East of Eden
John Steinbeck
Started
2021-01-10
Finished
2021-01-17
Reviewed
2021-02-06
Rating
＊＊＊＊＊
Type
FictionPublished
1952Pages
602
My Front Yard, Summer · Georgia O’Keeffe (1941)
Oil on canvas · 50 x 76 cm · Tate Modern, London
“No one who is young is ever going to be old.”
A timeless epic spun from the fabric of the most profound of all human experiences. Of family – young and old. Of self-actualization – expectations and disillusionment. Of belonging – acceptance and rejection. Of resolve – muscle and mind. Of success – hunger and fortune. Of trust – kin and strangers. Of power – creation and destruction. Of perspective – pride and humility. Of the future – fear and ambition. Of the past – scars and nostalgia. Of ideals - courage and choice. Of love - hope and beauty. Of wickedness – hate and evil.
“I believe that there is one story in the world, and only one... Humans are caught – in their lives, in their thoughts, in their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty, and in their kindness and generosity too – in a net of good and evil... There is no other story. A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean questions: Was it good or was it evil? Have I done well – or ill?”
A monumental, almost spiritual portrait of the human condition.
“It would be absurd if we did not understand both angels and devils, since we invented them.”
