some savage beatings, a shooting or two, poisonings, suicides, and other deaths untimely.

Then there's the sex. I guess I should have expected this from the man who gave us Rose of Sharon's breast feeding scene, but still. The use of one word in particular kind of shocked me, not because I'm a prude, but because this book was published in 1952. (The word, for you Seinfeld fans, rhymes with "Dolores").

The characters in this book are all well described and developed, even the secondary characters (which adds greatly to the book's length). The character of Cathy is the exception. She is mostly one-dimensional, a figure of pure evil. By the end of the book, Steinbeck describes her as physically twisted by the ravages of arthritis, blatantly telegraphing what we've known about her soul all along. I liked her. Not her as a person, but the character. Her over-the-top wickedness reminds me of Madame Defarge from A Tale of Two Cities. A short list of Cathy's sins include patricide, matricide, arson, attempted murder, adultery, abandonment, blackmail, fraud on the court, abuse of service, etc. etc. One of the first things we learn about Cathy is that when she was a little girl, she forced two young boys to tie her up and lift her dress, so they could go to town. Thanks Steinbeck!

My gripes are minor. I like Steinbeck's writing, his descriptions, his characters, but this book could've been much shorter. There are entire sections and characters who are introduced in great detail, then dropped entirely. (I'm thinking, especially, of Olive in the airplane).

The second minor gripe has to do with our unreliable narrator. The book is told in the first person, by one of Sam Hamilton's grandsons. He says, right off, that this story he is telling is collected from diaries, memoirs, hearsay, and whatnot. At times, then, he doesn't give you (meaning the reader) certain bits of information, because he claims he doesn't have it. At other times, though, the narrator relates information he couldn't possibly know, unless he is God or conducted a seance. For instance, he gives the reader the last thoughts of a woman who is drowning herself. How did he know that? Then towards the end of the book, the narrator describes a scene without telling us who the person in the scene is, leaving us to guess. Why would he do that? The narrator obviously knows the person in the scene. There's no need to withhold that information unless (a)the narrator is a jerk or (b) the narrator is a stupid narrative device. For some reason, the inconsistency with the narrator bugged me.

Wow! I just don't know how to express the overwhelming power of this inspirational story! It is one of those novels that really isn't over when you finish reading it as it stays with you inside your head and heart forever. There is so much to ponder: Just a simple question like, "What am I here for?" or to feel the story of Cain and Abel come to life; and gosh, I don't think I will ever forget the meaning of the Hebrew word Timshel (thou mayest) a very important symbol in this book meaning we have a choice to choose between good and evil.

Each and every one of the character's in this novel are engaging and memorable, but for me Samuel Hamilton and LEE outshine them all; and while reading this UNPUTDOWNABLE classic, I was trying to remember a book I've EVER read that had such an evil villainous bitch as Cathy (Kate) who executes absolutely despicable and unforgivable acts of harm to just about everyone in her acquaintance. (believe me when I say, Serena was an angel compared to this nasty piece of work), and yet....by the end of the story, I actually felt myself feeling a teeny bit sorry for her. (go figure)

Anyway, EAST OF EDEN will forever be a favorite book of mine and one I already look forward to reading again. Very Highly Recommend!

maybe timshel will be our always

Rating 4.75

Continuing on my quest to read all of Steinbeck's works, up next was East of Eden. I order from my library and what comes in is what I'm listening to. And another one that did not disappoint.

East of Eden tells the saga of the Trasks and the Hamiltons. You first hear of the Trask family, focusing on Adam and his brother Charles. The difference between the two and how they grew up. You then follow Adam to the Salinas Valley where he meets the Hamiltons. Adam, now married, has two children, Cal and Aron. Here, you watch them all grow older. I really don't think I can do this book justice. What I will say is man, can Steinbeck write characters. Characters you love and others you love to hate. How can you not love Lee, the Cantonese cook of Adam who stays with the family over many years, helping to raise his boys. Or Abra, her sweet innocence and love for the Trask men and Lee. Then again, there is Cathy Ames, one of the most despicable characters that you will probably ever find in literature. A few other characters I would just shake my head at but this is the beauty in his writing, you get these deep looks into each of characters.

I listened to the audio version and the narration was wonderful. I loved it! So after all that...why only 4.75. First, I'm very stingy on 5 stars. Next, I do think it could have been trimmed down a bit. The audio was over 25 hrs (book over 600 pages) and it seemed to take forever to get through. There were a few times it did drag a bit. Also, while I really liked the book, still gotta say Travels with Charley is my favorite. Although this is a close second. A must read of a book (it is done by a writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature), a great audio for a very long drive, and a great, heartbreaking story.