Wow and double wow. Steinbeck is truly one of my favorite authors. Everything he writes comes out amazing and east of eden is no exception. This book took me quite a while to finish because I wanted to savor every sentence, I just couldn't rush through this one. I love all his illusions and metaphors and the story itself is just incredible. This is one I'll have to read over and over again. All I can say is Timshel..like Samuel Hamilton, it too makes me feel free! ( )

A huge, sprawling monster of a novel full of pathos, fire, darkness and light. ( )

Added per Sarah's review of an altogether different book:http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

This book completely took me by surprise. I had to read it over the summer for my English, and I put it off. This procrastination was due to the fact that I absolutely detested Grapes of Wrath and was not looking to a novel that looked even longer and boring. I finally was pressed to read it due to an impending test, and I was disappointed in myself that I had judged it before reading. This novel was amazing. I never got bored, it was engrossing and the characters were fantastically drawn and the writing was compelling. I read it in a single weekend, and my discussions about it later in class only enhanced my enjoyment of this book. I absolutely recommend this true classic. ( )

This novel is really four stories in one: 1) the story of Cain and Abel, of good versus evil; 2) the true story of the Hamilton family, Steinbeck's grandparents and aunts and uncles, written as a family legacy and love story to Steinbeck's sons; 3) the fictitious story of the Trask family, the normal neighborly family; and 4) the story of the growth of a new America in the decades surrounding the turn of the century in 1900.

This novel takes on some of the quintessential challenges of human existence, and maps them out through the lives of very real and almost tangible characters. Themes of good vs. evil and truth vs. lies come up again and again as the story unfolds, and the characters themselves guide the readers, without teaching or preaching, to learn to identify the good and truth in others, while accepting and accommodating the evil and lies.

Of all the delightfully compelling characters, my favorites are Sam Hamilton and Lee. Samuel Hamilton is, as Steinbeck tells us, "one of the rare people who can separate your observation from your preconception [and] see what is, where most people see what they expect" (p. 163). Sam Hamilton represents cognition, patience, and careful decision-making. Though he's not the most educated, he's often one of the wisest. Lee represents the religious didactic: he is the character most like a rabbi, and in some ways antithetical to Christians even as he teaches about the Bible (New Testament and Old). He is also most like a mother to Adam's sons, even though he had no mother of his own.

Any review or discussion I try to write seems to do poor justice to this hugely successful novel, so I will simply add that it was my very good pleasure to read this book, and I hope to turn to it again and again as I grow older. There is something in it for everyone, at every age.