book review: To a God Unknown by John Steinbeck

There is a tension in this book from start to finish. A sense of expectation and dread that Steinbeck manages to heighten and lessen but always keep there to come centre stage when the moment requires.

Joseph Wayne starts the story telling his father he wants to head West and stake his land while he still can in the land rush that is spreading across California. He leaves behind three brothers who he believes will present too much competition for the land.

So already there is tension about land ownership and although this disappears when Joseph sets up his own farm there is the threat, casually dropped by the natives to the area, that the area is prone to drought. That tension grips the farmer and returns again and again to haunt him. But as long as he has the tree, which he believes is the home of the spirit of his dead father, life seems to be okay.

He invites his brothers out to stay on the land and the homestead grows to become a real family plot. Joseph even marries and fathers a child but that sense of impending doom always hovers over the land. Joseph is not the only one who reverts to home made religions to try and master the elements and even the priest comes across as a figure that walks the line between established religion and a knowledge and even partial sympathy for pagan ways.

But you always sense that the darkest fear Joseph is struggling with will come to pass and at that point this mixture of homemade religion and the influence of desperation and even madness combine to bring the book to a powerful conclusion.

What Steinbeck underlines is the relationship between man and the land and the elements. Just as a sailor can try to understand the sea but cannot tame it the farmers struggle with the lack of rain and the heat. They can prepare for the worst but they cannot stop it.

That strain puts a great deal of pressure onto the characters and they respond differently. The three brothers all have their coping mechanisms but it is the decision of Joseph, as the head of the family, that you focus on. You never feel easy reading this book because that sense of tension is always there.

Thoughts at the halfway point of To A God Unknown

Half way into this book and life seems to be going reasonably well for the Wayne clan headed by Joseph. He has set up the farm of his dreams, invited his brothers to join him and found love.

The threat of drought seems a long way off and life on the farm is about birth and growth. The slight blot on the horizon is the pine glade around a large moss covered rock and a stream which is a reminder of the quirks of nature, and is a cold strange place the had a place in the history of the Indians who preceded the farmers.

That sense of darkness, unknown mysteries and perhaps just an inability to control nature is always on the edge of the picture even if what is happening in the foreground seems to be happy and enjoyable.

You sense that the tension that glade and rock seem to stand for will come to a head in the second half. We shall see...

First Impressions of To a God Unknown

I don't know why this has just struck me because I have read Steinbeck before and particularly East of Eden when family is the main theme. But starting out on To a God Unknown my first thoughts were about Tolstoy and Tolkien.

The reason is that that sense of setting a family in historical context has a 19th century feel to it, something Tolstoy also does well, and the decision to put an emphasis on that combination of family, heritage and geographical location is the signature style of how Tolkien starts his stories.

That is where the comparisons end though because having established that Joseph Wayne is heading away from the family farm to stake his own land in California the story quickly becomes about his adventure.

He picks his land, becomes spiritually attached and following his father's death calls out the rest of his brothers to join him.

Fore Joseph the great oak tree that branches out above his newly built home is his father. The spirit of his deceased parent is something he associates with the tree and as a result you already feel the tension over the future.

More to come as I get into it but wanted to share some first impressions.

book review - The Red Pony

If there are two things that John Steinbeck does really well it’s being able to describe a time and landscape in American history and combine that with an incredibly strong observation of human emotions.

In this short book it is the later skill that is at the fore although you are reminded yet again of the hardship of those living off the land in the Californian valleys in the pre-war years. This is a time pre-television and motorised transport for the masses where life was lived in a much more confined environment. As a result the relationships between father and son, husband and wife and friend and friend are critical.

There are four chapters in this book and each one stands alone. There are connected by the four characters of Jody, Billy the ranch hand and Jody’s father and mother and the location of the family ranch but each chapter could be a short story on its own.

In just shy of 100 pages Steinbeck deals with the big concepts of trust, promises and maturity. The result is that you are asked some pretty interesting questions and wondering just who is the more mature out of a boy on the cusp of becoming a teenager or a father who should know a lot better.

