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Yes, yes, I love it beyond description. If you haven't read his non-fiction "Travels with Charley" yet, I highly recommend it. You get inside his head and his private thoughts and I cried on and off throughout it. So poignant and memorable.

Beautiful review Julie. So creative <3

Thank you! Believe me, my love for John Steinbeck is real. That man's writing turns me to mush.

Oh Julie, I love John Steinbeck too!! The love is real. Believe the hype.

Your words are true poetry,touch the inner most chords!

Oh, Samra. Thank you. Every word is true. The man breaks my heart.

Yes. Thank you very much, John.

Beautiful review. And so true. God gives you a gift and you must use it bc He can as easily take it away. One of the best books of all time.

A FAVOURITE OF MINE TOO - LOVE YOUR LOVE LETTER TO JOHN

Oh I so love this! Whenever the world feels overwhelming and hopeless, I pull this book off the shelf and if I don’t at least feel I understand it better I certainly feel more at peace and a little more in love with it all. Thanks for this little gem of a review <3

Oh, my yes! He really did turn over all the rocks, didn't he. I share your sentiment--beautifully put!

A perfect tribute ⭐️

I can't wait to read this. :-)

Such a lovely way to honor this amazing book!

Pedro,
I just reread your review and laughed at the first line. No, we can't properly review this book. Thus the love letter!

Sara
Every once in a while, I'll see someone give this classic a one or two star review and I'll just roll my eyes. If this isn't at least a 4 star read, I just don't know what is.

Lucie,
I wish I had known I had all of these comments sitting here, unnoticed, on this review. This five star love fest for this book is filling me up!

Sebastian,
This book was written for you!

Gabrielle,
Thank you for commenting. I received the notification and saw that I had so many great friends on here, showing their love for this book! My sister joined this club recently, and she can't believe I'm not rereading it yet!

Wonderful review, Julie! I have feels.

Thank you, Claude!
xoxo

Julie wrote: "Sebastian,
This book was written for you!"

Thanks, Julie. I read the first chapter online, and the depth of his writing was immediately clear when he began describing the boring of that well that his father had dug, and the pieces of whalebone and the imperishable redwood that came up from an ancient forest that had existed before the sea had covered all. That was amazing. And when he was describing the colour of the flowers in the river valley, I burst into tears it was so beautiful! Wow!

I could feel immediately what some other reviewers had said about not wanting to put the book down; powerful writing!

It is now officially decided, I shall be reading it this summer together with a student working on her senior thesis, and the book is on the way. Her chosen books for the project are Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, Steinbeck's East of Eden, and Faulkner's Absalom! Absalom!.

She is interested in human nature and the question of evil, whether man is born by nature good or evil. :-)

Gorgeous review. East of Eden is the next Steinbeck I have lined up. Have you seen the recent article about his unpublished werewolf novel?! I almost choked on my coffee when I saw the headline!

Sebastian,
Well, you're off to a good start, aren't you?
As for your student. . . she has taken on a very ambitious project, and I wish her luck. Neither East of Eden nor anything by William Faulkner made sense to me at that age, so I hope she has a better experience of both than I did.

Del,
I have not read anything about that. . . but if anyone could have pulled it off, Steinbeck could!

Julie,
It was so nice to find your love letter dated Sep 2016 to Steinbeck on my feed this Sunday morning. So soulful/lyrical.
Ebba

It is an ambitious project; it's going to be tough for me to get all the reading done. I am managing two students and my pile of books includes the Aristotle, Steinbeck, and Faulkner, but also Jane Austen and Sigrid Undset (for the other student). Faulkner sure is tough (though rewarding) reading. One must read him and then get to the business of re-reading him, and sitting patiently with each sentence until the meaning emerges. It can't be rushed. Steinbeck, on the other hand, feels easy, but East of Eden is long. Of course I can't predict, not having read the book before, what sort of complexity we may encounter.

Part of this challenge involves managing the reading of both books before our time runs out. The summer does not seem long enough to complete all the reading. Normally, I'd say, let's leave the easiest book for last, because we're likely still to be reading it when the school year starts in the fall, but in this case, there is no easy book. The kid knew it going into the project; I admire her courage. :-)

The movie that made me fall in love with James Dean. lol In all seriousness, this is an amazing book.

Super review�� I fell in love with Steinbeck in high school.. uniquely American and divine purveyor of Everyman prose.