“Trouble with mice is you always kill 'em. ”

Breathtaking prose, touching characters and a heart breaking ending. Who said only lengthy novel can make an impact?

I've been on a Steinbeck kick again, reading and rereading his books, marveling, as usual, at his brilliance and freakish ability to create an entire story with such sparse prose.

I decided to reread Of Mice and Men after not having read it in at least two decades, and I wanted to approach it from a mechanical perspective; study his style, rather than get pulled into the overpopularized story.

Yeah, right. As if you can resist the force of being pulled into one of John's stories. Even the Tin Man would crack at this tale. I WAS knocked out by the mechanics of the story, but I was also crying by page 45, when one sad scene foreshadows the coming of the bigger sad scene.

It is a mesmerizing short novel, crafted by a literary genius, and if you're reading this review as a newcomer to this story. . . wow. . . it gives me goosebumps to think of your fresh perspective.

Una fábula exquisita, tierna y conmovedora.

'Of Mice and Men', more a play than a novella, takes us to the sunny California, to the era of the Great Depression. There is no hope under the Californian sun, it's a land where thousands of homeless and lonely Georges, Lennies, Candies and many others move from one ranch to another in search of a temporary job, food and a bed. It's everyday struggle. There is no place for the warmth of human connection, friendship, empathy and kindness. Only few of them are lucky to have a friend, like George and Lennie, for some (like Candy) a dog is their family, but the majority are just on their own against the whole world in this never-ending marathon.
Because it is a race, only the strongest survive. The old dog and her cripple owner don't stand a chance. As for Lennie, reading the novella was a stressful experience to me because I was very worried something bad would happen to him and it did. Lennie was at the wrong place at the wrong time. The end of the story is heartbreaking
The survival has a price - shattered dreams and the hope for a better tomorrow.

'Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world.'
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'Maybe ever'body in the whole damn world is scared of each other.'
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'Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land. It's just in their head.'
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'As happens sometimes, a moment settled and hovered and remained for much more than a moment. And sound stopped and movement stopped for much, much more than a moment.'
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'His ear heard more than was said to him, and his slow speech had overtones not of thought, but of understanding beyond thought.'

A powerful exploration of loneliness and helplessness!

The tension and pathos in John Steinbeck's "playable novel", OF MICE AND MEN is palpable. It tells the story of George Milton and Lennie Small, two itinerant field workers in 1930s depression era California. Milton, a cynical, intelligent man, by a combination of habit, intent, solicitude, friendship, love and, one might even say, bad luck, has allowed himself to become the surrogate father or brother for his companion traveler, Lennie Small. Small, (undoubtedly a name chosen by Steinbeck for its irony) is a retarded adult with the social skills and gracelessness of a young child, trapped in the body of an enormous and physically powerful man.

Forced to run away from their last job when Small was wrongfully accused of rape, Milton and Small have now found a quiet farm and a crew with which they hope they work long enough to accumulate a stake. They want to buy a small piece of property that they can farm for themselves. Lennie's sole childlike dream for retirement is to live with his friend George and "tend rabbits". But, once again, Small's complete lack of adult social skills and the failure to understand the magnitude of his own strength undermine their dreams when Curley, the owner's mean-spirited and small-minded son draw Small into a fight and his lonely wife uses her attractiveness and feminine wiles to draw him into a conversation that ends in tragedy.

OF MICE AND MEN is a short novella. At only 118 pages, it can be digested in only two to three hours. Written as a "playable novel", the story is told almost exclusively in dialogue with the intent that it would translate easily into a three act play. Such small bits of narrative and exposition as exist in the story actually serve more by way of stage directions and hints as to the scenery backdrop that might be used in the live stage production that Steinbeck envisaged when he wrote it.

But for all its simplicity and brevity, the power and pathos of the themes of helplessness and loneliness embodied in Steinbeck's story is not to be denied. As with so many other classic novels that I've finally had the good sense to read over the last two years, I feel like I've not only come late to the party but all of the other party-goers have already come and gone. Well, I'm sure I wasn't the only one but if you're one of the few people who read and enjoy classic literature in the English language, OF MICE AND MEN deserves a place on your must-read list.

