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ebenezeer_swett's review
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
runjuliet's review against another edition
3.0
Cannery Row or What a Kick-Ass Party Can Do for a Down & Out Town...
e_bibliophile's review
5.0
Shall we please take a few minutes to appreciate how wonderful this book is? Could Samuel Hamilton be unfictionalized, resurrected, and be my father? Please?
I love the fact that I read [a:John Steinbeck|585|John Steinbeck|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1182118389p2/585.jpg]'s Of Mice and Men, didn't like it that much, didn't give up on the author, and congratulated myself for reading [b:East of Eden|883438|East of Eden|John Steinbeck|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1503315060s/883438.jpg|2574991].
I'm in love. A few chapters in and I declared that I've finally found my ultimate favorite American novel.. (Dearest Maya Angelou, don't fret! This is a different genre and yours are still my favorite autobiographies).
Think of this book as an equivalent of a soap opera, minus the tediousness, and in the most positive way. Never a dull moment here. It's about family drama, but a drama where you will get sucked into the smallest details of it.
I admire how the author invested in his characters. I found significant depth even in the least important character in this book. I especially loved how the inner struggle of good vs. evil in the same person was portrayed.
I think I also found the truest demonstration of jealousy. And are you familiar with the term "Femme Fatale"? Cathy is the shit! Satan might actually take notes from her. And don't let me start on Lee. Just read the book!
I love the fact that I read [a:John Steinbeck|585|John Steinbeck|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1182118389p2/585.jpg]'s Of Mice and Men, didn't like it that much, didn't give up on the author, and congratulated myself for reading [b:East of Eden|883438|East of Eden|John Steinbeck|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1503315060s/883438.jpg|2574991].
I'm in love. A few chapters in and I declared that I've finally found my ultimate favorite American novel.. (Dearest Maya Angelou, don't fret! This is a different genre and yours are still my favorite autobiographies).
Think of this book as an equivalent of a soap opera, minus the tediousness, and in the most positive way. Never a dull moment here. It's about family drama, but a drama where you will get sucked into the smallest details of it.
I admire how the author invested in his characters. I found significant depth even in the least important character in this book. I especially loved how the inner struggle of good vs. evil in the same person was portrayed.
I think I also found the truest demonstration of jealousy. And are you familiar with the term "Femme Fatale"? Cathy is the shit! Satan might actually take notes from her. And don't let me start on Lee. Just read the book!
“Names are a great mystery. I’ve never known whether the name is molded by the child or the child changed to fit the name. But you can be sure of this—whenever a human has a nickname it is a proof that the name given him was wrong.”
sookieskipper's review
3.0
I like multi-generational novels in their expansive way of dealing with multitude of their characters in an intricate way. The narrator talks about his grandfather's life and his relationship with his neighbor who goes to become his good friend and the friend's family. Its never explained how the narrator knows the littlest details about characters that no one else knows.
Steinbeck repeats common themes across generations; Adam and charlie being brothers forever at an unspoken war. Adam's children - Cal and Aaron also going through a typical sibling rivalry phase that escalates in the end. My knowledge of the Bible is minimal but I am aware of the biblical themes that Steinbeck adapts throughout the book with some characters falling into tendencies of moral righteousness in phases. Several characters carry same behavior trait though their origins maybe different. Its how the characters get separated and this separation is what drives the whole story.
The characters can be grossly divided into good and evil. Steinbeck fleshes out the characters giving their humaneness a layer of complexity which makes the readers question our own realizations about them. Cathy / Kate early on realizes a missing component in her and thus her decisions stem from that realization. Its hard to understand if she truly believed evil was the way to go because she was different or she was a sociopath as she reiterates several times to different characters, her failures to pity or empathize. The narrator offers several minute observations when her carefully structured argument becomes shaky or when she believes she is losing her ground. She makes a fascinating character study with her perfectly structured world of imperfection and flaws.
What's surprised me the most (and also disappointed, I suppose, to an extent) was that none of the primary characters tried to rise above themselves. Adam fails with an idea and gives up on it. When confronted about it, his answer is callous and lazy. The "chinaman" misses home, feels lonely and comes back. Its a recurring theme through out the book where Steinbeck steadfastly balances the triumphs and miseries, never letting one becoming greater than the other.
As far as the reading goes - the story reads on its own as the characters pull you into their world and get you integrated with their daily life. There is an ease in the narration without a judging tone in them. The movement of pace is easy and the shifts between perspectives - a neat hop.
I cannot draw parallels to Bible or pretend to understand the passages shared by some of the characters. Its impossible to take it away from the story and Steinbeck ensures that subtext remains undisturbed throughout the novel.
Steinbeck repeats common themes across generations; Adam and charlie being brothers forever at an unspoken war. Adam's children - Cal and Aaron also going through a typical sibling rivalry phase that escalates in the end. My knowledge of the Bible is minimal but I am aware of the biblical themes that Steinbeck adapts throughout the book with some characters falling into tendencies of moral righteousness in phases. Several characters carry same behavior trait though their origins maybe different. Its how the characters get separated and this separation is what drives the whole story.
The characters can be grossly divided into good and evil. Steinbeck fleshes out the characters giving their humaneness a layer of complexity which makes the readers question our own realizations about them. Cathy / Kate early on realizes a missing component in her and thus her decisions stem from that realization. Its hard to understand if she truly believed evil was the way to go because she was different or she was a sociopath as she reiterates several times to different characters, her failures to pity or empathize. The narrator offers several minute observations when her carefully structured argument becomes shaky or when she believes she is losing her ground. She makes a fascinating character study with her perfectly structured world of imperfection and flaws.
