What do You think about Of Mice And Men (2002)?
One more book that everyone has already read, if they have not been living under a rock. At least I can join the club now. I wish I had read it earlier, because Of Mice and Men is, putting it simply, a beautiful book. The descriptions are beautiful, idyllic - both the natural world and the human environments. You can see them in your mind's eye - the pool is still, warm water in the river bend, the bunk house where Curly faces the wall, the barn with its hay and its streaks of light. These descriptions had the same pacing you come to expect from a rural life, and provide a sense of the goodness which can, presumably, be found when you are away from the din of the grand cities.But these incredible descriptions are juxtaposed over a tragedy of character and humanity that hovers over every single one of the characters in the story. In some situations, they are even a part of it. There is a moment in the barn where sun, lighting the hay in bright lines of light slipping through the wooden slat walls, is used to both calm and alarm at the same time. This description, while less aggressive than Camus' use of the sun on the water and on the gun, is almost as poignant. Almost as beautiful.Much of this book focuses on discussing masculinity. There is another scene where a man's dog is put to death and only the executioner seems to hurtle through the moment without any grace. But these men, strangers to each other, not knowing how to comfort, merely sit in the uncomfortable silence waiting for the gunshot. It's a telling, keenly observed scene - certainly one of the most important in the novella. And it is worthy of a great deal of attention.Another subject widely discussed in the book is vulnerability, which is, it seems, the central feature of Steinbeck's Depression. Vulnerability and the effort to fight against it, that is. This book is quiet in talking about it, of course - everything about this book, even the most hurried and tragic scenes, is quiet. But it talks about it carefully. There are scenes, only a couple, where there are many characters having a conversation, and everybody is talking about the predicament of their life - the predicament of their situation as it compares to the rest. Nobody, it seems, is perfectly secure. Everybody can be broken. That may be what sticks out about this story. Everybody can be broken. Except for George maybe. And Slim, maybe. And George is clearly broken by the end of the story, because he has chosen to care for Lennie.Of course, there is room for hope. It takes the face of a ranch, hidden somewhere in George's mind, which can be purchased and owned and developed over time into something that is both self-sufficient and perhaps even profiting. Hard to say. It isn't discussed much, but it grabs so much of the imagination! This cloudy future ideal which, for so short a time, seems probable. Even that, though, can be usurped by the folly of mankind. Regardless, Of Mice and Men is a good story and I'm glad I finally put it on my read shelf.All considered, this is a good story. Interesting quotes that I didn't include in the review: Maybe ever’body in the whole damn world is scared of each other. Guy don't need no sense to be a nice fella. Seems to me sometimes it jus' works the other way around. Take a real smart guy and he ain't hardly ever a nice fella. The Last Passage(view spoiler)[ But George sat stiffly on the bank and looked at his right that had thrown the gun away. The group burst into the clearing, and Curley was ahead. He saw Lennie lying on the sand. "Got him, by God." He went over and looked down at Lennie, and then he looked back at George. "Right in the back of the head," he said softly.Slim came directly to George and sat down beside him, sat very close to him. "Never you mind," said Slim. "A guy got to sometimes."But Carlson was standing over George. "How'd you do it?" he asked."I just done it," George said tiredly."Did he have my gun?""Yeah. He had your gun.""An' you got it away from him and you took it an' you killed him?""Yeah. Tha's how." George's voice was almost a whisper. He looked steadily at his right hand that had held the gun.Slim twitched George's elbow. "Come on, George. Me an' you'll go in an' get a drink."George let himself be helped to his feet. "Yeah, a drink."Slim said, "You hadda, George. I swear you hadda. Come on with me." He led George into the entrance of the trail and up toward the highway.Curley and Carlson looked after them. And Carlson said, "Now what the hell ya suppose is eatin' them two guys?" (hide spoiler)]
—Ademilson Moraes
I happened to be in the library at the time and I just put the book down and started SOBBING. And then I found out said character wasn't really dead and I just jumped around and did a mini victory dance. I am a crazy reader sometimes. *grins*
—♥ Innocent Lamb ~ Forever Reading ♥ - AKA Smarties
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
—Dolors
