At the beginning of Part 2, Steinbeck’s narrator goes on about how horrible the 19th century was, glad it is over, time to wash our hands of it and start fresh. But he repeats this lovely bit before moving on to the thirteenth chapter:
Oh, but strawberries will never taste so good again and the thighs [...]
Author Archives: glenl
EoE Favorite Quotes
18 November 2009 – 5:28 pm
East of Eden
3 November 2009 – 12:31 am
It is Fall of 1952, Dwight D. Eisenhower has just become president of the United States with Nixon as his running mate, the Korean War has not yet ended, and John Steinbeck publishes East of Eden. The Salinas valley is a rich agricultural area, “America’s Salad Bowl,” and most of my memories are of travels [...]
The Door in the Wall
28 May 2009 – 2:19 pm
This short story deserves a second reading. It has an interesting narrative voice that relates a story of a friend’s memory. Throughout the reading I couldn’t help thinking that the door in the wall is meant to represent opportunity. It is a peculiar telling.
Twitching
26 May 2009 – 11:52 pm
Charles Ryder is on the move in A Twitch upon the Thread, which delivers a remarkable sentence just two pages into chapter one as he travels through Central America:
I used to stuff a bundle of letters into my bag and read them when I felt inclined, which was in circumstances so incongruous — swinging in [...]
