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I finally finished the book East of Eden by John Steinbeck this weekend.  I’ve been working on it for a couple of months.  But I feel a strong sense of accomplishment in reading 600 pages of Steinbeck!  It definitely isn’t my new favorite…I found it depressing, strange and even frustrating.  It was not an easy read.  But the last third of the book did have some redeeming qualities.  When I read a passage that strikes me, I usually dog ear it.  These are two quotes from the book that I enjoyed.  I don’t know if their meaning will be as effective in this setting out of the context of the book, but I thought I would share them anyway.

"…I believe a strong woman may be stronger than a man, particularly if she happens to have love in her heart.  I guess a loving woman is almost indestructible."  p.354

"In uncertainty I am certain that underneath their topmost layers of frailty men want to be good and want to be loved.  Indeed, most of their vices are attempted short cuts to love.  When a man comes to die, no matter what his talents and influence and genius, if he dies unloved his life must be a failure to him and his dying a cold horror.  It seems to me that if you or I must choose between two courses of thought or action, we should remember our dying and try so to live that our death brings no pleasure to the world." p. 413.