Book Review by Suzanne Koonce

East of Eden –

Let’s read some Steinbeck…a “classic” we said
So with my new book – I curled up in my bed
I figured it would be a week and
I would be done
Little did I realize the pages numbered six hundred and one!

A family saga of life in Salinas Valley
The world his
grandfather knew
With themes of love and identity
Or the devastating effect when it’s missing too

Beginning with the
Hamiltons
And then with the Trasks
These two families lives intertwined
And that was no easy task

Beginning in 1870, A story of good and evil
which Steinbeck says “must be constantly
respawn”
While good, virtue is immortal”
From that – a lesson can be drawn

Born in Connecticut Adam Trask was his name
With a hard driving
father
Civil War was his game
With a brother named Charles
Who from childhood was as different as could be
Charles the mean one and Adam the sweet

Sounds biblical – doesn’t it..think of the names….
Similar to Cain and Abel with lives such the same
Feeling their father
favored one over the other
Charles vying for affection, feeling he was the unloved brother

Adam enlisted in the army
Charles kept the farm
The father died, leaving them with a bundle
But they never knew where the money came from.

When Adam returned it was just the two
brothers
Then along came Cathy
Would there be no other?
and the attributes of Cain-again a name with a C – even the horse was named
Doxology and was age 33!

A monster she was both mental and psychic
And oh
The lives she touched –
Murder and lying..does it get any worse
Almost seemed her life was a curse

So Adam and Cathy marry
And along come twin sons, I’m told
Aaron and Cal they were named
But not until they were a year old

A strange one she was
And not a family girl
She soon runs away
After shooting Adam – in a whirl

A lady of the evening in Salinas was she
Many town men came to her – now named Kate…
And very sorry they would be
To know she could blackmail them if that was to be

Her sons were raised mainly by Lee
The Chinese house
servant
A fine and intelligent man was he.

We’ll skip over the years and many of the pages
Unless you want me to go on for ages and ages!

Adam settles in
And loses money with lettuce
Let’s just say the ice melts
On the train to the east

Cal tries to earn back the money his dad loses
With Will Hamilton he is engaging
With beans sold to Europe
Remember a war was waging

Cal learns who his mother is.
And thinks he is like her
With meanness and lack of love
He understands why he’s such a bother

He soon tells Aaron or shows him who Kate is
And Aaron is devastated and in the army he enlists

To fight a war he didn’t believe in
And dies a few years later
His girl ends up with his brother
And helps him to be
better

By accepting
responsibility
Cal shows he finally can
Choose good over evil
And now be a good man

As a father lay dying – forgiveness was sought
That is certainly
something that can’t be bought

Help him Adam…give him his chance ( said Lee)
Free him, bless him – Let him be free”

And as the book ends
Timshel!” is said
By a father whose
forgiveness
Would save a son from himself

Thou mayest, thou mayest –
“His eyes closed and he slept”
and that is the end
to Steinbeck we owe a great debt

February, 2008