East of Eden is one of the longest books I’ve read. It took me many days and weeks of reading to pour through one of John Steinbeck’s most celebrated works, but I can say it was worth it. Fundamentally, this historical fiction set in the early 1900s asks a question we all ponder: to what extent does our ancestry determine who we are?
Though the first part of the book winds through the complicated ancestry of the Hamiltons and the Trasks, the story really picks up in the later half. I don’t often read fiction that extends beyond the “novel”, but reading East of Eden helps me appreciate this long-form writing, when you really get the chance to feel emotionally invested in the characters; there’s room for several conflicts, twists, turns, that don’t feel forced at all. Though the length of East of Eden occasionally annoyed me, it was exactly that length that allowed for the captivation that drew me in— and Steinbeck wasted no words in the process.
I enjoyed this book, and I’ll definitely pick up some of Steinbeck’s other popular works.