Of Mice and Men is novella by John Steinbeck.
Plot:
George and Lenny are a team, working as hired hands on farms. But Lenny, who has a mental disability, got them fired from their last job when his attempt to pet the skirt of a girl was mistaken for a sexual assault. They had to leave in a hurry, but have found a new job already, which starts off well enough with their coworkers Candy and Slim, and less well with their boss Curly and his flirty wife. George and Lenny are dreaming of buying a bit of land together and becoming independent – a dream that suddenly becomes very attainable when Candy offers to pitch in. But attainable isn’t the same as attained and money isn’t the only issue.
Of Mice and Men tells a gripping story and is well-written. Even if I did have some issues with it, it didn’t change my emotional investment.
I read Of Mice and Men in school many years ago and could barely remember it, apart from the ending. And still the ending hit me really hard. I was on the tram when I finished reading and I was actually crying about it. Fun times.
Steinbeck has a wonderful way of bringing the relationship between George and Lennie to life, especially because George and Lennie are already great characters. I don’t think I noticed the first time round how their relationship is echoed by the relationship between Candy and his dog in its entirety and not just its ending. That was beautifully done.
I’m not particularly happy, though, with the treatment of Curly’s wife. As the only female character in the book, she is not a person, she is a plot device. She’s the embodiment of the “women = trouble” principle. And she doesn’t even get enough agency to want to be trouble. She just can’t help it. Even though that in particular means that much could have been done with her character if Steinbeck had just bothered to see her as a person.
The same goes for Crooks. Comparing his situation as a black man with the dreams of George and Lennie could have provided a whole lot of depth and insight into racial relations, but Steinbeck mostly avoids all opportunities of that. As soon as Crooks becomes a human being in the novella, he disappears from it entirely.
Stylistically I’m not so convinced of the play/novel mix Steinbeck tried for, but he has a way with words and a good feeling for capturing dialogues. He manages to make you feel like you’re there. If nothing else, that is rare enough to make the book worth the read.
Summarizing: a good read.
kalafudra's Stuff 
Funny because I read this in High School and again just in the past couple years and my perspective differs from when I was young to being an adult. When I was young I just thought it was a story about a big dumb guy and a little big mouth guy and after another look, it is a lot more.
First, as you say, “Curly’s Wife” is basically a plot device. In fact, they never give her a name. She’s just “Curly’s Wife.” As I read the novel, I thought, “You know, the woman is probably just lonely and wants to say hello to the cowhands, and these idiots have such big egos they think she wants them all. Dummies.”
I feel like there’s definitely something to be said about relationships, family, friends – how sometimes we might accuse others of unfairly holding us back rather than figuring out what we’re doing or not doing to keep ourselves from our dreams.
Case in point – George says something like, “If it weren’t for Lenny I’d go into town every weekend and get drunk and hang out at the cat house.” Well, what kind of life is that? Notice he isn’t saying, “If it weren’t for Lenny, I’d save all my money and really make something of myself.” He’s basically just mad at missing out on the debauchery, not realizing that maybe being Lenny’s caretaker gives him a purpose in life.
The ending is so sad – they were so close to their dream.
Sometimes books really change a lot between one reading and the next.
It’s an interesting point you’re making about the accusation of holding back, though I think that George is very aware that without Lenny, he’d just be living from day to day like the other guys. It’s Lenny who makes their dream an actual possibility. Sometimes it just gets hard to have somebody be so dependent on you and you lash out, accusing them of something you know is bogus because you’re frustrated.