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Rating: 
Summary: boring...very little about John Steinbeck
Review: I checked this out of the library during one of my research 'attacks'. I was actually researching the life of Ed Ricketts and got dragged back into a Cannery Row-John Steinbeck 'binge'. I thought it would be interesting to read about John Steinbeck through the eyes of a son. However, the is very very little in this book about John Steinbeck and way too much about a weak-minded son. Boring. If you are interested in reading about someone who spends his life trying to find meaning in life via others (ie. cult life) and who cannot find strength within himself....who is too weak to deal with life without chemicals....this may be interesting to you. But there wasn't anything insightful here for me. Be warned....
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Summary: Why this book angers some people
Review: I loved this book. It brought up so many raw emotions for me, that I was sometimes haunted for days after reading a few chapters. For anyone whose life has been touched by the disease of alcoholism, it is a source of great insight, grounded in honesty and the willingness to courageously tear back the curtain to show the dark side of a famous family. The Steinbecks have been accused of writing "fantasies" about the great man by critics who claim to know more than family members. Incidents such as Steinbeck Sr. pushing his wife down the stairs in order to abort their child, or allowing John Jr. to fall on his face when told to jump into his father's arms are discredited as lies by people who have only studied the sanitized and authorized biographies and collections of letters. I met recently met Nancy Steinbeck at a booksigning. I went because I wanted to talk to her about the way alcoholism has affected my family. She confirmed that although she had to divorce her husband because of his drinking and her fear of being held legally responsible for his accidents or debts, they legally established a commonlaw marriage and she continues to receive Steinbeck's royalty payments which she inherited from her husband. I found the book to be a loving tribute to a difficult but enormously creative and fascinating husband who was plagued by serious addictions. Hazelden Foundation, the foremost treatment center in the country, has endorsed The Other Side of Eden as the story of a journey of victory over the disease of alcoholism and codependency. Anyone who is familiar with alcoholism knows that the way John Jr. died, with three years of sobriety, is a triumph and a cause for celebration. This book is a Rorschach test for the reader. If you are committed to the sanitized version of Steinbeck that appears in the authorized biographies, if you are disturbed by any form of icoloclasm (witness Joyce Maynard's crucifiction for writing about Salinger) then this book will, indeed, upset your fantasy world and rattle your cage. If you are ready to take a ride of transformation and raw honesty, read the book. It is, as Andrew Harvey claims in his powerful introduction, one of the most unique biographies of the century. I admire both John Jr. and Nancy Steinbeck for having the courage and commitment to tell their story for the sake of history and in service to others whose lives have been devastated by substance abuse. And, judging from the cover blurb by a Steinbeck scholar, I daresay most academics are appreciative that this story will be part of Steinbeck Sr's archives. There is a saying in the 12 step program: You Are As Sick as Your Secrets. The Steinbecks broke the silence of keeping family secrets, and that's a huge accomplishment. Let the groupie scholars who make a living on propagating the Myth of the Great Writer worry about whether their academic myopia will result in their own lack of credibility. Anyone who earns money glorifying the exaulted side of a writer while at the same time denying their shadow, is a fool. And who would have encouraged the Steinbecks more than the John Steinbeck Sr. himself to show a character, warts and all? Isn't that what Steinbeck is admired and loved for? His understanding of the human condition? How did he achieve that depth? If you want to find out, read the book.
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Summary: This book is a saga...NOT BORING!!!
Review: I'm reading this book in conjuction with Oprah's book club choice, East of Eden. I just had to respond to the person below who called the book boring, because I cannot put it down! People who drink alcholically are not weak minded, as the poster states. If self control could stop an addict, there would be no need for treatment centers and 12 Step programs. I found the story of recovery which weaves its way through John and Nancy Steinbeck's marriage to be tremendously inspiring and uplifting.
And I'm glad there's more to the book than an expose of Steinbeck's shadow side. This is an epic page turner which runs the gamut from the Steinbecks involvement with Beatniks, Hippies, Tibetan Buddhism, Viet Nam Vets, Anti-war protests,
Recovery, New Age gurus; it's truly a chronical for any baby boomer to find something that resonates in their own mythology.
The book has also helped readers on the Oprah Book Club board understand the psychological dynamics amongst the characters of East of Eden, as played out in the real lives of Steinbeck's sons. I love this book.
