h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

In view of the fact that Intern has removed all the reviews and I wanted to talk about Steinbeck in general and Mice and Men in particular I thought I would start this thread
maybe LJ you would put your review on it ?

He will put them back i am sure if we ask him nicely!
The only Steinbeck I read was Mice and Men and i thought it was kust lovely. A perfect read start to finish...a friend has sinec recommended Cannery Row.
I'm going to see if you can get a collection of stories as I dont think that is very long either!

Of the steinbeck books that i have read i liked cannery row the least - which is not to say i didnt like it but its not my fave
my fave is east of eden which is the most wonderful book i have ever read i love it
however of mice and men is not far short - i wanted to cry from the first page

He wrote Grapes of Wrath as well didnt he? I would like to read that.
I thought Mice was perfect in every way. Lovely setting , wonderful characters and a great story. You dont need to write 600 pages necessarily to write a blockbuster!

yeah grapes of wrath is good too tho it is some years since i read it -
of mice and men is just so well written the characters so real that you can see them and when he was down by the river waiting my heart was breaking

I did find the end quite shocking but totally understandable. So sad.
What I liked was the fact that all the characters were all so well drawn, even the minor ones.
Andit is a very modern story, despite being writtne mnay years ago. The simpleton( can I use that term!) who doesnt mean harm , and doenst understand what harming is. I'm sure we have all come across people like him.

oh yes i agree and when he killed the puppy the writing is just so compassionate and you could see that he just loved it stroking its ears and cetera

It really is a gem of a book isnt it?
When they discovered the bloke's wife dead it was awful wasnt it?

hello
really gut wrenching i thought even tho you knew that it was sure to happen
i think i am going to re read east of eden next - talking about steinbeck has fired me up

I agree , you knew it was coming, just a matter of time. I found the book had the ability to really put you there, alomst as tho you were watching it all unfold before your eyes and I wanted to do something to tell him to stop stroking her hair befire it all got out of hand.

oh yeah and me too my brain was shrieking dont dont ! and then i wanted to cuddle him

You can see it as a film script I think. I thought the same with Mocking Bird so is it something about american writers maybe? When did he write Mice and Men roughly?

really really early may even have been 50's i think i'll have a look when i get home
they filmed the grapes of wrath and east of eden but i dont know if they did any of the others and that was years ago

That makes sense cos thats when Harper Lee wrote mocking bird I think. Perhpas it was that era of writers who wrote in that cinematic way.

yeah could be whatever it is i like it

Hiya

Thanks for this - can't actually find my original review - so maybe a new one then!! It was only short anyway.


Of Mice and Men is interesting in that it is one of the few novels that look at the relationship between two men who are neither involved with each other, or related. They are bound by a dream and a need not to be lonely in what was a particularly lonely existence. Itinerant workers, moving from farm to farm - the fact that the two men George and Lenny travel together and work together is commented on and found odd by their peers - they are men after-all and by that loners. This becomes even odder to the reader when it becomes apparent that a lot of the time they have to keep moving because of Lenny's inability to know his own strength.

The ending, whilst inevitiable in one way or another is one of the most moving and dramatic, heart-wrenching things I've ever read. The love and care and sense of dreams shattering is heart-breaking. I saw of Mice and Men as a play first, and to me it always will be a play first and a book second, whatever the intention.

Hope it was worth waiting for!!

Lx

it was thankyou - i think you got to the heart of it - the interaction between the 2 men is very very well written - you feel the frustration of George in that he knows that Lenny cant help how he is but he also still has a glimmer of hope that if he tells him often enough and loud enough everything will be alright - when he starts to really think about buying the land after talking to the other hand you see how that is what is driving him and the driver is getting Lenny somewhere away from others where he will be safe both from others and himself.
Also by George's interaction with the other men you can feel that he does want to be a part of the group but has to hold back because of the situation with Lenny.
the other masterful stroke is making the woman predatory and unlikeable -
i bet on stage it was mesmerising how long ago did you see it and who was in it ?

It was a local production - I saw it when I was taking drama o level (yes Intern, o levels ). So I was about 15, no-one famous - actually they might have been at the time - in soaps like the Bill or summat.... Never forget the bloke who played George - oh actually hang on he was famous - he was a little one with the moustache in When Harry Met Sally!!

Lx

oooh Billy Chrystal ??

no the other one - little whiny one who was in City Slickers with him too.