Steinbeck's East of Eden tells the story of two families and the narrative is partly biographic. The story mainly focuses on the fate of the Trusk family, and the author describes and follows several generations in time. The second family – the Hamiltons, are Steinbeck's close relatives. The story is written from a third-person point of view, or specifically through the eyes of young Steinbeck, son of one of Hamilton's daughters.
The lives of the characters, both fictional and real ones, are entangled in a really surprising and interesting way. The characters alone are surely quite authentic, they have interesting backstories and unique voices – the dialogues in the book are clear and full of personality and emotion.
The most important thing (for me) that I like about this book, is the beauty the author has put into his words. So many times I just stopped and re-read a whole paragraph, not because I hadn't concentrated on the text, but because I simply found it mesmerizing, the way he took the truth and made it sound so alluring and fascinating.
I think that the story is extremely relatable, maybe because the author watches the whole development of a person, his childhood, teenage years and adulthood throughout the time, and even though the story takes place almost hundred years ago, the feelings and attitudes remain.
There were a lot of touching moments, a lot of sadness and despair, but also there was this unexplainable overtone of hope throughout the whole story, even the death of characters were explained somehow peacefully.

I recommend this book to everyone who likes a little bit of romance, a little bit of drama and tragedy. I must say there is quite a lot of injustice, but it is compensated by the aforementioned hope, present in every scene and dialogue.
Another thing that's great about this book, and specifically about this publication, is that the language is not too complicated, and the story is in fact quite easy to read.
As I mentioned before, there were many beautiful quotes that I've found in this book, but the most interesting, that I repeat to myself from time-to-time, is this one:


“But I have a new love for that glittering instrument, the human soul. It is a lovely and unique thing in the universe. It is always attacked and never destroyed - because 'Thou mayest‘.”



- Kristína Nemcová