The last time I was "on the road," I took Of Mice and Men with me on the drive. If you've never experienced this famous John Steinbeck classic, it's an intriguing one to pick up for summer reading. The novel was first published in 1937, and the history of the book has been fraught with controversy and book banning. Of course, it's also one of the most fascinating of Steinbeck's works (themes, context, universality, and all the rest... it has something for almost every reader, whether you find that you love it or hate it).
In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck writes: "Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don't belong no place... With us it ain't like that. We got a future."
What do you think of the novel? Do you love it? Hate it? How did it affect you?
Cover Art © Penguin.
Comments
This novel IS the one to read if you want to grow your heart around the topic of mental retardation….
It is funny, I had to read this at school, and we spent it seemed forever discussing it. Consequently it put me off reading Steinbeck for something like ten years. I then read ‘East of Eden’ which I got out of the library. Even then I wouldn’t re-read ‘Of Mice and Men’. That was until about two years ago.
Without having to write essays and discussing it all the time, I found that I loved it. Perhaps sometimes at school you are told that you must love something and have it drummed into you, rather than being allowed to make up your own mind, and in your own time.