Of Mice and Men
John Steinbeck, 1937
★ 3.90 from 3m ratings on Goodreads
Two migrant workers drift through Depression-era California, trading a shared dream of a small farm against the cost of staying together. Steinbeck's plain, spare prose carries a steady tenderness while dread gathers quietly beneath the friendship and shared dream.
Feels like tenderness, dread and grief. About home, friendship and solitude.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you appreciate short, scene-like novels about friendship, work, and hard luck, with dialogue that carries the story. Be aware that many readers find it deeply saddening and emotionally draining, and its bleakness is steady rather than relieved.
Why read it
It is short enough to read in one sitting, and its six-scene structure gives you a direct, compassionate look at how a shared dream holds two people together.
A page from the book
What it costs to keep believing in a piece of land you'll never own.
They come, an’ they quit an’ go on; an’ every damn one of ‘em’s got a little piece of land in his head. An’ never a God damn one of ‘em ever gets it. Just like heaven. Ever’body wants a little piece of lan’. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land. It’s just in their head. What readers say
Readers call this a short, powerful, deeply saddening story of friendship and shattered dreams; many felt emotionally drained by its tragedy, while some appreciated its compassion and vivid characters. A few used dark humor to cope with the bleakness.
John Steinbeck.Steinbeck built the book as a 'play-novelette' — six scenes written to be staged straight from the page. A Broadway production, directed by George S. Kaufman, opened the same year.
Books that feel like this
Animal Farm
George Orwell, 1945
A farm's animals overthrow their farmer and write their own rules — then discover how quickly a good slogan can be edited. A fable about power, in plain prose.
More by John Steinbeck
East of Eden
John Steinbeck, 1952
Two generations of a California family, a retelling of Cain and Abel, and one Hebrew word that means 'thou mayest.'
Travels with Charley
John Steinbeck, 1962
At fifty-eight, Steinbeck loads a camper with a poodle and drives across America, looking for the country he remembers and testing his own restlessness.
The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck, 1931
A raw, epic chronicle of displacement and despair that examines what happens when the American dream meets the harsh realities of the Dust Bowl.
Where to get it
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Questions readers ask
- Is Of Mice and Men for me?
- You may like it if you appreciate short, scene-like novels about friendship, work, and hard luck, with dialogue that carries the story. Be aware that many readers find it deeply saddening and emotionally draining, and its bleakness is steady rather than relieved.
- What is Of Mice and Men like?
- Steinbeck's plain, spare prose carries a steady tenderness while dread gathers quietly beneath the friendship and shared dream. Feels like tenderness, dread and grief. About home, friendship and solitude.
- What should I read after Of Mice and Men?
- If you liked Of Mice and Men, try The Catcher in the Rye (J. D. Salinger), Frankenstein (Mary Shelley) and Animal Farm (George Orwell).
A taste of the feed
The only job that feels worth doing, and why it can't be real.
Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around — nobody big, I mean — except me. And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff — I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye, and all. I know it’s crazy, but that’s the only thing I’d really like to be. I know it’s crazy.
The Catcher in the Rye · J. D. Salinger
A mind wakes up with no history, and nobody to ask.
“But where were my friends and relations? No father had watched my infant days, no mother had blessed me with smiles and caresses; or if they had, all my past life was now a blot, a blind vacancy in which I distinguished nothing. From my earliest remembrance I had been as I then was in height and proportion. I had never yet seen a being resembling me or who claimed any intercourse with me. What was I? The question again recurred, to be answered only with groans.
Frankenstein · Mary Shelley
A word that sounds like mercy is used for the worst punishment.
NEEDLESS TO SAY, HE WILL BE RELEASED, the voice had said, followed by silence. There was an ironic tone to that finally message, as if the Speaker found it amusing; and Jonas had smiled a little, though he knew what a grim statement it had been. For a contributing citizen to be released from the community was a final decision, a terrible punishment, an overwhelming statement of failure.
The Giver · Lois Lowry
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