East of Eden

John Steinbeck
Started
2021-01-10
Finished
2021-01-17
Reviewed
2021-02-06
Rating
Type
Fiction
Published
1952
Pages
602
Painting - My Front Yard, Summer by Georgia O’Keeffe (1941)
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.”

Small sketch - Book Review - East of Eden
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