re: East of Eden by John Steinbeck

quote:

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One of the best parts of a novel I’ve ever read is when Steinbeck describes Cathy for the first time, saying there’s monsters born into the world. And just like there are monsters born without arms or other physical signs, there are mental or psychic monsters, born with malformed souls. Souls without compassion or a conscience. But whereas a physical monster can see where they are not normal, a spiritual monster has nothing to tell them they’re abnormal and so think people with a conscience, or kindness, are the ridiculous ones. It’s brilliant.

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This is just incredible writing. I wouldn't have been able to quote it but his original description of Cathy was actually one of the parts that stood out to me once I was finished. Just how perfect the description was. How he described her being someone who for some reason what she was good at was lying. Even as a child she was good at it. Just an evil person.

I don't know if it was in the preface of the book or somewhere else where I read it but Steinbeck said that basically everything he had written up to that point was preparing him to write EoE. He obviously felt like he was a better writer at that point in time and stuff like that is just brilliant.