Of mice and men - Book review

But Mousie, thou are no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men
Gang aft a-gley
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain
For promised joy.
[From a poem by Robert Burns]

In a way, this book reminded me of Ernst Jünger’s Storms of Steel. Not in theme or style. But as a reminder of how fortunate I am to be able to spend this evening inside in a warm room protected from the elements and without any existential worries. Of mice and men, written by John Steinbeck and published in 1937, follows an uneven pair of friends, George Milton and Lennie Small, during a couple of days in their life as agricultural laborers in California around the turn of the 20th century. Lennie is a friendly but severely mentally handicapped giant, George is his short and clever counterpart. The story develops against the backdrop of the lonely lives of traveling farmhands. The people they meet are frequently cruel, mean and jealous, but they are united in their isolation. Everyone carries a dream, in the case of the protagonists, it consists of a house with a couple of acres and some rabbits.

George’s voice became deeper. He repeated his words rhythmically as though he had said them many times before. “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 poudin’ their tail on some other ranch. They ain’t got nothing to look ahead to.”

Lennie was delighted. “That’s it – that’s it. Now tell how it is with us.”

George went on. “With us it ain’t like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us. We don’t have to sit in no bar blowin’ in our jack jus’ because we got no place else to go. If them other guys gets in jail they can rot for all anybody gives a damn. But not us”

These dreams drive them forward even though most realize that they will never come to fruition. Another idea that stands out from the many themes touched on in the novella is friendship. George and Lennie are different from the gross of the laborers in that they go on their wandering together.

Slim [a well-respected worker who looks after George and Lennie] looked through George and beyond him. “Ain’t many guys travel around together,” he mused. “I don’t know why. Maybe ever’body in the whole damn world is scared of each other.”

“It’s a lot nicer to go around with a guy you know,” said George.

The story brought widespread acclaim to Steinbeck and established him in the American literary scene. The novella is a quick read but remains in the mind of the audience long after it is finished.