I loved the first half and disliked the second. I still think it is an incredibly good book, but I want to read other people's thouths, because I feel like I've missed something here?
While i've had tiny objections, mostly for the first 50-60% the book was great. I thoroughly enjoyed the prose and the descriptions of Salinas valley and the life there. Then I was so disappointed to see that Steinback repeats the blasted Cain and Abel story again with Cal and Aron! I don't see any reason that boys' lives should revolve around the same pattern, and it felt like the author's hand too much (especially all this thing with the names). After the first meeting of the brothers with Abra, the story stopped being believable or enjoyable (for me), since I knew whose story Steinback makes it to be.
Also I quite disliked how the "good" brother Aron gets to be beautiful and blonde and loved since the start, and Cal is depicted as "darker" and "sinister" at eleven years old. Wow, what a characterisation.
Steinback says the book supposed to be about how people have free will, and then he forces his characters to be a certain way – not because of their environment or upbringing, but because it suits his parable.
by Low-Understanding448
1 Comment
Well seeing as the multigenerational cycle of Cain and Able stories is the central idea of the novel, it seems that you just don’t like it? And the book is about what it takes to actually exert free will. The pressures and labels we receive from a young age are a key part of the reason that the characters struggle with recognizing and executing their wills.
And I think your last sentence is just indefensible.