Every high school student has to read it

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	• Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck Centennial Edition) John Steinbeck Penguin, 2002 - 112 pages average customer review:based on 1099 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Big

What makes a big book? Not physical length. Knowing this novel's reputation as one of Steinbeck's masterpieces, I was astounded to lay hands on its mere hundred pages. Not scale of setting, either. The entire novella takes place in and around the bunkhouse of a California farm, and contains fewer than a dozen characters; it is so compact that it might almost have been made for film, television, or the stage (and it did in fact succeed in all these media). The people, furthermore, are by no means important or powerful; Steinbeck tells of ordinary itinerant laborers, bindle stiffs, living precariously from job to job. In this, the book is similar to THE GRAPES OF WRATH, but deliberately avoids its epic scope, preferring to show a few characters in intimate detail rather than to suggest the displacement of multitudes.

Yet I have no hesitation in calling the book big. Without any effort or overt symbolism, Steinbeck shows something simultaneously particular and vast. His characters are individuals, very real yet bound to one another and to us through their common humanity. The novel speaks to a particular time -- the American West in the late thirties -- and yet seems timeless. It takes a specific corner of California ("A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green") and makes it a kind of oasis of simplicity, as in the marvelous opening scene where the principal characters choose to spend a night sleeping under the stars rather than arriving too soon at the farm.

And nothing could be bigger than the heart of Lennie, the simple-minded giant who comes to the farm with his friend and protector George, but whose confused feelings and ignorance of his own strength get him into trouble. The bond between him and George is not fully explained, but it is palpably filled with a kind of love. Lennie's inability to articulate his feelings is shared by all the other characters to some extent; this is a world in which men keep themselves to themselves and move on alone. But their very inarticulateness gives their underlying emotions an almost primal power. Truly, this is a big book.

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Every high school student has to read it

All the teachers still make you read this and I am glad they make it affordable.

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Mighty writing

There is not a wasted word in Of Mice and Men. An unforgettable and brillaint work by John Steinbeck. It is clear why this is a classic. Every emotion on the spectrum is represented somewhere in this concise and gripping story of the enduring and heartfelt friendship/guardianship between Lennie and George. I loved it, and to think this was first published in 1937, it feels like much more modern writing. Reflecting on novelists since, it is clear that Steinbeck was ahead of his time and an early pioneer of captivating American writing. Splendid and tragic.

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A novel that moves the heart and soul

I will not spend a lot of time in detail here, but I have always loved this story although the ending is hearth wrenching. That just goes to show you how real it is, realistic, dramatic and gripping tale set in an America that was not so long ago. If you are a younger person wanting to expand the fictional horizons of your library this would be a good book to start with. I first saw the TV movie of it when I was in Junior High and never forgot it. Years later I bought this Centennial Edition and now have probably read it four times. It is just one of those stories that has so much power with the power of love, but also carries a world of pain. Don't read my review any more just go read this novel if you have not already!

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A Good Introduction to Steinbeck

If you read some of Steinbeck's work, you will soon discover that he has some wonderful short stories, i.e.: his writing is much more extensive than a few good novels. The present work is somewhere in between a short story and a novel: it is a novella about 120 pages in length.

John Steinbeck (1902 - 1968) was among the best known American writers of the 20th century. His 1939 Pulitzer Prize winning novel, "Grapes of Wrath," has over ten million copies in print. Steinbeck was born in rural California, went to Stanford, and spent most of his life in California. He has been associated with the plight of farm workers and others. His books have been very popular and many were made into movies and stage productions. He won an Academy Award nomination for best story in 1944.

I have read a number of his novels and am still surprised with the quality of his short stories, which are exceptional. In general, his stories are very detailed and descriptive, and it is clear that he had a natural flair or gift for writing. The present work is good and rates among the best, but do not stop with the present work since he has many more.

The story dates from 1937 and is about two migrant farm workers, George and Lennie, who have the goal of working together to save to buy there own small farm. The title is taken from Robert Burns's famous poem, To a Mouse: "The best-laid plans of mice and men go oft awry (or astray)."

The short story describes a few days in their lives as they work on a farm and it describes what can "go astray" in their plans. Will their hard work be for naught or will they reach their dreams? The story is made complicated by Lennie's slight mental disability. Many of the other characters are equally flawed, but in different ways, and when brought together the result is an interesting story.

This is a quick short read and an excellent introduction to Steinbeck.

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