What's surprised me the most (and also disappointed, I suppose, to an extent) was that none of the primary characters tried to rise above themselves. Adam fails with an idea and gives up on it. When confronted about it, his answer is callous and lazy. The "chinaman" misses home, feels lonely and comes back. Its a recurring theme through out the book where Steinbeck steadfastly balances the triumphs and miseries, never letting one becoming greater than the other.
As far as the reading goes - the story reads on its own as the characters pull you into their world and get you integrated with their daily life. There is an ease in the narration without a judging tone in them. The movement of pace is easy and the shifts between perspectives - a neat hop.
I cannot draw parallels to Bible or pretend to understand the passages shared by some of the characters. Its impossible to take it away from the story and Steinbeck ensures that subtext remains undisturbed throughout the novel.
caffeinatedbibliophile's review
4.0
This isn't a review, just my rambling thoughts immediately after finishing this book.
Finishing this book feels like An Accomplishment, if you know what I mean. I don't know what it is about Steinbeck's writing--which I love, or at least I've loved his writing in [b:The Pearl|5308|The Pearl|John Steinbeck|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1437234939s/5308.jpg|195832], this one, and [b:The Grapes of Wrath|18114322|The Grapes of Wrath|John Steinbeck|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1375670575s/18114322.jpg|2931549]--but it seems like it always takes me about a third of the book to really find a rhythm and become invested. I'm not uninterested before that point, but around there I usually go from casually reading a bit here and there to devouring the remainder as quickly as possible.
Steinbeck's writing is, in my opinion, beautifully evocative. I sometimes become frustrated with wordy writers, but his always brushes against that line without actually crossing it. I enjoy "seeing" everything, and really getting inside the characters while reading his work, even when I dislike the character. He had a way with really painting a picture of the world in which his stories are set that makes me feel like I could smell, touch, hear, and taste everything.
I feel like I shouldn't have enjoyed this or The Grapes of Wrath nearly as much as I did, because I have not generally been a fan of family sagas. Having read both of these, I'm starting to reconsider that opinion and might seek them out intentionally to see if my tastes have changed.
This is a family saga, following the Trask family, but with many other fairly major characters tangled up with them. I loved Samuel, Lee, and Caleb, I think, most of all. With Adam, I sometimes wanted to protect him, and other times I wanted to give him a good smack to the head to knock some sense into him.Thankfully other characters kind of did that for me. Kate was...well, she was interesting. She was awful and I kind of loved her for it. The parts with her fascinated and sometimes repelled me. I think she might be one of my favorite antagonists (if you can call her that) from literature. I loved that she was so independent of pretty much everyone,
a law unto herself. She didn't really need men, she didn't really need anyone. She was smart and cunning, vicious and selfish. Maybe Steinbeck was horribly misogynistic, and that's why he made her character so vile, I have no clue. I haven't looked into it, and I didn't know the man, but I thought it was a bit refreshing to read about a villainous female character who was so well developed. I'm still not sure how I feel about Aron. A bit sorry for him, maybe. I do wish Abra had a bigger part, because I was just starting to like her when the book ended. (Not that I disliked her at first, she just got more "on screen" time toward the end, so I was just beginning to get to know her.)
I think I don't enjoy books like this often because the characters start to blur together for me, and I can't keep them straight. That wasn't a problem for me with this one, though. All the characters were so distinct I only found myself a little unsure of who was who a few times with characters that were only around for a few moments.
I could babble about this for quite a while, I think, but I'll wrap up by saying that I'm glad I waited so long to read it. I think younger me, even just a couple of years younger me, wouldn't have enjoyed this as much as I did.
Finishing this book feels like An Accomplishment, if you know what I mean. I don't know what it is about Steinbeck's writing--which I love, or at least I've loved his writing in [b:The Pearl|5308|The Pearl|John Steinbeck|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1437234939s/5308.jpg|195832], this one, and [b:The Grapes of Wrath|18114322|The Grapes of Wrath|John Steinbeck|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1375670575s/18114322.jpg|2931549]--but it seems like it always takes me about a third of the book to really find a rhythm and become invested. I'm not uninterested before that point, but around there I usually go from casually reading a bit here and there to devouring the remainder as quickly as possible.
Steinbeck's writing is, in my opinion, beautifully evocative. I sometimes become frustrated with wordy writers, but his always brushes against that line without actually crossing it. I enjoy "seeing" everything, and really getting inside the characters while reading his work, even when I dislike the character. He had a way with really painting a picture of the world in which his stories are set that makes me feel like I could smell, touch, hear, and taste everything.
I feel like I shouldn't have enjoyed this or The Grapes of Wrath nearly as much as I did, because I have not generally been a fan of family sagas. Having read both of these, I'm starting to reconsider that opinion and might seek them out intentionally to see if my tastes have changed.
This is a family saga, following the Trask family, but with many other fairly major characters tangled up with them. I loved Samuel, Lee, and Caleb, I think, most of all. With Adam, I sometimes wanted to protect him, and other times I wanted to give him a good smack to the head to knock some sense into him.
a law unto herself. She didn't really need men, she didn't really need anyone. She was smart and cunning, vicious and selfish. Maybe Steinbeck was horribly misogynistic, and that's why he made her character so vile, I have no clue. I haven't looked into it, and I didn't know the man, but I thought it was a bit refreshing to read about a villainous female character who was so well developed.
I think I don't enjoy books like this often because the characters start to blur together for me, and I can't keep them straight. That wasn't a problem for me with this one, though. All the characters were so distinct I only found myself a little unsure of who was who a few times with characters that were only around for a few moments.
I could babble about this for quite a while, I think, but I'll wrap up by saying that I'm glad I waited so long to read it. I think younger me, even just a couple of years younger me, wouldn't have enjoyed this as much as I did.
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