Jesse’s Comments (group member since Jan 22, 2012)

Jesse’s comments from the The Game-Changers! group.

East of Eden is the book that changed everything for me. It's the book that made me fall in love with language, inspired my life philosophy and allowed me to truly engage with the world. It took my insular existence and forced me to realize my insignificance in the grand scheme of things, but also how essential my existence is to the world, This all sounds a bit pretentious I know, but if any community can understand what I mean, it's this one.

I first discovered East of Eden in a hospital lounge right after being diagnosed with diabetes when everything seemed pretty hopeless. I was young, and, as the young are wont to do, I saw the end of the world behind every setback. East of Eden gave me strength--it was like reading from some sort of magical tome, a healing spell, a spell of rejuvenation. Oddly, reading a novel that was both so intimate and sprawling--that dealt with such weighty but indispensable themes-- put a lot of things into perspective for me. When I set down the book, I was appropriately awed by Steinbeck's structure and plotting, but I didnt truly come to understand the book's power until several years later.

There was a shift in me when I read this novel that I was too young to understand. I didn't understand until I was asked to write my admissions essay for college and I realized that I could quote whole passages from East of Eden even though it had been years since I read it. I had claimed the book as my favorite for several years at that point--largely because it felt appropriately sophisticated. I came to realize, though, that it wasn't my favorite book. I didn't enjoy reading it. That's why I had never gone back to it. Retreading the book was as painful as it was the first time--that kind of heart-wrenching, soul-sucking pain that we all desire and yet simultaneously fear. Even now, running my hands along what is now a well-worn copy invites a flood of emotions much more intense than any totally sane individual would find appropriate. But it's that little bit of insanity, that modicum of anarchy, that makes this book so great.

For me, it was a game-changer. It forever altered the way I look at people, the world even. It is a novel wrought with not only beauty, but also pain and sorrow and love and loneliness, all splattered against the backdrop of WW 1-era Salinas Valley, California like road kill on the median-- senseless and tragic yet oddly beautiful.