The title of this novel is only 50% accurate, a very poor effort. Yes, it’s about men, but there’s little or nothing about mice in these pages. Mice enthusiasts will come away disappointed. This got me thinking about other novel titles. You would have to say that such books as The Slap, The Help, The Great Gatsby, Gangsta Granny, Mrs Dalloway and Hamlet have very good titles because they are all about a slap, some help, a Gatsby who was really great, a no good granny, a woman who was married to a guy called Dalloway and a Hamlet. I have no problem with those titles. But you may be poring over the pages of To Kill a Mockingbird for a long fruitless evening to find any mockingbirds coming to any harm at all. Indeed, to coin a phrase, no mockingbirds were harmed during the making of that book. So I rate that title only 5% accurate. And some titles seem to have a word missing, such as Conan Doyle’s The Sign of Four. Four what? It doesn’t say. Perhaps he completed the book and left the title to the very last minute and died as he was writing it down. Same thing with The Crimson Petal and the White. White what? Wallpaper? Hat? Cat? Mouse? Mockingbird? Could be The Crimson Petal and the White Gangsta Granny for all we know. A poor title. And what about The Dharma Bums? I think a Cigarette or You Out is clearly missing from that title. Another grossly misleading title is Women in Love . I can’t be the only reader who was expecting some strong girl on girl action from DH Lawrence but I would have been better off fast-forwarding to the middle part of Mulholland Drive. Now that’s what I call Women in Love. DH, take note. Another badly chosen title is Hitler’s Niece - yes, it is 100% accurate, but at first glance it can look like Hitler’s Nice, and surely that is going to put off a lot of potential readers (except for the readers you really don’t want).

And what about Call it Sleep? – call what sleep?

The Catcher in the Rye, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Flaubert’s Parrot, The Camomile Lawn – sometimes obscure titles can be solved if you understand that the author is referring to Death, so, the Catcher is Death, the Postman is Death, the lawn is Death and the Parrot is Death. Of course, I may have got that wrong. It’s something I read somewhere and it just stuck in my mind.


Some other titles I would give low ratings to :

The Turn of the Screw completely baffled me – I know that “screw” is what inmates call prison officers, so I was expecting a story about a concert put on by the staff of a large correctional institution. It was nothing like that.

The Little Prince according to my system does rate 100% but I still think The Little Faux-naif Idiot would have been better.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay – actually, I rate this as 90% accurate – there are two guys who are named Kavalier and Clay, and they do have adventures, but they aren’t amazing.

A Clockwork Orange – this must be a metaphor for “I have given up thinking of a title for my novel”

No Name – like A Clockwork Orange this must be where the author couldn’t think of any title so in this case he left it without one, like the Byrds’ album Untitled, or () by Sigur Ros, or several paintings by De Kooning and those other abstract expressionist types; but to call a novel No Name is self-defeating, because No Name then becomes its name – epic fail, Mr Collins.

The Violent Bear it Away - this is another example of a word missing - possibly "took" or "dragged", I expect that's the sort of thing a violent bear would do I’m surprised the publisher did not catch this error.

(Book 608 from 1001 books) - Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck

Of Mice and Men is a novella written by author John Steinbeck. Published in 1937.

Of Mice and Men tells the story of George Milton and Lennie Small, two displaced migrant ranch workers, who move from place to place in California in search of new job opportunities during the Great Depression in the United States.

عنوانهای چاپ شده در ایران: «موشها و آدمها»؛ نویسنده: جان استاین‌بک (اشتاین بک)؛ انتشاراتیهای: (اساطیر، امیرکبیر، کانون معرفت، زرین، مدبر، علی فرهنگی، سعیدی، چکاوک، گلبرگ برزین، جنگل، در دانش، گلمهر، گویش نو، ماهی، و ...)؛ ادبیات؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: سال 1974میلادی

عنوان: موشها و آدمها؛ نویسنده: جان استاین‌بک (اشتاین بک)؛ مترجم پرویز داریوش؛ تهران، امیرکبیر، چاپ دوم 1340، در 104ص؛ چاپ سوم سال1356، چاپ چهارم 1362؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، کانون معرفت، 1345، در 184ص؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، زرین، 1362، در 202ص؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، اساطیر، 1366، در 137ص؛ چاپ بعدی 1389، در 136ص؛ شابک 9789643314675؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، مدبر، 1370، در 167ص؛ چاپ بعدی 1388، در 172ص، شابک 9789646631670؛ چاپ دیگر انتشارات علمی فرهنگی، 1394، در 139ص؛ موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان امریکایی - سده 20م