Highly recommended.

Paul Weiss

This is a short book that we read during my last weeks as the facilitator of my library book discussion group. Let me say, even for a novella, this is an amazing selection for a discussion with a group of people. It is a tragic story that touches on class struggle, race, sexism, alongside the main theme of friendship and loyalty.

George and Lennie are journeying on foot through rural Depression-era CA. They are headed towards a ranch where they hope to get work. George is small and sharp, but can be easily frustrated. Lennie is huge but very simple-minded and impulsive. The two together are trouble. Yet, they also have a dream of the future where they hope to work their own land and have a simple life.

In many ways we hope that George and Lennie can realize their dreams. But, you also know that Steinbeck isn't that kind of writer to make it easy on his characters. He sets too many other things in motion that creates conflict. And through this short novella, there are powerful scenes, relevant themes with much room for interpretation.

Is this the American Dream? What about the imbalance of power? Were the characters more caricatures than characters because the story was short?

Whatever anyone thinks about this story, it makes one think. And talk about it. That in itself makes it good.

Only a writer capable of assembling the symbolic with the folkloric can pen a novella that straddles genres, writing techniques and figurative voices and tug at the heartstrings of both commonplace audiences and the most exigent of readers.
Such indisputable universality is what Steinbeck accomplished with “Of Mice and Men”, a fabled novella with a linear plot delivered in a succession of theatrical scenes, compact on the surface and with simply drawn characters that might be accused of being excessively melodramatic and verging on the caricaturesque.
Yet when reflected upon, this deceivingly modest tale appears designed in concentric layers of deep meaning that orchestrate a rich parable on thematic complexities like the natural goodness of man, the alienation triggered by a socio-economic system that endorses exploitative working conditions and the need to cling to illusions to face a mirthless existence.

Set in a few miles south of Soledad, Spanish for “solitude”, Steinbeck introduces two antithetic characters combining coarse and fast paced dialogue with lush descriptions of the Salinas river.
Lennie Small is ironically heavily built and as strong as he is good-natured. Of a gullible disposition and feeble minded he depends solely on his workmate George to be hired as a temporary hand harvesting seasonal crops in the farms of California. George, a sharp and resourceful rogue, tries to protect Lennie mostly from himself but also from the maliciousness inherent in most of their fellow labourers. They both dream of owning a rabbit farm and “living off the fatta the lan’ ”, an ideal that Lennie begs George to repeat over and over again with the exact same words creating the mesmerizing effect of an invocation or a soothing lullaby that equals a spell capable of transforming the inconceivable into a tangible possibility.

Alternating the romantic with the myopic vision of hope and gloom, the story is shaped by the intense friendship between these disparate characters and their legitimate aspirations to achieve a respectable livelihood, creating an expansive allegory for the dehumanization the itinerant labourers were victims of during the years ensuing the Great Depression.
George’s attempts to shelter Lennie from the viciousness of foremen and masters also exposes the juxtaposition between the innate solidarity of man and its posterior corruption when trapped in the dynamics of an abusive social hierarchy.
The lonely(*), the dispossessed and the crippled become the easy target of such system with only love, friendship and compassion as shielding forces.

“Of Mice and Men” is a heart-warming story with a chilling conclusion. A story of marginalized men and women who live on the fringes of an impassive society and navigate the stirred waters of human dignity and animalization, reason and instinct, courage and weariness, narcotic dreams and hopeful illusions.
In the same way an innocent dummy might crush a tiny mouse unwillingly and with only good intentions human beings crush each other not truly grasping the full consequences of their atrocious acts. There is irony in that equation, but a gentle one.
This is a dark tale, a bitter pill to swallow. It hurts. But it also illuminates with its moving tenderness, allegorical scope and unflinching naturalism. Dreams mightn’t come true this time, but maybe that’s a weighty reason to start loving the things we’ve got.

