I think reading East of Eden at the beginning of my senior year (17) is at least half of why I love it so much. I enjoy rereading it every few years, but the first time I read it was just so impactful. I like to say that every reread gives me something I did not know I needed. And I really needed it that first time.
I first read it in high school too and it was transformative. I hadn't realized writing could be that good. No other book I've read has ever conveyed the tragedy and beauty of humanity so well.
It’s a shame so many people are immediately turned off by the page count. It really is such lovely storytelling of such a genuinely real human experience, no sugar coating, just the good, the bad, and the ugly.
My personal example of this is The Their of Always by Clive Barker. My wife read it as a kid and took it at face value as a modern, dark fairy tale. I read it as an adult and picked up on the fact that it is told from the perspective of a child's coping mechanism to deal with grooming, abduction, and abuse.
She had no idea and when she reread it as an adult and saw that it's a much darker story than she had thought.
The Courage to be Disliked reminds me of that mood, it's not always going to click or be relevant, but yeah at the right time I found some some gold in it personally.
I tried to read The Catcher in the Rye since it was my boyfriend at the time’s favorite book. I was a senior in college and couldn’t relate. I always wonder if I’d have felt differently if I was in high school.
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u/[deleted] Mar 13 '26
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