A-Z Wednesday: East of Eden

A-Z Wednesday is hosted by Reading at the Beach.

Here are the rules:

Go to your stack of books and find one whose title starts with the Letter of the Week.

Post:

1. A Photo of the Book
2. Title and Synopsis
3. A link (Amazon, B&N, etc.)
4. Come back here and leave your link in the comments

If you’ve already reviewed this book, post a link to the review as well. Be sure to visit other participants to see what books they have posted and leave them a comment (we all love comments, don’t we?) Who know? You may find your next “favorite” book.

THIS WEEK’S LETTER IS: E

My “E” Book is:

East of Eden

by John Steinbeck

(New York: Penguin Books, 1986)

Paperback, 778 Pages, Fiction

ISBN: 9780140049978, US$7.95

A searing novel about the oldest and most terrible of conflicts: brother against brother.

From the Cover: Adam Trask came to California from the East to farm and raise his family on the new, rich land. But the birth of his twins, Cal and Aron, brings his wife to the brink of madness, and Adam is left to raise his boys to manhood. One boy thrives, nurtured by the love of all around him; the other grows up in loneliness, enveloped in a mysterious darkness. As Steinbeck interweaves the stories of the Trasks and their neighbors, the prosperous, open-hearted Hamiltons, he portrays men and women determined to conquer not only the land but the forces of love and hate, trust and suspicion within their hearts.

My Thoughts: When I saw that this week’s letter was “E,” there was no doubt in my mind that the novel I would pick would be John Steinbeck’s East of Eden. I’m not even sure where to begin on this book. This was one of the books I had to read for my Eminent Authors: John Steinbeck class that I took this past Spring, and I was blown away by what Steinbeck manages to accomplish in this novel. It is definitely one of the best books I have ever read, and is now in the Top Five Best Books I Have Ever Read (up there with the likes of The Three Musketeers, The Shining, Flight and Moby-Dick). Though, rather than rehash all of that, I’ll just direct you to my review from March. The link is HERE.