Of Mice and Men (fiction)
John Steinbeck (1937)

THE A5 BOOK REVIEW

One of John Steinbeck’s most read books is the 1937 novella Of Mice and Men, a story of two migrant farm workers in California living hand-to-mouth during the Great Depression and drifting from ranch to ranch looking for steady work.   George Milton, quick but uneducated, watches over his friend Lennie Small, who is extremely strong, childlike in nature, and mentally disabled.  The two have no other family, and they desperately dream of buying their own farm one day, with rabbits for Lennie.  The book is an emotional thriller, with underlying themes of tragic loneliness and the struggle of the poor in an unforgiving world, based partially off of Steinbeck’s own experience growing up in the Salinas Valley.  Of Mice and Men was immediately a best seller and remains very popular today.  The novel has been adapted to both the theater and to film, and it is often deemed required reading for many schools (recommended for ages 13+) despite some controversy over offensive language and racist language.  At only 112 pages, Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men is a quick and entertaining read.
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OTHER RECOMMENDED TRAVEL BOOKS - JOHN STEINBECK
John Steinbeck is of course one of America's greatest writers, an author of twenty-seven books and a Nobel Prize winner for Literature.  He is probably best known known for his Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Grapes of Wrath (1939), Cannery Row (1945), Of Mice and Men (1937), and East of Eden (1952).  Learn more about John Steinbeck here.

GREAT QUOTES:

“Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don't belong no place. They come to a ranch an' work up a stake and then they go inta town and blow their stake, and the first thing you know they're poundin' their tail on some other ranch. They ain't got nothing to look ahead to."
- John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men

INTERESTING FACTS AND LINKS:

  • Steinbeck's original title was going to be "Something That Happened", intending to remove any sense of blame for everything that happens in the story.  The actual title refers to George Burn's poem, "To a Mouse", and the lines "The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft agley" (or ‘go often awry’).
  • ​Read the original New York Times review of the play that opened in 1937 on Broadway, at the Music Box Theater and directed by George S. Kaufman.

MAP OF SOLEDAD, CALIFORNIA