Beach Reads #8: East of Eden by John Steinbeck.

Paperback edition.

A personal and sweeping novel, John Steinbeck's exhilarating portrait of human nature examines the question: Are we bound by the past?

When Steinbeck sat down in Monterey, CA and began to write EAST OF EDEN, he focused upon two words: "Thou mayest," or "timshel." In the narrative that followed, he set forth the idea that we are not bound by our inheritance, and that the Bible asserts this claim when translated correctly.

Steinbeck's most ambitious novel is part deeply personal history of the author and his family, and part retelling of the Cain and Abel story. It's also a sweeping, transcendent work, with beautiful and humorous insights into human nature.