East of Eden

John Steinbeck: Novels 1942-1952 (The Library of America, New York, 2001) So many wise dudes running around saying wise things that you finally want to barf. The only interesting character is Kathy, or Kate or whatever he calls her. But her most interesting moments are at the beginning, when her métier as child SM hooker seems to spring full blown from her imagination and when the violence of her reactions comes down to quite a reasonable wish to be free to do what she wants. But even Kathy is parabled into two-dimensionality by means of a rather trite use of sado-masochistic fun and games as a symbol of all that is evil in the world, or at least in Salinas, California.