مترجم: ولی الله ابراهیمی؛ تهران، سعیدی، 1348، در 175ص؛ چاپ بعدی 1363، در 203ص؛

مترجم: مهدی خوانساری؛ تهران، چکاوک، 1362، در 195ص؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، پگاه، 1369، در 195ص؛

مترجم: گلبرگ برزین؛ تهران، گلمهر، 1381، در 137ص؛ شابک 9647438060؛ در 137ص؛

مترجم: الهام تابع احمدی؛ اصفهان، جنگل، 1382، در 79ص؛ دو زبانه، شابک 9646089857؛

مترجم: محمدصادق شریعتی؛ تهران، گویش نو، 1387، در 87ص؛ دو زبانه، شابک 9789649616841؛

مترجم: پریسا محمدی؛ کرج، در دانش، 1387، در 102ص؛ شابک 9789641740940؛

مترجم: سروش حبیبی؛ تهران، ماهی، 1388، در 154ص؛ شابک 9789642090594؛ چاپ دوم 1392؛ چاپ پنجم 1395؛ شابک 9789642091522؛ در 160ص؛

مترجم: مینا فراهانی؛ تهران، فرهنگ زبان، 1389، در 84ص؛ دو زبانه، شابک 9789648794670؛

مترجم: ایمان قادری؛ تهران، ابرسفید، 1391، در 227ص؛ شابک 9786009254507؛

مترجم: احسان قادری؛ تهران، ابرسفید، چاپ دوم 1393، در 216ص؛ شابک 9786009254507؛

مترجم: مهدی افشار؛ تهران، به سخن، 1394، در 160ص؛ شابک 9786007987018؛

مترجم: فرزام حبیبی اصفهانی؛ تهران، زاویه، 1395، در 154ص؛ شابک 9789649562032؛ چاپ دیگر، نشر هرم، 1395؛ شابک 9789648882674؛

هشدار: اگر این کتاب خود میخواهید بخوانید، از خوانش ریویو خودداری فرمائید؛

در این داستان «جرج میلتون»، و «لنی اسمال»، دو دوست هستند، که روزگار خویش را در اسبداری‌ها، می‌گذرانند؛ آرزوی دیرین آنها این است، که روزی جایی را بخرند، و در آنجا «خرگوش» پرورش دهند؛ «لنی» از کودکی، از نوازش چیزهای نرم، خوشش میآید، و زور بازوی بسیار دارد؛ او چندان باهوش نیست؛ دچار دردسر میشود، به ویژه هنگامی که زن پسر ارباب، «کرلی»، از او میخواهد تا موهایش را نوازش کند؛ «لنی» ناخواسته زن بیچاره را می‌کشد، و از ترس می‌گریزد؛ «کرلی» خشمگین، با مردانش، در پی یافتن و از پای درآوردن «لنی»، راهی میشوند؛ «جرج» هم، به رغم سوگندش، برای پشتیبانی از «لنی»، به گروه میپیوندد؛ و ...؛

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 28/05/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 09/05/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

3.5 ⭐
این تمِ غالب جارى در نوشته‌های جان استاین‌بک؛ یعنی زدن بی‌رحمانه‌ی سیلیِ سنگین واقعیت -در قالب پایان‌هایی تراژیک- به عالم هپروتِ شخصیت‌های بی‌نوای داستان‌هایش را همیشه دوست داشته و دارم... حس می‌کنم می‌فهممش، از جنس زندگیه.
در «موش‌ها و آدم‌ها» این‌ بار اما در فرم رمان-نمایشنامه، با همان آدم‌های بختْ گمراهِ آشنایی سروکار داریم که خوشبختی از ابتدا به آن‌ها پشت کرده بود. همان‌ها که برای زندگی بهتر به هر دری می‌زنند و هر بار زندگی از روی غیظ، دندان کین خود را محکم‌تر به هم می‌ساید.

