Published in 1952, this is Steinbeck’s virtuoso performance. Nearly 600 pages of clean, direct prose colored with history, lyrical geographic description, fully rounded characters, and a story that marches ahead toward the fate of two families in California’s Salinas Valley, the Hamiltons and the Trasks.

I came to it looking for an American saga, expecting a novel of broad range over people and time. There is that, but far more. There is a wealth of great reading, along the lines of Tolstoy, DIckens, Hemingway. By Steinbeck’s own admission, the novel is his magnum opus, collecting and utilizing all that he has learned as a writer and applying it to “the big one.”

Of course, with the title and the Cain v. Abel / brother v. brother motiff, paradise lost, etc. There is considerable documentation out there that draws the book’s biblical parallels, especially with the book of Genesis.

Our recent grim and fearful post-election period has been an appropriate time to read about Evil. I reached the end of my read soon after the Inauguration, a queasy time when false pretenders are assuming the reins of power, truth is moving to the shadows again, and actual demons are literally being released.

You’ll spend a lot of time in this book. Sort of like being inside the world of McMurtry’s novel Lonesome Dove, being a close witness type of reader, involved emotionally, staying up late turning pages. Steinbeck relates and spins the story but does not try to razzle-dazzle us with literary pyrotechnics. There are academic debates about who the scarcely-mentioned “I” voice could be. I go with the one that says it’s Steinbeck himself, posing as one of Hamilton’s grandchildren. He extends the fun a little and has the Steinbeck house and family appear in a late chapter. Cameo stuff, based on fact. No matter. Just read, knowing that essentially the story is presented in third person POV all the way through.

Adam Trask is the good-hearted character who cannot quite attain a successful place in life. He is demoralized and cursed by his past affection for Cathy Ames, possibly the most vicious and nasty woman to ever appear in a modern classic American novel. Their offspring (or, as we later learn, from she and Adam’s brother) are the young twins Aron and Cal, who will carry the saga forward into the century.

The wise Chinaman Lee is almost too good a character, and for my money steals the show. He exceeds Sam Hamilton in his ability to shoot the shit, i.e. talk to any topic, and he does so with eloquence. He shows even more intelligence, compassion, and duty than Sam or his wife Liza combined. He is the saving grace of the twins. His major role however is philosophic. His deep studies and knowledge of the bible and beliefs both Oriental and Occidental, allow him to give us the novel’s key message: timshel, Hebrew for “thou mayest,” which moves us out from under the imperative of “thou shalt.” So, we have a choice about Evil.

And somehow that choice about Evil brings us back to election-time again.