You open the front cover of Steinbeck's magnum opus, East of Eden, and one finds this on the front page and you instantly know that the book you currently hold in your hands is so much more than just a mere page turner or a book to mark off that you have now read:
Pascal Covici
Dear Pat,
You came upon me carving some kind of little figure out of wood and you said, "Why don't you make something for me?"
I asked you what you wanted, and you said, "A box."
"What for?"
"To put things in."
"What things?"
"Whatever you have," you said.
Well, here's your box. Nearly everything I have is in it, and it is not full. Pain and excitement are in it, and feeling good or bad and evil thoughts and good thoughts-the pleasure of design and some despair and the indescribable joy of creation.
And on top of these are all the gratitude and love I have for you.
And still the box is not full.
John
And so begins John Steinbeck's, East of Eden. Even in a simple dedication, Steinbeck pushes his pencil ahead and a tone is set. I have no plan on writing a full review of this book. That has already been done by far better writers than I and far more educated folks than I. I will only say that out of all the books I have had the pleasure of reading (which is far too small of a number) this book is one that will stay with me for as long as I live. I can only think of four other books (The Beautiful and the Damned, The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, Into the Wild, and The Violent Bear It Away) that have left such a heavy impression of me while I was amongst their pages. There were times while I was reading that I became so burdened by the plight of the characters that I had to set the book down, go outside, and search for something that was both fresh and good.
Simply put, East of Eden, is Steinbeck's book about good and evil. He believed that all men had only one book that they were ever truly trying to write and this was his. All of his previous works, were only a warming up exercise in order to prepare his mind and heart for the words that he felt compelled to write. (I wish I could warm up to write by churning out, The Grapes of Wrath, too.) The words that are found between the covers are not new, they are not groundbreaking, they do not push the envelope, they are not those of an intellectual, but they are words that only a true master craftsman would know how to properly use. He does not attempt to write a story, but rather he attempts to sculpt, to carve, to mold a parable. It is not a small story, but rather it is the story of the whole of humanity. It is every man's story and yet, it is also only his story. It is a very complex story with no easy beginning and with no easy end, but it is also a very simple story with a clear beginning and end. It is the history of all humans, where each man and woman is full of good and evil. It is where all humans are a reflection of all that is good and all that is bad.
Steinbeck tells his tale through a cast of unforgettable characters and puts them in the place he knows the best, the Salinas Valley of California. It is the land of his past, present, and future. It is a land that was made by his ancestors and a land that made them. Which is an important detail because half the novel is also about Steinbeck's own, real family, the Hamilton's. He follows two families through their lives as they move from youth to old age, have kids, interact, have good times and bad. He does this in such a simple manner of writing that you are in the story far too deep before you actually realize that he is also writing about a much larger topic. He does this because he was really writing the book for his two sons, so that they could have a book that would grow with them as they grew and that it would be a book they could turn to in all of life's many stages and find something and someone new because they too were new and were somewhere new.
It would be foolish to only see this novel as an account of the Hamilton's and the Trask's. It would also be foolish to only try to find the hidden comparisons of a deeper meaning in the names and the links one can see to the Biblical characters and stories of Cain and Abel, and Jacob and Esau. This latter point gets me the most. I have heard far too many Christian speakers use this book in their prayers and sermons when they have only read it to get the "Christian" things out it. In my opinion (which maybe very wrong) that would both limit the scope and breadth of Steinbeck and God. Steinbeck was writing about both and even more. God is not only in the "Christianly" things, He is in all things. He is the Creator behind all creativity. He is the Truth behind all truth seen, heard, written about. He is the Beauty observed in all art. He created all things, not just the things we have molded and given the title as being "Christian" or secular. He created all things and is redeeming them back to Him.
Steinbeck, I believe, was writing about how all men are microcosms of the whole and I feel the Bible is also written from this view. We are all Adam and Eve. We are all Peter and Thomas. We are all Mary and Martha. We would have all had to leave the Garden for something more foolish and limited as eating fruit. We would have all gone for something fleeting instead of getting to walk in the cool of the day with the Creator. We would have all been discontent with perfection. We are all made in the image of God and yet, we are all separated from Him. We are both evil and good. We are all born and live our lives "East of Eden" and yet, there is a glory and judgement ahead of us that none of us will be truly prepared for.
"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?"
— John Steinbeck (East of Eden)
Put down the book you are currently wasting your time on and get to reading this book now! (or at least next.)
David
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