Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 May 2010
Charles A. Wagner.
“Books.”
New York Mirror, 24
February 1937, p. 25.
Of the two selections for March made by the Book-of-the-Month Club, and just published, we like best the young American Steinbeck's novel, though the veteran Britisher Wells, who shares the selection, has returned to the grand manner.
John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men… is just about the closest thing to a little prose masterpiece in the social stir we have seen in years.
It is the story of two barley bucker pals who migrate from job to job along the grain belt. One is a towering giant with the strength of ten men but the brain of a child. The other hasn't the heart to get rid of him, for fear he will come to harm; to which, of course, he does.
But the cycle of friendship, even in tragedy, remains unbroken. And in the course of his swift-moving tale, Mr. Steinbeck gives us a holiday pageantry of portraits in toil, in men's passions and repressions, in workers’ dreams and devilments, told with a poet's eye to sounds and silences which makes his book a memorable thing indeed, and something at last to cheer about.
Lewis Gannett.
“Books and Things.”
New York Herald Tribune,
25 February 1937, p. 17.
“Guys like us, that work on ranches,” George told Lennie, “are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don't belong no place.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.