Rating:
Summary: This book is a saga...NOT BORING!!!
Review: I'm reading this book in conjuction with Oprah's book club choice, East of Eden. I just had to respond to the person below who called the book boring, because I cannot put it down! People who drink alcholically are not weak minded, as the poster states. If self control could stop an addict, there would be no need for treatment centers and 12 Step programs. I found the story of recovery which weaves its way through John and Nancy Steinbeck's marriage to be tremendously inspiring and uplifting.
And I'm glad there's more to the book than an expose of Steinbeck's shadow side. This is an epic page turner which runs the gamut from the Steinbecks involvement with Beatniks, Hippies, Tibetan Buddhism, Viet Nam Vets, Anti-war protests,
Recovery, New Age gurus; it's truly a chronical for any baby boomer to find something that resonates in their own mythology.
The book has also helped readers on the Oprah Book Club board understand the psychological dynamics amongst the characters of East of Eden, as played out in the real lives of Steinbeck's sons. I love this book.
Rating:
Summary: The Lifting of Burdens
Review: There is a Buddhist proverb which begins, "Things that are empty make a noise..."and it seems that no one was emptier than the great American author, John Steinbeck. It leaves us even sadder to learn that the son who carried his name, endured his own bitter hell only to stumble upon Eden at the end of his life. Steinbeck fans may be troubled to find their hero reduced to a raging drunk who threw his pregnant wife down the stairs because he didn't want another child. This unwanted child emerged, though and as fate would have its way, he carried the burden of his father's name, talent and demons until his last breath. It is true, The Other Side of Eden shatters an American hero, but as co-author Nancy Steinbeck has said, "the shattering of illusions is painful, but eventually liberating". I happen to agree, although not everyone would. What began as an autobiography of a famous son takes us deep into the world of religious cults, alcoholism, heroin addicton, child abuse, Vietnam and a marriage that through some miracle, endured. A picture of lives laid bare, it's a stinging account of what may be the price paid for genius. It affords us a seret peek into the elusive world of the literati and other privilged souls. Co-written by the junior John Steinbeck and his wife Nancy, readers will find both authors equally talented but with different writing styles that compliment one another. John suffered the fate of being born to parents who were emotionally crippled. But the younger Steinbeck was not looking to blame. He was commited to finding his own peace. He embraced Buddhism only to discover his guru was as abusive as his own father. He traveled all the way to India and Tibet only to find the same drugs he could have bought on the corner of Hollywood and Vine. He finally collapsed into the arms of his wife Nancy, who pulled him out of the gutter more times than he deserved. But as he traversed the globe, the answer was with him all along. He eventually learned that his intellect had obscured his view. God bless the smartest among us for they think too much. The Other Side of Eden is a raw and biting narrative, heavy with personal truth. It offers a view so intimate, one surely not meant to be seen by the general public. The candor of both authors can be applauded. This incredible story will also leave you rooting for this worthy couple that tried so hard and still fell short. Success is relative, though and a grieving Nancy may not agree. When Johnny dies after a botched surgery, readers may feel relieved that he left on the high note of sobriety for it seems that he was never really free of addiction. On the up years he simply substituted drugs for the less painful addictions of food and shopping. However, if you wish to hold on to "what could have been" this story indeed makes allowances for hope. The Other Side of Eden is not celebrity gossip, but a private viewing of what a legend leaves behind. Unlike a tabloid, it does not spend too much time re-living the appaling things that John Steinbeck did, but gives us insight into the man he was. Through his son, we get to know the real Steinbeck. That is all we have, yet it is enough. For as talented as John Steinbeck was, he never would have been honest enough for self confession. Thankfully, John and Nancy leave us nothing but truth without the charade for those who wish to know. Fans of Steinbeck's work will enjoy this book, but it offers much more...It should be read by every addict, child abuser, cult member, suvivor of war and all the victims left in the aftermath. To finish that mantra... Things that are empty make a noise, but the full is always quiet. The fool is like a half filled pot The wise man is like a deep still pool. We know that after a long search for inner stillness, Johnny died a wiser man. He spent much of his life thrashing about in an angry ocean trying not to drown, but in the end peacefully floated away in a still and quiet pool. Let's hope that Steinbeck, the father, found that same pool at this own end.
