Book Review: East of Eden by John Steinbeck

East of Eden by John Steinbeck
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Two families, two sets of brothers, a well-known Biblical tale, and one important location are central to this magnum opus of one of American’s best-known writers in the first half of the 20th century. East of Eden is an ambitious novel by John Steinbeck that is essentially a historical fiction novel of the Salinas Valley that is a double allegory for the Biblical Cain and Abel.

Steinbeck used his family history, his hometown’s history, and the Biblical story of Cain and Abel to form the backbone of this 600-page literary classic. Focused on the Hamiltons—based on Steinbeck’s maternal family—and the Trasks, were within Cain and Abel is repeated in succeeding generations, the story is also a fictional history of Steinbeck’s home region of the Salinas Valley in Central California. There is a slew of characters that come off the page at comes off as actual human beings, though many of them if we met them would wonder if they had gotten any psychological help and if not would hope they’d get it. The Biblical allegory centers around one man, Adam Trask, first as the Abel to his younger half-brother Charles’ Cain and then as the “father”—biologically it could also be Charles, legally it was Adam, and essentially it was Lee who I’ll get to further down—of Cal and Aron who repeat the Biblical allegory in a different way. Early on Adam is sympathetic given his childhood, but after the “breakup” of his marriage he becomes a human nonentity which allows the repetition of the Biblical story. The twins undisputed mother Cathy/Kate Trask (nee Ames), could be in the allegory the Devil or the Talmudic Lilith who was the Biblical Adam’s first wife but didn’t want to be dominated and became a baby killing demon in Jewish folklore, is an amoral psychopath who is able to hide her amorality from all but a few observant individuals. Then there is poor Lee, a Chinese manservant to the Trask family that essentially is Cal and Aron’s dad but could only do so much with Adam around and was in this ambiguous position of sage relative and hired help, but along with Sam Hamilton is the best character of the entire book. Looking overall at the story, it is very engaging and a page-turner to me yet also frustrating with Adam’s wanton disregard of his sons thus allowing the family drama to repeat itself.

East of Eden is considered by John Steinbeck as his magnum opus, it was certainly ambitious with this allegorical approach that was mixed with a fictional account of the author’s home region.

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