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My Mid-Life Love Affair With John Steinbeck
While researching the YA novel I just sent off to my lovely agent, I came across a quote from Steinbeck’s East of Eden that echoed one of the themes of my work in progress:
Cal said, “I was afraid I had you in me.”
“You have” said Kate.
“No, I haven’t. I’m my own. I don’t have to be you.”
(Steinbeck East of Eden Penguin Classics Edition p.466)
I’d read The Pearl as a schoolgirl in England and Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath in high school. I liked them, but Steinbeck didn’t rock my teenage world the way George Orwell did, so I was never inspired to read his other works.
Nonetheless, when my boyfriend Hank and I were living out my fantasy of driving up the Pacific Coast Highway in a convertible, I made him detour to the National Steinbeck Center out of respect for an author I admired, even if I didn’t count him amongst my influences.
That was four years before I discovered the quote above, which inspired me to read East of Eden. As a result, in my late 40’s, I’ve developed a wild, passionate love affair with John Steinbeck and am now on a quest to read every word he ever wrote. (Next up in the reading queue: In Dubious Battle and Travels with Charley in search of America.) I’ll admit, I get pretty nerdy – perhaps even a trifle obsessive – about the writers I love.
Steinbeck considered East of Eden his magnum opus – the novel for which he’d been “practicing . . . for 35 years.” I can understand why. I read the book in awe that a writer could tackle so many powerful themes with such skill in a single tome. My copy is heavily underlined and festooned with Post-It notes.
I finished the 602 page novel and wanted to start reading it again straight away so I could try to figure out how the heck he did it.
“I don’t see how it can be popular,” Steinbeck wrote in in 1949, “because I am inventing method and form and tone and content.” The critics might not have been entirely convinced (the Time reviewer complained the novel was “too blundering and ill-defined to make its story point) but East of Eden did, as Steinbeck hoped, “find a public ready for the open and honest.” Published in September 1952, it was a number one bestseller by November, and hasn’t been out of print since.
I wonder if I’d read East of Eden in high school if it would have had the same effect. Maybe it’s a case of something what we always hope to do for our kids – putting the right book in my hands at the right time. But one way or another, John Steinbeck now joins George Orwell, Judy Blume, William Golding and Laurie Halse Anderson as writers who have had a profound influence on me. And East of Eden will always have a very special place in my heart.
Sarah Darer Littman’s first novel, Confessions of a Closet Catholic, won the 2006 Sydney Taylor Book Award for Older Readers. Her novel Life, After was a 2011 Sydney Taylor Honor Book. She is also the author of Purge and Want to go Private?, a 2012 YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers. In addition to writing for teens, Sarah is an award-winning columnist for Hearst Newspapers (CT) and http://CTNewsJunkie.com.
Sarah lives in CT with her family. Visit her online at http://sarahdarerlittman.com, http://wanttogoprivate.com and on twitter @sarahdarerlitt.
Nerdy Book Club 
If there had been a list of books for reluctant readers back in the day, Steinbeck would have made the list with regularity. When I taught juniors I always saved Of Mice and Men until the fourth quarter after FCAT. They thought they were done – until they began to read Lennie’s story.
I’ve read Of Mice and Men aloud almost 60 times–aloud–in the past eight years. When we return to the ranch–as I read–the scenes and the words have almost become so familiar that I have to stop myself from going out of body with the book (which doesn’t help when you have voices for each of the characters).
When I went back to read a less cited book of Steinbeck’s, THE PASTURES OF HEAVEN, I not only found a compelling connection between Joseph Campbell and John Steinbeck, I also found the foundation for that speech that Crooks offers in the barn. I think Steinbeck is one of those authors where we might have to read the entirety of the work to find the singularity of any one character’s experiences in any one of the books.
Oh. . .and Sarah Darer Littman is da’ bomb, yo!
Love ya, Sarah!
Love the picture of your copy of East of Eden – speaks volumes. I have enjoyed Steinbeck but haven’t read this book. I’ll have to put it in my “to read” pile. Thanks for the post.
I remember reading In Dubious Battle in college. I read it at the same time I bused up to Washington, DC for a Housing Now march. I think I might have even been reading it on the bus ride up there. Participating in the march and walking among the crowds and propaganda was like seeing Steinbeck’s pages come to life before my eyes.
The #Litchat topic yesterday was MFAs and I just happened upon it while taking a break from writing. Getting an MFA is a dream of mine someday (if and when I win the lottery) because I’d love to really focus on craft, not to mention finally getting a degree in something I’m really passionate about instead of what I’m expected to study because it will make money. Someone asked the writers who don’t have MFA’s how they learn about craft. That picture of East of Eden is one of the ways I learn. Reading, reading, reading. Trying to figure out how brilliant writers do it. And trying to make writing each book an experience in growth and learning.
Your passion shines through! I may have to give East of Eden another try. I read it years ago and was so discomfitted by the girl=evil, no question about it-vibe that I couldn’t “see” anything else (ah, my angry young feminist days). I will have to read it again with a bit (hopefully) more mature eyes.
I feel like I might finally be ready for this book. I have to be real with you – seeing it all marked up and post-it heavy and starred only makes me want to read it more!
It’s great hearing about your new affair with Steinbeck. I visited the California part of Steinbeck country with students years ago where we read Of Mice and Men together & tried to drink in the culture. I re-read Travels With Charlie often, and bits of East of Eden again & again. A high school English teacher introduced me to Steinbeck, my best gift from a teacher. Your post touched me & I love also your photo. Won’t you enjoy returning & re-reading the comments you’ve made?
I so appreciate someone who can have a love affair with the words of a writer (dead or not)! I tend to have affairs with certain tomes and not the full body of work of one author. I agree with Kay that the time of reading can also influence your feelings on a work. I will add East of Eden to my list and wish you all the luck (with the lottery or otherwise) to be able to complete your dreams.
I did not pick up East of Eden until Oprah picked it – I usually liked what she chose. This time I fell in love with the book! I couldn’t wait to share it with others so I got my faculty book club to read it! I book talked it so much my non-reader husband even read and actually liked it. Just last week I loaned my dogeared copy to a new reading friend and now she is hooked. Awesome post.
Sarah, this is a great example of putting the right book in the right hands at the right time. This is such a great post, and the pictures make it even better! It’s wonderful when a book just clicks 🙂
I love how well-loved your copy of East of Eden is! This is how you study craft. You write in the margins, you revisit, you think about the effect it had on you and how exactly he did it. I can’t wait to share this with my students. 🙂
Found this book in a library sale in my college days. Read the Trasks’ tale over the summer while taking breaks from tarring the factory roof. Sarah: TIMSHEL! Thou mayest.
I think you should read this book first and then read his others. I loved East of Eden, and was disappointed when I read Grapes of Wrath. I was even more disappointed when I watched the movie staring James Dean. East of Eden is great!
Sarah is smart and amazing. And, sometimes, I get to hang out with her. Isn’t that awesome? Compelling post, Sarah! Thanks.
My favorite book in High School was Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flats, which was a required book. It set off a similar obsession in me, and I loved, truly loved East if Eden. I read it as a junior in high school, I believe, and it was probably the first long, adult literature I read. Wonderful stuff!