East of Eden: New and Recent Essays ed. by Michael J. Meyer and Henry Veggian (review)

East of Eden: New and Recent Essays took the idea of the late Steinbeck Scholar and professor Michael J. Meyer and, posthumously, finished his work of compiling a series of new critical essays that cover a wide variety of scholarship from a number of different critical theories. The first few chapters read a little off, speculating on the history of influence for Steinbeck’s East of Eden (EoE) and photographs of possible locations and potential inspirations for EoE’s setting. After this, however, the anthology takes a more academic turn and results in a solid series of essays, all written for the 60th anniversary of EoE’s first publication.

Inside the anthology are twelve different essays, each with a different scope or view. The topics range from biopolitics and geopolitics in EoE to biblical allegory and in-depth character studies. The idea behind the anthology was, simply, to release modern scholarship surrounding what is considered one of John Steinbeck’s greatest novels. According to the introduction of the anthology, new criticism arose recently surrounding EoE, and the novel as a whole had long been neglected. With this idea in mind, Dr. Meyer began compiling and collecting essays on EoE, hoping to rectify the neglect. Because of EoE’s experimental narrative, blending fiction and autobiography, many critics have focused much on the mismatched storytelling, claiming Steinbeck should have written one or the other, but certainly not both. Because this anthology takes a look at “new and recent essays” on EoE, much of that critique has been ignored, and newer ideas have taken their place.

Setting plays a large part in Steinbeck’s work, and the anthology represents that. Many of the essays discuss setting and location, some even going so far as to be solely about the setting, though those that do focus on setting discuss different aspects. There are also a few essays that cover the biblical significance of the title and the biblical parallels and allegories woven into EoE’s narrative. And while some of these essays are related by theme, theory, or content, the book has no discernible grouping for the essays; this disorganization was intentional, according to the introduction, to signify the ongoing discussion surrounding EoE.

Florian Schwieger’s “‘Mapping the Land of Nod’: The Spatial Imagination of John Steinbeck’s East of Eden” is a powerful essay with a heavy focus on the geopolitics and American psyche of EoE. Schwieger focuses on the established knowledge about “the best-known story in the world” (qtd. in Schwieger). Schwieger goes on to discuss how crucial setting is to the novel and how each major setting of EoE represents some piece of the American psyche or biblical Eden narrative.

Henry Veggian’s “Bio-Politics and the Institution of Literature: An Essay on East of Eden, its Critics, and its Time” takes an interesting approach, offering a critique of the critics of EoE. Veggian argues that some critics misinterpreted the novel and misattributed its role in history. A large part of Veggian’s argument looks at the many critiques that argued about the anachronisms present in the book. Veggian’s essay focuses on cold-war postmodernism versus new postmodernism and how they both pertain to EoE.

Moving away from setting as a key, Jeremy Leatham’s “Out of Eden: Dualism, Conformity, and Inheritance in Steinbeck’s ‘Big Book’” looks at Steinbeck’s use of allegory and American cultural views, especially the duality between communism and capitalism, and how conformity to ideas was rewarded and non-conformity chastised or feared.

Elisabeth Bayley’s “Mimesis, Desire and Lack in John Steinbeck’s East of Eden” is a unique piece for the collection. Bayley’s essay takes a narrative theory approach to the novel, focusing on the mimesis present in the novel and how that mimesis is what draws readers to EoE. In short, Bayley argues that people want and like to read about things that relate to...