Starting with the tale of the Red Pony the boy Jody is given his first real possession of value in the Pony, and rather than having to wait until his father decides he has earnt it, a surprise arrives and he seizes the chance to prove he is worthy of it. Looking after the pony, grooming it and making sure it is healthy becomes a joyful obsession. When it rains for a week he keeps the pony indoors and then he finally lets him out and asks Billy to take the pony in if it rains. He promises that not only will he take the pony in but also it will not rain. He fails on both promises and then has to watch as the pony dies slowly.

The morale of that story is all about promises and reminded me of something I was once told when I became an uncle, something that happened before becoming a father. I was told that if you say those words ‘I promise’ to a child then it is a bond that is almost magical in its commitment and if broken then it is a terrible thing. The problem is that it is easy to utter the words ‘I promise’.

After the disappointment of the pony there comes a chance to raise a colt but although wary of uttering another promise he cannot keep Billy ends up getting carried away with his own ability as a horseman. When the time comes for the mare to give birth things do go wrong and Billy has to kill the mare to save the colt. The promise is made good but at a cost that takes away any feeling of joy over the birth.

Then the other two chapters deal with the relationship between young and old and the question of limited horizons. Jody becomes interested in what lies over the mountainous horizon. But every time he asks his father about it he is pushed away from the subject. Finally a stranger comes from the mountains and informs the family he used to live in the land and has come to die in his home. Jody’s father makes it clear that the old man is not welcome. He is rude to the point of talking about putting him down along with the old mare in the field. But Jody shows an interest in him, a willingness to listen and learn. But it is too late and stealing the old mare – an equally decrepit and insulted animal – the man heads for the mountains to finish off his life on his own terms.

Finally Jody’s grandfather turns up and starts to tell stories he has clearly gone through a million times before. Jody is excited at him coming and listens but his father insults the old man and in a show of immaturity ends the charade that had been carried on for the last few visits providing the old man with the impression that his family were listening and cared. In the end the immature ranch owner exits with Billy and it is left to the young by Jody to show the compassion to help the injured grandfather by showing an interest and showing an empathy that is far beyond the rough ranch owner.

What the Red Pony proves is that when there is great writing there can be a great deal dais with few words. The depth of human emotions from grief, anger and petulance are all eternal and can echo through the ages making the ranch, the location and the period irrelevant. This book is about the basic human condition and as a result will last.

Version read – Penguin paperback

Lunchtime read: The Red Pony

In a Steinbeck world it is almost a crime, a sign of weakness to show any sentimentality. Real men just get on with the daily drudgery and focus on the misery of living and dying. But there are real emotions out there and when Jody’s grandfather comes to stay and talk about the good old days of fighting the Indians it shows the lack of respect, failure to appreciate the lack of interest and the love that the young have as the generations fail to see eye to eye.

Throughout this book Jody’s father Carl has been painted as an overbearing, petty destroyer of dreams and he comes out of it badly. The mother seems scared to stand up to him nut will do it occasionally and Billy Buck the farmhand just tries to keep himself on the right side of whomever he is dealing with.

Syeinbeck describes a time and a land where speaking your mind could isolate you from the community forever but biting your lip could eat at your heart until you die.

A great little book and one that could almost be consumed as four distinct short stories.

A review will follow soon…

Lunchtime read: The Red Pony

This book is based in the one location – the ranch but in a way each chapter could have been its own individually written short story – there is not too much overlap. But where Steinbeck does use the past it is subtly and not in a way that wastes precious lines discussing events that have already happened.

The second third of the book, chapters two and three, covers the second horse that Jody is promised as well as an odd appearance by a man who in almost all respects resembles freedom.

Having promised to look after the red pony that died the ranch hand Billy is reluctant to make a similar promise to Jody when his father lets him take responsibility for a colt that the mare will give birth to. When the birthing time comes the mare is in some trouble and Billy has to perform a deadly caesarean to save the life of the colt. But performing the operation, which kills the mare, leaves him emotionally and physically drained - a high price to pay to keep his promise.

Then an old man turns up who used to live on the land covered by the ranch and he says that he has come to die where he was born. The ranch owner doesn’t like his presence and makes that clear but the old man, armed with a ceremonial dagger, rides off with the oldest horse in the field into the mountains to die and avoid the humiliations that would have been visited on the old horse as well as the old man.

