CBR15 Passport California
There were two types of literary genre that were particularly popular in the 1950s. One was Biblical tales, and the other was multi-generational drama, particularly set in the West. Examples of the first type are plentiful. The Silver Chalice, Ben-Hur, The Ten Commandments, and Quo Vadis, to name a few. The second type was exemplified by novels such as Giant and Sometimes a Great Notion. One thing all these novels had in common was that they were made into prestigious, best-selling movies. By the time he wrote East of Eden, Steinbeck was no stranger to this process, and I assume it added to his creative endeavor. East of Eden is a multi-generational retelling of the Biblical tale of Cain and Abel, set in the agricultural setting of the Salinas Valley. Let’s just address the elephant in the room, one keeps anticipating that there will be a brother-on-brother killing, but it does not exactly play out that way.
The family in question is the Trasks. Originally from Connecticut, Adam Trask is one of the first of the Cain and Abel brother pairs. His younger half-brother, Charles, is dark and hot-tempered, while the older Adam is easy-going, fair and well-liked by all. The brothers come to blows over their presents to their father. Charles gives him an expensive knife, which he worked hard to earn the funds to buy. Adam gives his father a puppy. The father loves the dog and doesn’t give the knife much thought. During the fight that ensues, Charles comes very close to killing his brother, and Adam leaves home, wandering through the country as a vagabond and a petty thief. When his funds run low, he stops by the family farm once more to find that their father is dead, and has left both of them the family farm as an inheritance.
Parallel to the story of the brothers is that of Cathy Ames. Cathy is beautiful in a delicate blond way, but to put it bluntly, she is absolutely no good. She kills both of her parents when she is in her teens, for no other reason but they got on her nerves, but no one ever suspects sweet angelic Cathy. After burning down the family home, she takes off and finds employment as a prostitute for a man who runs a traveling group of them. He treats her well, until he realizes that she has been deceiving him. In a passion, he severely beats her and leaves her near the Trask brothers’ farm. They take her in. Charles has his doubts, but Adam falls in love with her. On the eve of their wedding however, she seduces Charles without Adam’s knowledge. She will soon find out that she is pregnant with twins, but who the father actually is, is a good question. Since they really can’t stand to be around each other very long, Charles lets Adam buy out his share of the farm, and off Adam and Cathy head for California.
The rest of the story is set in Salinas Valley. Adam buys a farm, and the ranch he buys comes along with one of the best characters in the book, Lee, cook and general handyman. Lee originally speaks to Adam in pigeon English, but when he realizes that Adam can be trusted, he drops the act and reveals himself to be a well-read and philosophical gent. Good thing too, for immediately after Cathy, whom Adam idolizes, gives birth, she takes off on him. So immediately that the kids aren’t even named yet. Adam takes it very hard, and Lee steps in to tend to them, and finally manages to persuade him to name them at least. Aaron and Caleb, the second Cain and Abel pair of brothers. Not to worry about Cathy, though. She heads into Salinas, goes to work as a prostitute for the motherly Faye, who soon considers her as a daughter. She deeds her establishment over to Cathy, now Kate, who loses no time in poisoning her and taking over. The establishment changes from a more wholesome one to one that specializes in kinky and sadistic acts, and since Kate photographs them in flagrante delicto, she soon has a nice collection with which to blackmail many of the leading members of the community, and now we are off and running.
So there is quite a lot of plot, and I didn’t even mention the Hamilton family and their nine children. I especially enjoyed the dueling good and evil characters of Lee and Kate, both outsiders, but both shaping the two pairs of Cain and Abel siblings for both good and bad. If you are looking for meaty family drama, with a bit of philosophy along the way, here you go.