Every now and then you read a work of art with such sweeping majesty in its narrative that it drowns you in its torrent; what emerges is the sense that you’ve been affected but you can only muster half-formed kernels of thought as explanation. 

‘East of Eden’ stripped down is the story of two families; the Trasks and the Hamiltons as they settle in the Salinas valley near California towards the closing years of the 19th century. Focussing mostly on the Trasks, it traces the lives of the half-siblings, Adam and Charles, who are raised by their war-wounded father Cyrus and his docile wife, Alice; Cyrus’s archaic approach to masculinity drives a wedge between the siblings that alters their relationship. Adam marries Cathy and moves to the valley where he’s entrusted to raise his children, Caleb and Aron, with the paternal guidance of his maverick friend, Samuel Hamilton, and his Chinese-American househelp, Lee. Cathy does her own thing which I’d rather not divulge.

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