Final chunk tomorrow…

Lunchtime read: The Red Pony

Whenever you pick up a Steinbeck you start to fell that you might have read it somewhere before. That is not to say it might be unoriginal but it is a result of the way he is able to describe human emotions so well. The story of a boy fearing his father but wanting his approval is as old as the hills and add to that the idea that an adult can let you down and you have basic emotions that mix to make a compelling story.

The first third of the book deals with setting the scene and Jody is a single child who lives with his mother, father and the farm hand Billy. He lives by a strict code set down by his father who lives, as to do they all, a strict life based on the hours that a farmer has to keep.

One day the father and Billy come home from a trip to the town with a surprise for Jody, a young red pony. The boy dotes on it everyday and keeps it in prime condition. But one day he is going to school and concerned that after a week of rain, when he has left the pony indoors, the animal will get left out in the rain if the weather turns.

Billy assures him that it will not rain and then promises to take him in if it does. He fails on both counts and the pony is soaked and becomes ill.

Despite the best efforts of Billy and Jody, who nurses the horse most nights, the pony becomes worse and finally wanders off and stumbles and dies in a field leaving Billy feeling awful and Jody distraught.

Where will the story go from here – in some sense it is already a powerful short story – but you sense that there is more disappointment and heartbreak to come for the young boy.

More tomorrow…

book of books - The Pearl

This is one of those books that was part of the staple diet when I was at school and might well be on the curriculum now because it is able to take you on a rollercoaster on sharing the aspirations, understanding the greed then learning of its dangers. Where things get interesting is when you start to compare this with some of the other John Steinbeck novels you might have read because the location is different from the Californian valleys used in East of Eden and Grapes of Wrath and to unlike those desperately seeking money the irony here is that Kino finds it pretty quickly in the form of the pearl.

Plot summary
Kino and his wife Juana live in a brush hut in poverty but have a desperate need of money once their son gets stung by a scorpion and so head off for a pearl diving trip hoping that Kino can bring up the greatest pearl from the deep. He manages to do just that but the pearl dealers in town try to trick him and he ends up going against the natural laws of his community and becoming a target of thieves and jealousy. Kino announces his attention to leave but finds his canoe broken then is almost killed and murders his attacker before watching his house burn down. That night the three of them head off on foot to cross the mountains but are caught up with by trackers who in the end get killed by Kino but not before they have shot his son. The family return and Kino throws the cursed pearl back into the sea.

Is it well written?
It is a rollercoaster going from the euphoria of finding the pearl to the despair of the trickery and desperation other have for it to a point where everything the pearl could have saved and made better is destroyed. Although I didn’t refer to them in the daily posts there is also a tribal mentality expressed through the songs that Kino hears in his head to express family, joy and evil. There is not too much dialogue but the music in Kino’s head and the expressions shared between him and Juana are enough to convey a great deal of emotion and dialogue.

Should it be read?
It should but the question is when. As a teenager this book passed me by and was one of those set for assignments that because of the length looked deceptively easy and as a result never really got read properly. Coming back to it now, partly thanks to a 99p price tag in Oxfam, it is a much more powerful story. Part of the reason for that is not just that I have a family but as a man strangled by his mortgage with horizons limited by income it is possible to relate to the desire for a pearl in a different way.

Summary – poor man finds wealth but discovers the possibility of untold riches can destroy his world and leave him losing everything

Version read – Pan paperback

Lunchtime (bedtime) read: The Pearl

The phrase be careful what you wish for was never more apt than with this final chapter of The Pearl. Gripping until the very end there is a rapidity in the story here that is refreshing after some of Steinbeck’s longer and slower books East of Eden and even to some extent Grapes of Wrath. But just as with Mice and Men he has the ability to pull on the heartstrings with ease as Kino ends his journey with the pearl.

Chapter six
Having decided to leave and head away from the village Kino and his wife Juana pack up and head for the mountains but after a while they discover they are being tracked and in a flight of panic head for the mountains. But the trackers follow them and although Kino’s family hide in a cave the men decide to sleep at the foot of the rocks and Kino feels he has no choice other than to kill them. But before he can they shoot at what they think is a coyote and shoot the baby. In a rage Kino kills them all but now with his son dead he returns to the village and throws the pearl back into the sea.

