a month ago
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Posted On: September 24th 2026, 02:46 pm
‘Now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good. Is that it?’
I tell myself this as I write. I try to tell myself this as often as I can. Before I knew it from East of Eden, I knew it from a grab bag of quotes and an article about hope and it stuck to my ribs. I felt like I knew it as a truth that had yet to be revealed to me. When you hear something soulfully honest, there is a jarring of the heart that makes you know something has been changed. But, you haven’t internalized it yet.
Only living does that.
East of Eden by John Steinbeck is a monster of a novel, clocking in at 602 pages of family, tragedy, goodness, compassion, jealousy, and a lot of California. It’s a (at the time) modern retelling of Cain + Abel, so it is rife with longing for decency, for being picked, for love - not just between the sets of brothers in the novel but by everyone. And who doesn’t want to be picked? Who doesn’t want to be loved?
But I have to ask, is being picked and being loved the same thing? Can we just be seen? In this terrifying world, is there anything more transformative than looking at someone and saying, ‘I see your etches and your scars and your bright hopes, and I will stay here all the same’. And to stay doesn’t mean forever, but sometime a radical second can transform the rest of your forevers.
‘Now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good. Is that it?’
Is that it?
It might be everything.
Come to book club tonight @book_and_bottle - let’s live in this for a while.
Swipe for more thoughts…
#reading #book #bookish #eastofeden #literature
- Lee as a character is the GOAT. Period. The novel would be nothing without him, Adam Trask would be nothing without him, and I wonder about Steinbeck’s use of him as a ‘wise sage’ and that stereotyping considering he’s the only main character of color in the novel.
- The book is hella sexist (and not because of Cathy necessarily) and also pretty racist. The book is also phenomenal. Can two things be true? I feel like modern (white) readers will apologize for the first by saying ‘it’s just of it’s time’ in order to still stay they like the book. The 1950’s weren’t that long ago, and you had writers lik
I tell myself this as I write. I try to tell myself this as often as I can. Before I knew it from East of Eden, I knew it from a grab bag of quotes and an article about hope and it stuck to my ribs. I felt like I knew it as a truth that had yet to be revealed to me. When you hear something soulfully honest, there is a jarring of the heart that makes you know something has been changed. But, you haven’t internalized it yet.
Only living does that.
East of Eden by John Steinbeck is a monster of a novel, clocking in at 602 pages of family, tragedy, goodness, compassion, jealousy, and a lot of California. It’s a (at the time) modern retelling of Cain + Abel, so it is rife with longing for decency, for being picked, for love - not just between the sets of brothers in the novel but by everyone. And who doesn’t want to be picked? Who doesn’t want to be loved?
But I have to ask, is being picked and being loved the same thing? Can we just be seen? In this terrifying world, is there anything more transformative than looking at someone and saying, ‘I see your etches and your scars and your bright hopes, and I will stay here all the same’. And to stay doesn’t mean forever, but sometime a radical second can transform the rest of your forevers.
‘Now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good. Is that it?’
Is that it?
It might be everything.
Come to book club tonight @book_and_bottle - let’s live in this for a while.
Swipe for more thoughts…
#reading #book #bookish #eastofeden #literature
- Lee as a character is the GOAT. Period. The novel would be nothing without him, Adam Trask would be nothing without him, and I wonder about Steinbeck’s use of him as a ‘wise sage’ and that stereotyping considering he’s the only main character of color in the novel.
- The book is hella sexist (and not because of Cathy necessarily) and also pretty racist. The book is also phenomenal. Can two things be true? I feel like modern (white) readers will apologize for the first by saying ‘it’s just of it’s time’ in order to still stay they like the book. The 1950’s weren’t that long ago, and you had writers lik
Comments (10)
a month agoteresa_spagna
so, so beautifully said, my love. A 600-page punch wrapped in your endless thought and care💜
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