I finished the East of Eden audiobook today after several months of listening. It is officially the audiobook that has taken me the longest to get through ever -- I've been listening since around May. The book wasn't even that long, it just took a lot of time!
Usually with audiobooks I'll listen to them in the car or while doing household chores, but I found that despite East of Eden's slow pace I needed to pay my full attention or I'd miss the good stuff. That's because the good stuff in the book wasn't the plot, but the words themselves.
As an avid fantasy/scifi reader this is quite the opposite to my frequent experience of somewhat-mediocre-writing with grandiose plots and or world-building.
The words were wonderful. I found myself writing down and reflecting on several quotes and ideas the book examined, especially from the two primary philosophers in the book: Lee and Samuel Hamilton.
These two characters carried the book for me. They were cultivators of the other characters with their love and words. They were deep and complex and just so easy to love. The other characters all rich in detail and life in ways I've seldom seen in other stories. Every character, even minor ones, had love and pain and depth to them in ways that made them feel very human.
And that's what East of Eden is about: what it means to be human. It tells a story of the weaving lives of 3 generations and how their actions propagate through their children. How they're tested and punished and driven. Their joys, their suffering. It plays off of biblical themes unabashedly, and even though you can see each upcoming tragedy from miles away, you feel them when they hit.
I really loved this book. It re-phrased or re-examined many ideas I've seen before, but in new ways and with more empathy. I felt feelings, chuckled, shed tears, and got reminded that it can be good to take things slowly sometimes. Let them sink in and simmer and bask in the tiny unimportant details that make things real.
It was a treat that I hope to re-read at a much older age, when I'm sure I'll have many more sorrows and joys under my belt to resonate with.
Next up, lesbian necromancers in space!