Netflix's 'East of Eden' Adaptation Is Even Better When It Goes Beyond the Book

Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for East of Eden on Netflix.East of Edenis the greatest novel by John Steinbeck, whose work has frequently been adapted. Although Steinbeck’s novels have inspired great films like John Ford's Oscar-winning Grapes of Wrath and Gary Sinise’s Of Mice and Men, East of Eden has been a much harder story to crack because it is an epic, generational story that spans decades of time; the one cinematic adaptation from 1955 that was directed by Elia Kazanand starred James Deanis certainly a great film, but it is based only on the last few chapters of the novel. However, Kazan’s granddaughter Zoe Kazan follows the entire plot of the book in the seven-part Netflix adaptation that tells the entire story of sin and forgiveness. While seven episodes still isn’t enough time to capture everything that was in the book, as the Hamilton family plays a relatively small role, 2026’s East of Edenreinvents the character of Cathy Ames, who Steinbeck had originally described as a “psychic monster.”