Young Man's Dream

OF MICE AND MEN--John Steinbeck-- Covici Friede ($2).

George and Lennie were ranch hands. George was small, wiry, tough, shrewd; Lennie was enormous, floppy-looking but Herculean, and a halfwit. George and Lennie were pals. Lennie was always getting them into trouble, losing them jobs, getting them run out of town because he liked to pet things -- mice, little girls, rabbits. Not conscious of his blundering strength, Lennie was apt to kill what he petted. George kept him in line as well as he could by bawling him out, threatening to leave him, telling him a beautiful fairy story about how they would save enough money to buy a little farm, settle down in comfort, let Lennie take care of rabbits.

They had just had to leave one job in a hurry because Lennie's passion for petting things had been misunderstood by a frightened little girl. On the new ranch everything went all right at first. Lennie was a terrific worker, did beautifully as long as George was at hand to tell him what to do. It looked for a while as if they could really make their stake, buy their little farm, settle down to make their dream come true. But then things began to go wrong. The boss's son was an ugly customer, and he had just married a floozy who kept him at a white heat of suspicion. When he picked on Lennie, the big half-wit got so panicky that he seized his little tormentor's hand, crushed it nearly to bits. George managed to get them out of that scrape, but when Lennie accidentally broke the floozy's neck, there was only one thing George could do to remedy that. Knowing where Lennie was hiding, George got to him ahead of the posse, got trusting Lennie to turn his head while he shot him behind the ear.

To Americans whose eyes are still smarting from the unhappy ending of the Wall Street fairy tale of 1929, John Steinbeck's little dream story will not seem out of line with reality; they may even overlook the fact that it too is a fairy tale. An oxymoronic combination of the tough & tender, Of Mice and Men will appeal to sentimental cynics, cynical sentimentalists. Critic Christopher Morley found himself "purified" by this "masterpiece . . . written in purest compassion and truth." Readers less easily thrown off their trolley will still prefer Hans Andersen.

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