John Steinbeck’s epic family saga East of Eden comes with biblical themes and a near-biblical page count. The 1952 classic was Steinbeck’s last major work and it is credited, along with The Grapes of Wrath, with securing him the Nobel Prize in Literature, which he won in 1962.
In 1955, two Hollywood legends—director Elia Kazan and actor James Dean—came together to create a film adaptation that was well-regarded by audiences and critics alike. Now, more than 70 years later, Kazan’s granddaughter Zoe has directed a 7-episode Netflix miniseries starring Florence Pugh, Christopher Abbott, and Mike Faist, premiering October 1. Watch the East of Eden trailer.
In an exclusive interview, Kazan, an avid Steinbeck fan, told Vanity Fair‘s Hillary Busis that she was “really surprised by how loose an interpretation” her grandfather’s adaptation was because “some of my favorite characters are not really in it or are really marginalized. It struck me immediately as being a completely different beast than the book.”
Zoe Kazan’s take, in the works since 2020, aims to be a more comprehensive representation of the text by offering a more nuanced exploration of the villainous Cathy Ames, played by Pugh, and by including Lee, the Chinese American valet who was left out of Elia Kazan’s film. Hoon Lee, most recently of Apple TV’s Your Friends and Neighbors, landed the part and gets the spotlight in an episode written by novelist Alexander Chee.
There are layers of meta happening here, and we love to see it. East of Eden is a multigenerational story inspired by one of the oldest multigenerational stories on the books—Adam and Eve and their sons Cain and Abel—and now, multiple generations of another family have taken on the task of bringing it from page to screen. We can’t wait to watch.
Book Deals
Sign up for our Book Deals newsletter and get up to 80% off books you actually want to read.
If you want to read or revisit East of Eden before the show comes out, join our guided read-along for Zero to Well-Read.
This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.