EAST OF EDEN (John Steinbeck) - March 30/09

Well, that was a bit of an ordeal. East of Eden is certainly very well written and it's incredibly dense and epic, yet the book feels as though it's been expanded out from a normal length to something that's five times longer than necessary. Steinbeck offers up a whole host of side characters and subplots that simply aren't all that interesting, and by the time the book is finished, the reader has forgotten most of them. I'm glad I read it, but I would hardly call it an entertaining read (it felt like work most of the time). **1/2 out of ****