Jon
There were moments of beauty and hope in the novel, and some memorable characters and plot pieces, but I can't say I enjoyed this overall. Steinbeck would often fall into a strange "telling" way of writing that didn't match up with what his characters actually did or how they acted. The amount of characters sort of diminished the center of gravity too much.
I liked some of the philosophical conversation, like around Timshel with Adam, Sam, and Lee. I also enjoyed the writing at times and the sheer determination around telling this story. The biblical allusions were a little overwrought and heavy handed though, and characters being either wholly good or wholly bad felt overly simplistic and undeserved.
I wonder if a stronger edit or more focus would have helped (far be it for me to say that to someone like Steinbeck) because otherwise this really just meandered towards a resolution you could see from a mile away.
There were moments of beauty and hope in the novel, and some memorable characters and plot pieces, but I can't say I enjoyed this overall. Steinbeck would often fall into a strange "telling" way of writing that didn't match up with what his characters actually did or how they acted. The amount of characters sort of diminished the center of gravity too much.
I liked some of the philosophical conversation, like around Timshel with Adam, Sam, and Lee. I also enjoyed the writing at times and the sheer determination around telling this story. The biblical allusions were a little overwrought and heavy handed though, and characters being either wholly good or wholly bad felt overly simplistic and undeserved.
I wonder if a stronger edit or more focus would have helped (far be it for me to say that to someone like Steinbeck) because otherwise this really just meandered towards a resolution you could see from a mile away.