John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” is an American classic, one that I have now read twice for both middle and high school, in Finnish and English respectively. I must say that this second read-through was much more rewarding thanks to the original language, prior familiarity with the book and additional life experience in general. The book is very thin and easy to read and yet, it dives deep into the themes of friendship, loneliness, betrayal, neglect, good and evil, hope and disappointment, innocence and guilt. It’s a well crafted story where every element has a place and a purpose. In other words it’s the perfect book for school literature class: it’s so short that analyzing it from cover to cover is entirely possible and still it’s full of content so that the analysis will be very fruitful. In fact, our teacher has made us look for anywhere from three to six stylistic devices per line for a couple of extracts already and we have found those and more with relative ease.

“Of Mice and Men” is a tragic story about two itinerant workers with a dream of having a little piece of land to call their home. However, things don’t really go as they have planned. It’s a touching story and one that really doesn’t have good and bad guys per se, although some are nastier than others. The point is that the story is very nuanced and well written. In addition to that, the setting and characters support the plot and the atmosphere perfectly. It’s just exemplary writing throughout. For this, I can give the book a general recommendation for every literary geek but especially those interested in writing. However, as an easily accessible and well-written classic, it’s a great read for every high school student.