(*) A quick note to mention Steinbeck’s shocking depiction of women as an object of desire who use erotic mysticism to lure men into the social stability offered by marriage. This notion highly contrasts with his previous approach to the essential role of females in the family unit as seen in The Grapes of Wrath.

Perfect soundtrack for this book:

Things that stop you dreaming

Геният на Стайнбек открих за себе си сравнително рано - бил съм 12-13 годишен, когато се натъкнах на негова книга в домашната библиотека. В изданието бяха включени "Улица Консервна" и "За мишките и хората". И до ден днешен си остава загадка за мен, защо ли точно тези две диаметрално противоположни творби са били събрани заедно, в едно книжно тяло?

Първата доста ме развесели и съответно никак не ме подготви за шока от втората. А такъв изпитах доста голям - за първи път се сблъсках с неправдите и жестокостта на живота, който живеят възрастните.

Съдбите на Лени и Джордж погълнаха част от детството ми, но ми помогнаха да израсна. И препрочетох "За мишките и хората" поне пет пъти в следващите няколко години, търсейки и намирайки в нея отговори на фундаментални въпроси.

Има и страхотен филм с Гари Синийз в ролята на Джордж и Джон Малкович в тази на Лени - просто перфектни!

n  “Me an’ you.”
“You  . . . an’ me."n

First published in 1937, I am glad I finally read and listened to this unforgettable story of dreams and beautiful friendship.

Set during the Great Depression in Soledad, California this is a story of George and Lennie two migrant workers traveling from job to job working on ranches in the Salinas Valley.

The audio read by Gary Sinise was perfect giving the characters their personalities. I know there's a film with the same name which Sinise also starred in and directed. Without reading the synopsis, I didn't know the basis of this story nor did I expect it to be an emotional journey.

A ReadAlong group with Lisa of Troy. Thank you Lisa!

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.

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.

John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men is a novella (around 72 pages) that focuses on two men in The Great Depression Era. George is a small man while Lennie is the bigger man. They are two farmhands who have a big dream to one day own their own small place. However, George and Lennie have just been run out of town. Is this ranch their second chance? Will George and Lennie realize their dream?

Of Mice and Men is a very dark novella. I mean dark. Steinbeck is a master at setting the scene. He begins each chapter with a few paragraphs about the landscape. This sets an eerie tone, almost like sitting on top of a powder keg.

The character development in this book is really second to none. Many authors will write characters as all good or all bad. However, Steinbeck’s characters are well developed. They are not perfect, and they don’t fit nicely into one mold. That leaves the reader wondering what the character will do because they haven’t been type cast.

Of Mice and Men is chock full of symbolism. George and Lennie are obsessed with The American Dream. However, is it ever attainable? Does society treat people as interchangeable? Are our social safety nets strong and working appropriately?

Do our social safety nets work? Please allow me to answer that question from the US perspective. It is a resounding NO. Here in the United States, we have something called Social Security Disability. If you can’t work because of a disability, you can apply for this program. It takes 3 months just to get someone assigned to your case. That is 3 months without being paid. Only 22% of claims are initially approved. The average process takes 27 months (2-3 years). This is someone who cannot go out and get another job. They are disabled! Who can go 2-3 years without getting paid? Who can not pay their mortgage, their car payment, their medical bills for 2-3 years?

This is a really fun book to talk about in a book club. It was part of the April Readalong. If you want to take a look at our discussion, take a look here.

Overall, I am happy that I read this book. I really enjoyed how Steinbeck set the scene and admire how he was able to set a super creepy tone. This book has some major depth with his use of symbolism. Of Mice and Men is not long-winded. However, this book was a bit too dark for me. Thanks for everyone who participated in the Readalong!

2025 Reading Schedule
JantA Town Like Alice
FebtBirdsong
MartCaptain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Berniere
AprtWar and Peace
MaytThe Woman in White
JuntAtonement
JultThe Shadow of the Wind
AugtJude the Obscure
SeptUlysses
OcttVanity Fair
NovtA Fine Balance
DectGerminal

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