Rating: WARTY!
Set during the great depression (which actually wasn't so great for most of those who lived through it), this novella is about George and Lennie, migrant workers who arrive at a farm to pick up some work. For no apparent reason at all, George deliberately delays their arrival, which means the boss is pissed off at them for being a day late. The boss's belligerent son, Curly, immediately takes a dislike to Lennie, who is a big, imposing guy, but who is mentally deficient and retiring. He also has a poor memory and impulse control. George looks after Lennie, but abuses him as much as he takes care of him and in the end proves to be a horrific and useless caretaker.
George and Lennie are hoping to make some money to buy their own farm, and a couple of the hands on the farm where they're now working see this as a great idea and want to buy into it. Curly recently married a woman who in many ways is Lennie's twin. Like Lennie she's abused and lonely, and only wants some soft company, and it's this is what leads to the trouble that you could see coming from a dust bowl away.
Lennie has a real affection for soft things which is why he wants to raise rabbits on George's farm, and when Curly's wife, an enigma who goes unnamed in the story, allows him to stroke her soft hair, he accidentally starts messing it up and this annoys her. Lennie feels compelled to mute her noisy reaction and ends up breaking her neck. This isn't the first time he's killed that day. Instead of trying to get justice for his friend, George simply shoots Lennie in the back of the head like a old dog that needs to be put down, and walks away, not even bothering to bury him. Some friend, huh? But at least Lennie bought the farm....
Steinbeck (whose name in German means stone creek) blunders through this in a rather ham-fisted and pedantic manner, setting-up what's going to happen, and telegraphing events long before they transpire. How this became a classic is a mystery. It would never have gone anywhere had it been published afresh today. There's nothing on offer here, except that this perhaps served to inspire Sam Peckinpah's 1971 movie Straw Dogs, so it wasn't a complete waste! I listened to the audio book read by Gary Sinise who played George in the 2011 movie, and was once again really impressed by how badly actors do at reading audio books - and I like Gary Sinise! I cannot recommend this.
