Section 1 Review

Honestly, so far, I have not enjoyed this book. I realize that I am only 16 pages into it, but it is, quite frankly, boring. All that has happened is Lennie, the thug-like man, and George the small brainy one, have found a place to warm up canned beans and sleep. All I know about them is that Lennie got in some trouble at the last place they worked so they had to leave, and that George is fed up with Lennie but at the same time feels responsible for him. Lennie is a forgetful person, he cant even remember his own mother. There has been a lot of imagery describing things like the water, and small sounds. It seems to be set in a suburban rural area where there are a lot of farms. I think that this book has lived up to my expectations because as soon as I heard it was based in the time period of the Great Depression I thought it would be, well, depressing and slow paced. I personally have trouble reading books that don't start off with an exciting introduction. When they start by talking about a river and a lizard it turns me away. I have also learned, over the years, that highly acclaimed academic authors tend to sound like they are reciting a speech someone else wrote for them. Either that or they go into way to many details that would be great in a poem, as long as that poem was less than three pages. When an entire book is written with such vivid detail it can be neat to read, but it also seems hard to

understand an actual plot when more than half of the text in used to describe a bed, river, worm etc. I will try to read with an open mind. I know a few people who have said the beginning of Steinbeck novels are slow but that they get much better as you get into them, so I will try to keep that in mind.

This is the cover of the book, and
by the sounds of it the picture
on the cover is the place where Lennie
and George sleep for the first night that
we meet them.

In terms of their dreams they want to have enough money to buy a little house with a couple of acres, a cow, some pigs and a garden. I don't really think that this will happen, but you never know right.

Questions I have about the Book:

1. Why can't Lennie remember anything?

2.  How long have Lennie and George known each other?

3. Why are people from their old workplace looking for them?

I know this whole thing has sounded utterly negative, but I will try to be more positive as I get into it, I am just not there yet.