بر آستانه تسليم سر بنه حافظ
که گر ستيزه کنی روزگار بستيزد

What can I say about Of Mice and Men that hasn't been said before? Probably nothing. But I can say that I'm glad I was not assigned this in high school like so many. I'm glad I waited to read this as an adult to not only better appreciate the technical aspects (the writing, descriptions, themes, characterizations) but also understand more deeply the themes it explores. It's deceptively simple and utterly profound, and it has convinced me that Steinbeck is definitely one of my favorite authors.

It's the way Steinbeck describes things that gets me.

"Crooks, the negro stable buck, had his bunk in the harness room; a little shed that leaned off the wall of the barn. On one side of the little room there was a square four-paned window, and on the other, a narrow plank door leading into the barn. Crooks' bunk was a long box filled with straw, on which his blankets were flung. On the wall by the window there were pegs on which hung broken harness in process of being mended; strips of new leather; and under the window itself a little bench for leather-working tools, curved knives and needles and balls of linen thread, and a small hand riveter. On pegs were also pieces of harness, a split collar with the horsehair stuffing sticking out, a broken hame, and a trace chain with its leather covering split. Crooks had his apple box over his bunk, and in it a range of medicine bottles, both for himself and for the horses. There were cans of saddle soap and a drippy can of tar with its paint brush sticking over the edge. And scattered about the floor were a number of personal possessions; for, being alone, Crooks could leave his things about, ad being a stable buck and a cripple, he was more permanent than the other men, and he had accumulated more possessions than he could carry on his back."

None of this is relevant to the story, and yet a middle chapter opens up with this vivid scene. Steinbeck succeeds because the characters he paints in your head are exact. The first time I saw the movie that was made out of this story, it was just as I had envisioned it. Though the story great itself, the reason I will come back to this book is for the little things, the very things that have made me love Steinbeck so much.

I first read Of Mice And Men my sophomore year of high school, when it was a required reading in Mrs. Beeler's class. I recall disliking almost all required school readings up to this point (though admittedly I had skipped out on the summer reading project of "The Grapes Of Wrath"). When this book was assigned, I knew it was different. I blew through it, reading it in a day or two, even though I wasn't supposed to. For once there was a school book that I enjoyed. And all the credit in the world to my teacher, who chose other good books the rest of the year. So it's been 6-7 years since I've read this, and now, reading it for the second time, it's just as memorable as I remember. The story sticks with you, the imagery sticks. The characters are among Steinbeck's best, painted in such a crystal clear vision of the time.

It's a near perfect short story, and one that I will surely revisit throughout my life.

Dear Mr Stienbeck,

It's 1 am, I'm sitting in my favorite reading chair, my cat, Boots, is lying next to me, The window is open and the sweet smell of the evening rain is blowing in, my tea sets on the window sill unfinished and cold, tears streak my cheeks, and your book, your beautiful book, Of Mice and Men, rests in my lap.

I went to bed early with the hopes of getting a good night's sleep, only to have those hopes dashed, like so many others in my life, as I was still awake around 11 pm. I decided a cup of chamomile and some reading might help me get to sleep finally. I put the kettle on and walked to the bookshelf, I made a mental note that the shelf is getting low on suitable reading material and to visit the library soon. I studied the few remaining books on the shelf, no, no, no, maybe, no, no, yes!!!! Steinbeck never disappoints!!! The kettle starts to whistle. I pour the tea and settle into my chair with Boots.

I never planned on reading the whole story in one sitting. I never meant for my wife to come out of the bedroom and see me crying like a baby. I never planned on staying up till 1 am, when I need to be up for work at 4 am. I never planned on my tea going cold, and undrunk. Like so many of my best-laid plans though, it all went wrong. Within the first few pages, I was hooked. The first tears were shed early when George took the dead mouse from Lenny. I quickly recovered and was overjoyed when Lenny stood up to that asshole Curley. My happiness peaked when Lenny got the puppy and I thought it would be smooth sailing to the end. Oh how wrong I was! The tears flowed pretty steadily after that. First the puppy, and then that tramp. I was full-on sobbing, nose running, gasping, crying like a baby when George pulled the trigger.

Thank you for all your wonderful writing, and the emotional whirlwind you took me on with this one.

Forever a fan,

Jesse

شاهکار فوق‌العاده ای از روابط انسانی و سرگذشت غم انگیز دو دوست کارگر.. نثر نمایشنامه ای و ریتم بالای این اثر بهمراه شخصیت پردازی فوق‌العاده و گیرایی روایت، خوانش اثر رو بشدت لذت بخش میکنه و درنهایت پایان تراژیک کتاب هست که جای هیچ بحثی رو باقی نمیگذاره..