A story like this makes you wonder if it’s worth doing the lottery…still wouldn’t it be great to win enough to be able to walk out on your job? They wouldn’t bother sending trackers…

Review to follow tomorrow

Lunchtime read: The Pearl

Things go from bad to worse for poor old Kino as the greed and anger bubble up and result in reducing all of his options except that of leaving the village

Chapter five
The pearl potentially could destroy the family so Kino’s wife heads down to the shore to throw it back into the sea but her husband catches her and hits her then heads off back home

His wife returns from the shore to find Kino covered in blood coming too on the path and a dead man next to him, who she quickly hides in the bush, but they know now that they have to leave

Kino tells her to pack everything and he goes to get his canoe but discovers his most treasured possession has been punched in and as he heads back he sees the flames of his house burning and gets his wife and child to hide with him in his brother’s house

They hide all day and as evening comes get ready to set off to another city to escape the death that surely awaits them if they stay

Last chapter tomorrow…

Lunchtime read: The Pearl

Everyone dreams of winning the lottery because of what they think the money will be able to do for them and their immediate family. But there is little thought for how other people will react.

A few years ago I was working up in Blackburn not long after a chemist won £17m on the lottery and the town was gripped by lottery fever. A colleague drove me round to his house, which he had abandoned as the ‘friends’ came calling to remind him how much they liked him, and pointed out that although he had won big his life had been altered forever. My colleague did not seem to think that was a bad thing but if he had read The Pearl he might have gained an insight into the anguish that comes with having a stoke of luck that sparks envy and greed.

Chapter Three
News of the pearl discovery spreads around town with everyone from the priest to the doctor dreaming of how they can exploit Kino’s good fortune – there is a particularly galling scene where the doctor dreams of Paris just a day after leaving Kino’s child to potentially die

Surrounded by family and friends Kino starts to talk about what he might do with the money that will come from the sale of the pearl and plans to marry his wife, something he had not been able to afford, and give his son an education

The priest, who ironically had refused to marry Kino because of money, turns up and reminds him of his responsibilities to the church and mentions that he will marry the couple Then the doctor arrives and insists that only he can heal the son and puts a tablet in his mouth then comes back an hour later claiming the cure is complete

Meanwhile Kino starts to realise that there are people who will do him harm and hides the pearl in the corner of the hut but feels unsure about it so moves it again but that night he is woken with a feeling of a closeness to evil and discovers someone is trying to steal the pearl

“And Juana, sitting by the fire hole, watched him with questioning eyes, and when he had buried the pearl she asked: ‘Who do you fear?’
Kino searched for a true answer, and at last he said: ‘Everyone.’ And he could feel a shell of hardness drawing over him.” Pg 42

His wife tells him to get rid of it but he refuses and announces he will sell it the next day because he knows that it will provide his son with an education that will take him out of poverty and into the magical world inhabited by those who can read and write

Chapter Four
Kino sets off to sell the pearl and is joined by a procession of neighbours but alongside him is his brother who warns him to be careful when agreeing a price with the dealers

Sure enough the dealers try to con him and in his anger Kino replies that he will go to the capital and get a better price but this threatens to undermine the whole structure of the pearl buying and selling business

That night after being warned by his brother that he is entering dangerous territory Kino is again attacked and slashed with a knife leading to another call from his wife to destroy the pearl but instead Kino resolves on his trip to the capital

More tomorrow...

Lunchtime read: The Pearl

Be careful of what you dream for particularly if you are a poor man living in a tight knit community because as you fear at the end of chapter two when fortune does come your way then others plan to benefit from it.

Chapter two
With the child seriously ill after the scorpion bite Kino sets out to find a pearl that will pay for the treatment and pushes off with his beloved canoe with his son along with his wife who is praying for the pearl to be found

Kino dives down and starts picking up oysters but then sees a glint of something in one that is hidden under a rock and pulls it away and takes his haul back to the boat and starts to open and then throw back the ones without pearls in

He finally opens the large shell and inside is the largest pearl he has ever seen and at the same time his wife points to the child who is fighting against the poison and winning as the swelling goes down in his relief Kino shouts to the sky but that sends everyone sailing in his direction

More tomorrow…

Lunchtime read: The Pearl

The Pearl was one of those books that were part of the school syllabus but it was only recently I picked up a copy at a second hand bookshop. For a long time, when trying to remember who wrote it, it seemed to be a Hemingway book and you forget that John Steinbeck is able to write about people in locations other than the Californian valleys.

