Timshel

I finally finished my book for February. If you keep up with this blog you know one of my (Josh) new years resolutions was to try to read more and try to read a book a month. This month I picked out a really long book to read and it took me all month plus a couple days. The book I picked was East of Eden by John Steinbeck. Steinbeck is my favorite author, I read several of his books when I was younger but never this one (probably because it was so long (600 pages)). Our friend Erika suggested it and said it was one of her favorites and I like her tastes on other things so I decided to try it. I really enjoyed it. It covers a couple generations of two interwoven families and is set in the Salinas Valley in California. One of the families, the Hamilton's, is based on Steinbeck's maternal grandfather and his family. Steinbeck considered this book to be his life's greatest work which is pretty impressive. The book explores themes of depravity, beneficence, love, the struggle for acceptance, greatness, and the capacity for self-destruction and especially of guilt and freedom. It ties these themes together with references to and many parallels with the the book of Genesis in the Bible, especially the story of Cain and Abel. My favorite character was Samuel Hamilton and while reading the book I found myself wanting to be more like him. Any of you looking for a good book to read should check it out. We got the movie East of Eden with James Dean to watch tonight.

Timshel