East of Eden
Humm… had this sitting in my drafts since the summer. A couple things pulled from John Steinbeck’s East of Eden. It came recommended by Victor and indeed has become one of my books of fiction. There was something subtle, yet sharp — both in written style and in observed insight — that I especially liked about the following two excerpts.
[Early 1900s]
Train schedules are a matter of pride and of apprehension to nearly everyone. When, far up the track, the block signal snapped from red to green and the long, stabbing probe of the headlight sheered the bend and blared on the station, men looked at their watches and said, “On time.”
There was pride in it, and relief too. The split second had been growing more and more important to us. And as human activities become more and more intermeshed and integrated, the split tenth of a second will emerge, and then a new name must be made for the split hundredth, until one day, although I don’t believe it, we’ll say, “Oh, the hell with it. What’s wrong with an hour?” But it isn’t silly, this preoccupation with small time units. One thing late or early can disrupt everything around it, and the disturbance runs outward in bands like the waves from a dropped stone in a quiet pool.
p. 533
[Son, Aron, returns after a semester away at Stanford University]
Adam said, “Coffee, Lee?”
“I made it before we left. It’s on the simmer.” He had the cups laid out too. Suddenly they were together–Aron and Abra on the couch, Adam in his chair under the light, Lee passing coffee, and Cal braced in the doorway to the hall. And they were silent, for it was too late to say hello and too early to begin other things.
December 30th, 2008 at 6:52 pm
=) I also recommend “Of mice and men” by Steinbeck. It’s a much shorter book, but a very good read.