I'm glad I read "East of Eden" before Oprah made it her latest book club choice because I probably wouldn't have read it. Not that I have anything against her - it was just that I took her choice in reading material to be helpful to me in the sense of knowing what to steer clear of. Until now, her taste struck me as relationship-y chick-flick books in which the protagonist is a cheated-on woman who eventually triumphs over the horrors of paternalism. Not my bag.
But now Oprah has helped re-establish the quaint notion that literature can cross political, economic (definitely economic!), ethnic, religious and cultural differences, because we both put "East of Eden" pretty near the top of our all-time all-star favorite novels. That's what a classic is.
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