Vicky Biccy's Blog

East of Eden

I'm a procrastinator, it's true.

So even though I was really tired last night, I still managed to finish reading Steinbeck's 'East of Eden'. I started it in the summer and read it for hours every day, but September came and life got busy... anyway. It's amazing. Beautifully written, beautiful story, and it made me think a lot.

Every now and then you get a reminder that it's loosely based on the old tale of Cain and Abel from the Old Testament, which just adds to the richness of the story.

I've never read Nick Hornby's 'How to be good' (although I own two copies) but that's the question Steinbeck raises all the way through. What does it mean to be good, or to be bad? Are we doomed to behave according to the personality we've inherited, or adopted through difficult circumstances? Do we have a choice?

It's a whopping big book, but I throughly recommend it to one and all.

Created on Thu 22nd November 2007 12:26