Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

Having put off reading this book for sometime, for no particular reason, I finally sat down with it, having nowhere to go while waiting on my car's service. I was surprised by how easy it read, and how short the book was - a scant 100 something pages.

This tragic novella, published in 1937, tells the story of George Milton and Lennie Small. George, an ambitious, wiry, sharp-tongued man and Lennie, almost his exact opposite: large and simpleminded but with a good heart and more strength than he knows what to do with. The two friends who, just like people today, are travelling from place to place looking for work, watching out for each other and trying to earn enough money to buy a farm to call home.

When the two find work at a ranch in California it seems that their dream might at last be in reach, but like "the best-laid schemes of mice and men," not even George could perceive the combined danger of a salacious woman and the few lessons Lennie remembers.

The complex relationship between the two men gives strength and pathos to the narrative making the ending even more of a tear-jerker as the reader comes to terms with the tragedy.

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