Chapter One
You are introduced to Kino the fisherman and his wife Juana in a bush hut with a poor but idyllic life. Their baby is suspended from a basket and everything is going well until a scorpion climbs the rope leading to the child. Kino tries to get to it but the baby pulls the rope and it falls down and stings her. The father is a bit of a spare part and the mother acts swiftly to suck out the poison but then calls for the doctor, who nobody believes he will help them. Sure enough the doctor tells them that he has gone out after discovering they have no money and they are left with an ill child and no help.

What a start the sense of frustration is palpable and along with Kino your anger rises against those rich enough to live in luxury that will not help the poor.

More tomorrow…

Steinbeck on the ingredients of a good story

When a writer undertakes a work that is based loosely on their own lives they seem to want to try and create a bit of space in the text to justify why they are writing in such a style and about such a subject. I posted the comments made by Marcel Proust in Remembrance of Things Past about writing and John Steinbeck also has something to say in East of Eden.

Chapter 34 at the start of part four is used by Steinbeck to talk about stories and what makes people write them.

“A child may ask, ‘What is the world’s story about?’ And a grown man or woman may wonder, ‘What way will the world go? How does it end and, while we’re at it, what’s the story about?’

I believe that there is one story in the world, and only one, that has frightened and inspired us, so that we live in a Pearl White serial of continuing thought and wonder. Humans are caught – in their lives, in their thoughts, in their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty, and in their kindness and generosity too – in a net of good and evil. I think this is the only story we have and that it occurs on all levels of feeling and intelligence. Virtue and vice were warp and woof of our first consciousness, and they will be the fabric of our last, and this despite any changes we may impose on field and river and mountain, on economy and manners. There is no other story.”

For anyone thinking of writing a novel there is some real food for thought – just the small matter of good and evil as subject matter and character bases.

book of books - East of Eden

This is the last book in my series of five that was part of the Winter Reading Challenge and although it was almost the longest it was a great book to finally read. John Steinbeck is known for his gritty portrayals of life in California during the depression but this is set in an earlier time and as a result the great theme is not poverty and struggle but love.

Plot summary
The mammoth book is best split into three parts for the ease of explaining the plot:

Pre-California
The book evolves around two families, the Hamilton’s and the Trask’s, with the first section of the book focusing on the Trask brothers Adam and Charles and their father and step mother. The brothers grow up with a strained relationship that improves after their father dies but then falls apart after Adam falls in love with a stranger who comes to the house and marries her making Cathy his wife and then moves away to California and settles in the Salinas valley.

California - The farm
What Adam doesn’t know is that Cathy does not feel love and is a killer and she only stays with him long enough to give birth to twins, shoot him in the arm and leave him. By this time Adam has purchased a farm in the Salinas valley and made friends with Samuel Hamilton, an aging Irish immigrant who is a wise friend and helps him name the twins after Cain and Abel – Caleb and Aaron. The other main character is the Chinese servant Lee who makes friends with Samuel and grows to become a steadfast companion to Adam. As the boys grow and Adam mourns for Cathy he is forced to come out of his daze confronted by the truth that Cathy has now become Kate and runs a brothel in Salinas. Samuel is weakened by the news that one of his daughters has died and he never really recovers and his children plan to get him to leave the ranch but each reacts differently to his character and his love with some following his way – Joe in particular – while others become successful being the opposite – notably Will.

Salinas
The family move there and Adam becomes free of Cathy after realising that she is more afraid of him than she is of her. He develops an interest in the town and invests in a business that fails and as a result the boys are subjected to teasing which hurts Aron more than Cal, who is more like his mother. An uneasy relationship between the father and sons is going well until Cal surprises his father with money to cover his losses from the business venture and Adam rejects the money, although importantly not him. Cal takes his revenge by introducing Aron him to his mother leading his brother enlisting to fight in the First World War and ultimately to die in battle. The book ends with a very moving moment when Adam, who has suffered a stroke after the news of Aron’s death, is asked to forgive his son Cal. His father does it handing his son the chance to have a future free of the guilt of the past.

Is it well written?
Because of the size of the book, 728 pages, it is a bit of a slow burner and it sometimes feels strange to get introduced to the Hamilton’s and then not read about them again for several chapters. In the second half of the book the central theme of examining what happens when there is blind love, no love or unrequited love becomes clear and the book really starts to hit its stride when there are just about 250 pages left to go. The problem with the start is that some people will walk away from this book because it doesn’t grab them and because the dust jacket, which describes it as a case of Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel does simplify things slightly. But Steinbeck has an ability to describe the power of a glance, thought or expression in a away that most writers can only aspire to. This is also a semi-autobiographical story because John Steinbeck is in the book as a child and if this is right Samuel Hamilton was his grandfather. That sensitivity to telling a family story also shows through with the style – it was a book that clearly mattered to him and he is quoted as saying it was the book that all the others had been preparing him for.

IS it worth reading?
Please stick with it and the answer is a resounding yes but it takes some patience and concentration, because some themes echo throughout the book. It is also about prejudice not just racial, which is demonstrated by Lee who after coming out as an equal is then treated badly by the nurse at the end providing a sharp reminder of his status, but about the fundamental questions of good and evil. On a personal level it made me think about how I treat my two sons and how my reactions to those moments when they try to impress me are crucial.

Version read – Penguin paperback

East of Eden - post XI

A large number of people rate Steinbeck very highly and you think you know why after reading Mice and Men and Grapes of Wrath but there is an attention to human emotions in East of Eden that surpasses those and reminds me a bit of the lump-in-throat inducing end of To Kill a Mockingbird, which is also a study in the relationships between children and fathers and friends.

Bullet points between 676 – 728

* Adam has a minor stroke after receiving Aron’s telegram telling him that he has enlisted and he is not to worry and for a while is very ill being nursed by Lee who becomes a minor expert on cerebral haemorrhages

* Cal blames himself for his brother’s decision but is tamed from becoming truly evil by Abra who reveals that her father is going to jail for corporate fraud and that she is far from perfect and is in love with Cal

* Then the inevitable happens and the telegram comes informing them of Aron’s death and it forces Adam to have a full-blown stroke and in his grief Cal admits he took Aron to meet Kate and that led to him joining the army

* In a very moving scene Lee gets Cal and Abra to come to Adam’s bedside and Lee begs for Adam to forgive his son and bless him and he does uttering the word “Timshel” Hebrew for thou mayest an echo throughout the second half of the book meaning that he forgives him not because he has to but because he can

I’m not ashamed to say that I had tears in my eyes at the ending and put the book down and saw Steinbeck in a different light. Wrongly I thought he specialised in writing about people down on their luck but here was a story all about love, in all its forms, and the writing was weighted just right and the attention to the human condition in places amazing. Review in the next couple of days…

East of Eden - post X

There are less than 100 pages left and the tension is building as this book reaches its climax and some characters decide its all too much and opt to go and meet their maker rather than hang around until the end.

Bullet points between pages 578 – 676

* Kate becomes obsessed by Ethel and pays Joe to go and find her in a bid to silence her but Joe guesses that there is something he can use here so lies to Kate about where Ethel has gone planning to get contol of the brothel eventually off her

* Meanwhile Aron has become devoted to the church but takes his exams early and goers to college and Cal forms a partnership with Will Hamilton to try and buy his father’s love by getting his money back that he lost on the frozen cabbage venture

* Aron puts Abra on a pedestal and she feels like falling off to make sure that what he has fallen in love with is more reality than a dream and talks to Lee about their relationship but still expects to become his wife

* Aron goes to college but is homesick and comes home for Thanksgiving braced to tell his father that he wants to drop out but instead finds the family and its expectations too much but Cal is hoping to win the day by handing out $15,000 to his father

* Adam refuses the money and tells Cal, who has made it selling beans for the soldiers in France, that he is exploiting the war and the farmers and upsets his son who in his anger takes Aron to meet Kate

* The next day a heartbroken Aron enlists and Kate who is surrounded by people she fears and mistrusts decides to take her own life leaving everything to Aron but before she goes she shops Joe to the police and when they come foe him the next day he dies after being shot while trying to escape

What will happen to Adam, Lee, Aron and Cal? The final chunk of the book will have the answers…

East of Eden - post IX

As the book starts to move towards its end it becomes clear that it is all about love – the powder of it, the consequences of the absence of it and the yearning for it – and Cathy becomes part of the story again because she signifies what happens when you are completely absent of love.

