Lucas Blogs About Books

I'm certainly not holding this book in front of my face to hide the tears streaming down my cheeks! What would give you such a ridiculous idea? So, what's this book's de—Oh for cryin' ou— That's right!  It made me cry!   We talked about its author's merits—and demerits!  It's also one of my favorite books of all time. I just finished re-reading East of Eden  by John Steinbeck. The deal is exceedingly simple to explain: it's a genuine, goddamn masterpiece of Modernist and Naturalist prose exploring such topics as the American Dream, the Old Testament, racism, mental health, good, evil, family dynamics, war, peace, moral obligation, how to start a Ford Model T, love, sex, betrayal— OH. MY. GOD! Stop, just stop! I can't be here for this. Sorry, I already started this as a Hypothetical Reader formatted post. The novel starts with a loving description of the Salinas Valley then quickly splits into two tracks that only rejoin hundreds of pages l...

Oh? Thomas Steinbeck , the author of two novels and a collection of stories? Be serious, we're gonna talk about his dad, Nobel laureate, chronicler of the Great Depression, extraordinary describer of California , and someone who's made me cry : John Steinbeck. A (semi-representative) sampling of the works of John Steinbeck. Oh, like in the style of Lucas Blogs About Dick  from last year? Yeah, but I think it's more of a  Hey, Hypothetical Reader!  kinda thing going forward. All right, let's dive in! Okay, so John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. (1902-1968) is probably best known to American public school students for novels that have become assigned reading standards like Of Mice and Men , The Grapes of Wrath , and East of Eden . Themes that run throughout his work include the beauty of the California landscape and the ugliness of living in poverty in America. In addition to well known novels he was a prolific writer of non-fiction and served as a war correspondent ...

Shut up! I'm not crying, you're crying! Books can affect you in any number of ways. Sometimes they  introduce you to new ideas and make your world bigger. Sometimes they speak to something deep inside you and make you feel like someone else understands. Sometimes they just wrench your guts out and send a cascade of hot tears down your face and make you wish you hadn't started reading that chapter on the bus. East of Eden by John Steinbeck HERE THERE BE SPOILERS! When'd I read it?: This was an assigned reading book the summer before Advanced Lit & Comp in 11th grade. What's it about?: This is a big one. In the dedication Steinbeck says "Everything I have is in it, and it is not full." Part family history, part retelling of various stories from Bible,  East of Eden tells the stories of the (fictional) Trask family and the (real) Hamilton family (Steinbeck's mother's family). The Trasks seem doomed to relive biblical stories of brothe...