The Tassie Book Club discussion

It's easy to forget, and even a little hard to believe, how racist, sexist and prejudiced against people with additional needs the 1930s must have been. There is a certain glumness to this novella; you seem to know from the start that George and Lennie will never achieve their goal of owning their own plot and living off the "fatta the land", and that somehow, Lennie's actions, as unintentional as they would likely be, would get them into trouble in the end.

The novella take's a real dark turn, too, with the shooting of Lennie, by George's own hand. It took me a bit to work out the significance, but this would ultimately be linked to the killing of Candy's old dog, with Candy regretting not pulling the trigger himself. Curley would have killed him regardless, but Lennie deserved that it be by George, on his terms, happy until the end. Friendship and love are the real themes of this novella.

I really enjoyed revisiting this one: 4/5 stars

Just an absolute meh book for me. It makes me wonder how books become 'classics' sometimes.

I know part of the idea of it was looking at how bad everyone's lives were, it just annoyed me more than anything.

2/5.

Just an absolute meh book for me. It makes me wonder how books become 'classics' sometimes.

I know part of the idea of it was looking at how bad everyone's lives were, it just annoyed me more than anything.

2/5.

It's hard to empathize with people of the time it was written. Whatever support should have gone to Lennie was consumed by survivalist mode. George is a stand-out in caring for Lennie when no one else does. But was he kind or just dumb for losing part of his life to gain Len?

The quest to own a farm was most intriguing. And reminds me of the Alchemist quote that 'it's the idea of a dream coming true that makes life worth living.' I think that when you try to realise a dream that's better left as just an idea, it's ripe for failure. Stories of failure are entertaining though.

I'm not surprised it's a classic. It's thought-provoking, puts you in the shoes of someone flawed and (hopefully) unlike you, and there's a hook.

Worth three hours as an audiobook - 4/5

It's exactly how I thought a book which gets studied in high school English classes would be.

I suspect the author's long dead, but my advice to him would be, If you want to write a serious story about the frailness of the 'American Dream' in depression era USA, it needed to be a bit longer.

Because of it's length, I found it all waaaaay to superficial. Didn't care much for the characters (caricature's might be a better description). Seemed pretty obvious that Lennie was going to do something to undo their 'plans/dreams'.

Very similar in style and theme to Flannery O'Connor writing, except slightly less good.

2.5 rounded up to 3. Fine but entirely forgettable.