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10.5k reviews for:

East Of Eden

John Steinbeck

4.46 AVERAGE


Really good book. Took me a long while to get through but worth it. Didn’t love some of the prejudices - but understanding it was a thing of the time. Cathy was irredeemable 

We have only one story. All novels, all poetry, are built on the never ending contest in ourselves of good and evil. And it occurs to me that evil must constantly respawn, while good, while virtue, is immortal. Vice has always a new fresh young face, while virtue is venerable as nothing else in the world is. 
adventurous emotional reflective
dark emotional inspiring reflective sad fast-paced
emotional reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

“‘Go through the motions, Adam.’
‘What motions?’
‘Act out being alive, like a play. And after a while, a long while, it will be true.’”

Listen… I do have some 4 star thoughts with this one, but I know it’s going to stick with me, so I’m going with 5 stars.

This was a lot… in a good way. I itched to talk about it every time I read a chapter. It’s just so rich and full of symbolism and philosophy and relationship dynamics. It really pushed me to think and evaluate and process. I’m still processing.

There were parts that felt random—mainly the Hamiltons’ stories. I didn’t know if they really fit with the story, but I had a friend give me perspective that actually made me appreciate those stories more.

So it goes to say, there is so much to learn here. And I don’t think I’ll ever exhaust the learnings from this book.
emotional hopeful slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: N/A
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
adventurous dark reflective sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes