Evening star., 1952-09-21
Books in Review
The Best and Worst Of Steinbeck
In This Nost, Spruwling Novel
East Of Eden
BY John steinbeck. viking; s45O1
BY John steinbeck. fViking: s4so1
East otEden
Reviewed by corter Brooke Jones

Reviewed by Co
This Is the longest and most
ambitious novel John Steinbeck
has written since "The Grapes
Of WRATH" published in 1899,
made him one Of the important
writer's Of our day.
EAST Of Eden" is a 600-page
saga, dealing primarily with the
Trask family, whom we first
see on a farm in Connecticut
at the time Of the Civil War.
We follow one Of the two sons.
Adam. to California and take
leave OF him and his two sons
during the First World War.
Concurrently. the story Of
Samuel and Liza Hamilton.
emigrants from the north Of
Ireland, and their children,
neighboring farmers in the Sa-
linas Valley, is developed at
length. The Hamiltons, it ap-
pears, were Mr.. Steinbeck's
maternal grandparents.
No Unmixed Conclusion
I find myself unable to sum
up this vast, sprawling novel in
a phrase or to reach an un-
mixed conclusion about it. It
has many inner stories, some
more successful than others. It
contains some of Mr.. Stein
beck's sharpest writing and,
unfortunately. some Of his most
deplorable.
The narrative as q whole
lacks cohesion and direction.
Sometimes it seems as If the
author had simply kept pour
ing words into a shapeleSs mold.
hoping futilely that it would
take definite form. And yet
most Of the book is highly
readable. At times it is dra-
matte and moving. At the end,
though, there is no single i'm
pact from a theme explored and
fully developed. There is only
a vague feeling that the evil in
people wages a losing fight
against the good and that the
individual can make his own
life, however black his heritage.
Mr.. Steinbeck has always been
at his best as a storyteller. Here,
as In previous books, when he
steps aside and lets his charac-
ters go their own way, he is most
beguiling. But when, as he
does here too often, he moves
to the center Of the stage, while
the whole drama stops, and
philosophers, the result is
muddy and sometimes in ex-
tremely dubious taste. There
are only flashes of, the humor
which sparkled so effortlessly
from his minor masterpieces,
"Cannery Row" and "Tortilla
Flat"
Coin and Abel Theme
The opening situation is in
tereSting. The half brothers.
Charles and Adam Trask, grow
up on the Connecticut farm.
Their father Cyrus served briefly
In the Civil War and lost q leg
IN his one skirmish. He makes a
career Of being a veteran. The
time comes when he has served
in every battle and he helps
organize the G. A. r. and even-
tually works full time for it III
Washington and is a political
power. He leaves his sons a for
tune, for those times, though
how he made it they never know.
Charles is the stronger of the
sons and bully. Once he tries
to kill Adam and almost sue
ceeds. The Cain and Abel theme,
rather strained. gives title to the
book. quotation from Genesis.
This theme recurs to an extent
in the rivalry and jealousy be-
tween Adams twin sons in Cali
fornia.
Some Of the characters are
persuasive, others never seem
endowed with the breath of life.
What makes a plausible charac-
ter? That's hard to say. You
can argue that the most Christ
like or the most monstrous per-
son in novel has a counter
part in life. And yet the fact
remains that some seem alive
and others never do. Perhaps
it's all in the way the author
develops them, particularly their
motivations. not in how ordi-
nary or unusual their acts.
MeanneSs dominates Charles.
The good prevails in Adam,
though he develops, through
some unexplained alchemy, from
an uneducated youth, who
served two bitches in the Regu-
lar Army cavalry and once was
jailed as a vagrant, into an old
er man who uses faultleSs gram.
mar and has quite a vocabulary.
Samuel Hamilton is almost a
saint. though he is a little too
fey even for an Irishman. We
find him once remarking to a
defenseless Adam: I'm a bitter
night. a mustard night that was
last night, a good thought came
and the dark was sweetened
when the day sat down."
A DioboIieoI chorocter
But Mr.. Steinbeck is much
concerned with evil in this story.
He has created In Cathy, later
known as Kate, one Of the most
diabolical women ever pinioned