A review by frogwithlittlehammer
East of Eden by John Steinbeck

challenging reflective tense slow-paced

4.25

Not to be that pretentious person who critiques the canon… but I feel like this is the poor man’s Turgenev. Steinbeck really tried to give family dynamic in the pastoral (less than) idyll, but I prefer the fathers and sons of Fathers and Sons over the Trasks and Hamiltons. I did really enjoy the heavy handed implementation of the Old Testament though, I didn’t find it too contrived like a lot of people do. I also was taken with Steinbeck’s description of the Salinas valley. I’m here to play into the rugged west vibe for sure ✌️but perhaps it’s not my great American novel.