Of Mice and Men

George and Lennie are an unlikely pair—one is small and quick and dark of face; the other is big and slow, with the mind of a young child. Yet, they form a family in the face of loneliness and alienation. Laborers in California's dusty vegetable fields, they struggle to earn money when they can. For, George and Lennie have a plan: to own an acre of land and a shack they can call their own. When they land jobs on a ranch in the Salinas Valley, the fulfillment of their dream seems to be within their grasp. But George finds it hard to guard Lennie from the provocations of a flirtatious woman, and he cannot predict the consequences of Lennie's unswerving obedience to things that George taught him. A thriller, a gripping tale. . . That you will not set down until it is finished. Steinbeck has touched the quick. "