“In every bit of honest writing in the world, there is a base theme. try to understand men, if you understand each other, you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and nearly always leads to love”

A timeless work of fiction that embraces universal themes of racism, poverty, mental disorder, and friendship that brings with it loyalty and misguided loyalty as Steinbeck delivers yet another powerful story, this time of two men struggling to find work, during the Great Depression in the US. One a gentle giant who ‘kills with kindness’ and the other, George, who takes control of his friend who possesses the mental age of a child, in a bid to find work alongside a migrant workforce who are also in need, flawed and with their own back stories.

The two central characters, George and Lennie, have arrived at a farm in search of work having fled from their previous job because of some minor transgression by Lennie. Conscious of his friend’s mental competence, George becomes Lennie’s voice and with very tightly controlled conversations with others, he encourages his friend to say nothing to anyone they meet. The promise for this compliance is work and the pledge that they will both find a place where rabbits run free!!!.

Words are offered to protect Lennie, “If you jus’ happen to get in trouble like you always done before, I want you to come right here an’ hide in the brush… “ and yet Lennie does get into trouble again as the story takes on a sad twist that will test friendship and expose all the inequalities of a world portrayed by Steinbeck.

Powerful in its message but simple in its storytelling, evocative in its themes and sentimental in its portrayal of all that is wrong at that time in history as people struggled to find work and their next meal. The characterisation is intriguing and the small group of people central to the story is indictive of a society in need, with prejudices, ambitions, with an underlying mistrust of people around them.

Simple and powerful and one of those books everyone should read in their lifetime.

So it starts as you lay there awake, in the quiet hours of night, lulling your head to be hushed of those deafening thoughts, faces, voices, you kept on getting day long, as you con your head into forged drowsiness, and it starts dawning on you, the coiled snake sitting in the corner of your mind tilts its head, clogs every nerve in his coil, deep-seated thought of being all alone in this universe of biological process over process strikes you to the core, universal loneliness houses your whole being, Our uniqueness makes us special, makes perception valuable - but it can also make us lonely. This loneliness is different from being 'alone': You can be lonely even surrounded by people. The feeling I'm talking about stems from the sense that we can never fully share the truth of who we are, we can never talk the next soul of our inner happenings, the loneliness of this kind eats our being and we device heavens, If not in this life, but in the life to come, we don’t want to be this alone, but there are some stories who teach us the inevitability of it, no matter how far we travel in pursue of a dream land, we will always be alone!
“Just like heaven. Ever’body wants a little piece of lan’. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land. It’s just in their head. They’re all the time talkin’ about it, but it’s jus’ in their head.”
What if just in our head it all is, what if we are always been delusional by definition, of people we thought we loved or were loved, of sickness we thought were cured, of people we thought we’d known, of souls we thought had touched, of love we thought had lived, of memories we thought had faded, of faces we thought had gone, or weren’t there at the first place. This is the story of unloved and alone, of George Milton and Lennie Small, the story of two antithetic coming together in bond only death dared disrupt. The story of the dream which dwelt all just in head and inspired them to work from place to place in the wake of depression years in America.
Steinbeck’s characters are suspiciously caricaturesque,as if placed there just for that purpose, with no backdrop stories of their own, no life before the opening scene, a giant-structured low at wits character to be paired with equally short-statured but quick-wit George who protects Lennie from the harms of his world, they dreamt of rabbits and a farm where there won’t be having any masters, a land of their own, in the times of impossibilities and hunger extreme, universality of their dream takes the reader in awe of ingeniousness of the writer, nihilistic viewpoint of life being a journey from zero to zero is too much loud in undertones of his prose, the dream of a land of their own was a driving force to keep their heads up the consuming loneliness which seems to be ever prevalent in the air that all characters breathe in.
“There is a terrible emptiness in me, an indifference that hurts” said Camus in his last manuscript, this emptiness echoed through this sad tale of shocking ending, the ending we were given the hints of from the very start, the ending we kept denying to accept till the very end...