This is also a book written with a great deal of love, of the past and of family, and it comes across on every page and because of that you trust things will be okay even when Cathy is at her most deranged and desperate.

Bullet points between pages 503 – 578

* Having moved to Salinas the boys start school and it comes time for Lee to leave and open his bookstore in San Francisco but he returns suffering from loneliness and spends a lot of time and a fair amount of money doing up the house

* In the meantime Adam has become fixated on freezing vegetables and against the advice of business guru Will Hamilton buys the local refrigeration company and sends some cabbages to New York but because of transport problems the plan is a failure

* The boys feel that their father has failed, lost lots of money and become a laughing stock in the town and Aron, who is seriously involved with Abra his girlfriend plans to move away while Cal starts to hunt for his mother

* He discovers his mother is known as Kate and running a brothel and starts to follow her and lets Lee know that he has discovered the truth and then one night he is caught by the police at a gambling den and his father gets to sit down with him alone

* Adam shows Cal love and the boy reacts to it and blurts out about his mother and Adam asks him to never tell his brother about it and shortly afterwards Cal meets Kate and confronts her accusing her of being afraid

* Kate has become afraid – afraid that people might do to her what she has done to others – and she retreats into a grey world of complete mistrust and is rocked by the meeting with Cal who comes away strong and determined to help Aron through college and his father to revive his fortunes

More tomorrow…

East of Eden - post VIII

Steinbeck has the ability to bring a lump to your throat and a smile to your face sometimes in unison but always at the right time. Powerful stuff as characters struggle with hate, love and loneliness.

Bullet points between pages 402 – 502

* After his visit Adam comes back and shows an interest in his boys, which is the first time they have been really discussed in the story so far, and history seems to be repeating itself with Cal the dark menacing one and Aron the Adam junior

* Adam decides to write to his brother Charles and Lee asks him if he can leave to open a bookstore in San Francisco and it seems that Adam will be given a chance to rediscover the things lost in his decade of mourning for Cathy

* A letter is returned to him with a note from the lawyers saying that Charles has died and left his money to be split between Adam and Cathy which forces a reunion of the husband and wife in which Adam exposes her inability to believe in love

* Following Samuel’s death the Hamilton family settle in to their respective lives with Tom left at the ranch being eaten up with loneliness but he perks up when his sister Dessie sells her house in town to Adam and moves back home

* But Dessie is ill and just as they plan to travel Europe and escape for a life of adventure she takes a turn for the worst and in response, because by giving her salts Tom believes he killed her, the lonely son decides to take his own life

If that final few chapters fails to leave you with a tear in the eye then you must be made of tin. More tomorrow…

East of Eden - post VII

The parts of the book describing the departure of Samuel Hamilton are very moving and he departs having shaken Adam out of his reverie once more and moved the story on regarding Cathy

Bullet points between pages 346 – 401

* The Hamilton’s all get together for Thanksgiving, including their daughter Olive who happens to be married to Ernest Steinbeck the narrator’s father, and they decide that Samuel needs to be taken away from the farm

* Samuel understands all too well what is happening and one by one visits his friends to bid them farewell saving Adam for last and he finds the 11 year old twins growing but Adam still stuck in the past so he tells him about Cathy running a whorehouse

* Samuel dies and his funeral is held in the town of Salinas and Adam, fuelled by drink, goes and has it out with Cathy and as her anger mounts he emerges from a dream and realises that he is free of her and heads back to his land happier than he has been for years

Is that the end of Cathy? Will her anger follow him? What next for the Hamilton’s after Samuel’s death? All the questions will be answered in the next few days as I get to the end of this engaging book…