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Summary: Haunting and revealing
Review: This biography of life with John Steinbeck is written by his son, who grew up in a privileged world of the intellectual elite, but one laden with abuse and estrangement. His memoir ended with his life and here is reconstructed by his wife of twelve years who adds her own insights to full out the life of John Steinbeck. Haunting and revealing.
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Summary: Searching for Steinbeck
Review: This book packs a real punch. On one level, it is a story of what John Steinbeck IV once described as "the father thing," the long shadow that a world famous father almost inevitably casts over his sons. On another level, it is a story of the resentments, jealousies, and rages that the shadow can arouse in the sons. Beyond that, it is a story of family dysfunctionality, substance abuse, psychological trauma, and redeeming love. John Steinbeck IV suffered from hemachromatosis and a truly appalling alcoholism; both were diseases that he inherited from his parents. But these maladies were not his only inheritance. He also took from them exceptional intelligence and verbal virtuosity, and a frightening capacity for self-pity. He believed that he was a victim of his parents' own failures without realizing the extent to which he victimized himself. We may accept his assertion that his mother and father "popped" pills and drank too much (his mother far more than his father). But their use of drugs and alcohol paled in comparison to his own addiction to heroin and cocaine and his years of down-in-the-gutter drunkenness. His writing could soar at times, but at others it was pretentious and posturing. More than anything else, I suspect that it suffered from lack of discipline--the kind of self-imposed discipline that enabled his father to write a couple of dozen books that, after more than 50 years, still nourish and delight generations of readers. Nancy Steinbeck appears in these pages as tough, intelligent, resilient, and no reader can doubt the bond of love that tied her to her husband. Notwithstanding the bitter allegations that the younger Steinbeck levels against his father (he was self-absorbed, emotionally distant, given to sudden changes of mood and rages), he does not really come off that bad in these pages. The son admits that his father was an essentially good man who taught him that "the most refined, highest wisdom and unknown knowledge is found in the everyday world." And he firmly declares that he loves him "deeply." This book will give readers some insight into the personal life of the great novelist and his troubled relations with his two sons.
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Summary: The Other Side of Eden
Review: What I found most valuable about The Other Side of Eden was not its revelations about John Steinbeck III, whose writings have never much interested me, but the light it casts on the generation of the 1960s. The authors participated in some of its key events. John Steinbeck spent years in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. Nancy Steinbeck - then Lenn - lived in the San Francisco Bay Area and was a bridge from the beats to the hippies. Both Nancy and John experimented with drugs, became Buddhists, and associated with well-known figures of the time. The stories about Trungpa Rinpoche, William Burroughs, and his son Billy are especially fascinating. For anyone wanting to understand the 60s, John's reflections on his relationship with his father provide valuable insights into what was then called the generation gap. Generations have always had their differences, but the divide then was more like the Grand Canyon. Between the World War II generation and the 60s lay the civil rights movement, nuclear devices, the pill, and television. And also mountains of money. The postwar boom had transformed middleclass America into the minor aristocracy of the world - but without any useful models of privilege to guide it. In the case of the Steinbeck family, the terrain was especially jumbled. John's father, who had made his reputation as a writer by sympathetically describing the lives of the oppressed, had by the 1960s become associated with National Review, Lyndon Johnson, and other Vietnam hawks. Yet the Steinbeck of the 1960s and the earlier Steinbeck were essentially the same man, as this book shows. In the family's divorces, alcoholism, ambition, recklessness, and abusiveness, a John Wayne-like tyrannical individualism played itself out. I was reminded of Michel Houllebecq's The Elementary Particles, in which a disintegrating nuclear family heralds the end of an era. Nancy Steinbeck's portions of the book are written with warmth, humor, and winning energy, as well as with a clarity that John's writing sometimes lacks, (probably because when he died his manuscript was unfinished.) Her writing provides most of the structure of the book. Her willingness to experiment, her fascination with extremes, and her ease with exceptional and sometimes dangerous people (such as John Steinbeck IV) come across as life-affirming. The Other Side of Eden is a record of lives lived dangerously. For John and Nancy Steinbeck risk was necessary to escape personal and public traps, but also for the pure joy of it. The Steinbecks also accepted that suffering is inevitable. Both are well-acquainted with grief and despair, and yet happiness always seems just around the corner. The book searches and sprawls, rushes forward and looks back, and is generous in its precise and messy candor. It communicates a rare readiness to meet life.
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