East of Eden by John Steinbeck

10/10

Another top-tener if not a top-fiver. Steinbeck, you've done it again. Earlier in my Othello posting I mentioned that Iago is the most evil character in all of fiction. Well, here in this book we have a character who certainly rivals Iago. Kate, who murders her parents and becomes entangled in the lives of the main characters in the book, holds her own. She sure does her darndest to ruin their lives as well. She later changes her name to Cathy and becomes the head mistress at a brothel. She is seriously one disturbed cookie. But she sure does make the book more interesting/entertaining/frustrating.

The story can be viewed as a huge Cain and Abel allegory. We are shown two sets of brothers during the book. Each instance there is the aggressive, evil brother and the low-key, kind brother. Also, each time, the evil brother's name starts with a C and the nice brother's name begins with an A. Charles and Adam the first time around and Cal and Aron the next go around. Some deep, fun stuff.

The movie starring James Dean is a minor let down. I mean, I know you can't cover the whole book or anything, but the movie started two-thirds of the way through. I was like, "Uh, aren't you kind of skipping over some important details?" Also, they entirely left Lee out of the movie and he was a crucial character, probably my favorite character in the entire book. Oh well, I guess you can't win them all. The book is great though. Really great. I even think I recall hearing that Steinbeck considered this his great masterpiece.

Quotage:

"You can boast about anything if it's all you have. Maybe the less you have, the more you are required to boast."

"I don't know where being a servant came into disrepute. It is the refuge of a philosopher, the food of the lazy, and properly carried out, it is a position of power, even of love."

"An unbelieved truth can hurt a man much more than a lie. It takes great courage to back truth unacceptable to our times."

"When the Lord God did not call my name, I might have called His name - but I did not. There you have the difference between greatness and mediocrity."

"Isn't it odd that Cain is maybe the best-known name in the whole world and as fas as I know only one man has ever borne it?"

"Give me a used Bible and I will, I think, be able to tell you about a man by the places that are edged with the dirt of seeking fingers."

"We gather our arms full of guilt as though it were precious stuff."

"I know that sometimes a lie is used in kindness. I don't believe it ever works kindly. The quick pain of truth can pass away, but the slow, eating agony of a lie is never lost. That's a running sore."

"It is one of the triumphs of the human that he can know a thing and still not believe it."