I needed a quick read because I stupidly forgot that the library would be closed yesterday for Veteran's Day. I'd exhausted my current supply, and I needed a short term fix to hold me until I could get some new product today. So I grabbed Of Mice and Men off the bookshelf last night.

And I'm glad I did because I'd somehow remembered that this was a depressing book. How wrong I was! Oh, sure there were some tense moments like when you think Lennie will accidently hurt Curley's wife in the barn. What a relief when George and Candy come in at the last minute and stop anything bad from happening! And isn't it nice that the scare changes both Curley and his wife so that they have a much better marriage and new appreciation for each other.

Plus, it leads to the great moment when Curley is so grateful that he fronts George, Lennie and Candy the money to finally buy the ranch of their dreams. Oh, and that last scene with George and Candy on the porch of their new home while Lennie tends the rabbits brought a tear to my eye.

What's that you say? I got the ending wrong? No, I'm quite certain this is what happened. No! Be quiet! I can't hear you! LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA

After long years of avoiding him, I finally managed to sum up my courage and read John Steinbeck. Now one may ask me why I had to "sum up the courage" to read Steinbeck books since they are not particularly difficult to read. It's not the writing I feared to face, but the subject matter, for I've entertained a preconceived notion that the chosen subjects for his books were depressing. I couldn't have been more wrong.

Of Mice and Men, deriving its title from the poem "To a Mouse" by Robert Burns, tells us a tale of friendship, of shattered dreams, of loneliness, of not being belonging to any place, and of human nature. "The best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry, and leave us naught but grief and pain for promised joy" said Burns in his poem. And that is what happens to Lennie and George in Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. George and Lennie dream of having their own land to cultivate and live free from "masters" ending their drifting lives. But their beautiful dream is shattered and their friendship is tested. And in the end, nothing is left but sadness and loneliness.

While telling his story, Steinbeck also exposes different sides of human nature. George's and Lennie's relationship shows the power of friendship. Despite being mentally handicapped and because of the very reason somewhat difficult to handle, George looks after Lennie without abandoning him. This power of love and compassion is not easily understood. Most of the coworkers in the ranch, even the boss, were cynical about it, making insinuations. But people like Slim and Candy understand and sympathize. Steinbeck shows that, while some men are cold, harsh, and bullying, there are still others who are warm, sensitive, and understanding.

The masterful descriptions of the setting bring the surrounding California landscape to life. Steinbeck, while glorifying nature, contrasts it with the gloomy human condition. The foreboding aura overshadowing George and Lennie is captured beautifully and is contrasted against the surrounding beauty of nature quite brilliantly. John Steinbeck is undoubtedly a gifted writer.

The only drawback for me was that I couldn't fully feel the emotions it aroused. It was sensitive and touching, and the ending was heartbreaking. But for some queer reason, I just couldn't rise to the emotions it generated, which was unfortunate.

Devotion
Before finishing the first page you realise you’re reading an authentic poetic piece of literature. As with other John Steinbeck works, his recognition and homage to hard economic times in America, and the transient drifting workforce is so vividly portrayed.

Lennie and George are two immortal characters that live well beyond the pages of this book. It is a heartbreaking story of loyalty and love, of friendship and society, and of hope and despondency. Lennie is the main discussion point in the book and it is such a sad story about the impact of a serious personality disorder, and how it can have devastating consequences to the person living with it and those around them. I did, however, think a lot about George and how he had enabled the friendship to grow and how he tried to provide a protective shield around Lennie. He was constantly reciting statements with Lennie that he may need if ever challenged or actions to follow if confronted. They dreamed and chatted constantly about the smallholding they had been saving for. They would have different crops and animals (particularly rabbits for Lennie) and be masters of their own domain. Life can be cruel when hope and aspirations can be dashed with an unforeseen event and twist of fate.

The story does have a sexist feel to it in the sense that the woman (not given a name in the story) was the downfall of Lennie and was only ever referred to as Curley’s wife. There is an inference that she was Curley’s possession and perhaps her behaviour was to illustrate she did not want to be the possession of anyone but wanted the freedom to be with as many as she liked.

After the incident, George showed sincere and deep love for Lennie in resolving the issue in a way which was best for Lennie while leaving himself with remorse, guilt and loss. Not to mention the trouble he would have been in if the authorities found out what he had done.

Why oh why did it take me so long to read this book – don’t make the same mistake. I highly recommend reading this moving and literate masterpiece.