Ask a John Steinbeck Expert/ California Book Club: East of Eden

Let's talk John Steinbeck's family saga in the Salinas Valley as we compare/contrast his book to the latest screen adaptation on Netflix.
About this Event

Hi, it’s Vanessa, your ENLIGHTENMENT host.

Here’s the latest pick for my bimonthly book club of fiction/non-fiction focused on the Golden State.

Along with the book, I invite a special guest to each club meeting, someone who is an expert or very connected to the theme of the book and can answer our questions about the topic. So even if you haven’t finished / opened the book, you can still be part of the conversation.

The latest screen adaptation of East of Eden comes out on Netflix October 1. How will Florence Pugh as antihero Cathy Trask compare to Jane Seymour, who did a great job as the evil beauty in an ABC TV miniseries from 1981? And will screenwriter Zoe Kazan live up to her grandfather Elia Kazan, who directed the classic 1950s movie with James Dean?

John Steinbeck calls this 1952 novel his magnum opus. (And it is a long read.) The Salinas Valley, his childhood home, is a big character in the book, where Steinbeck explores generational trauma, free will, good versus evil, and biblical parallels to Cain and Abel.

I’ve invited an expert on John Steinbeck to join us in our book talk. Sacramento State film professor Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck co-directed the short documentary The Long Valley, which explores the people and landscape of the Salinas Valley, and screened last year at the Sundance Film Festival

So bring your comments, opinions and questions — nothing is too small or dumb to discuss.

Below is a summary of East of Eden. Join me for a Sunday Brunchtime talk about the book, the screen adaptations and Steinbeck’s Salinas Valley.

Tickets are $5 (not including Eventbrite's fee) to cover brunch bites and mimosas.

Claim your seat -

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In his journal, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck called East of Eden “the first book,” and indeed it has the primordial power and simplicity of myth.

Set in the rich farmland of California’s Salinas Valley, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families—the Trasks and the Hamiltons—whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.

Here is a work in which Steinbeck created his most mesmerizing characters and explored his most enduring themes: the mystery of identity, the inexplicability of love, and the murderous consequences of love’s absence.

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