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Fergus, Quondam Happy Face's Reviews > Of Mice and Men
Of Mice and Men
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by
Read this unforgettable little sleeper in the summer of 1975, dodging sharp shrapnel in the forgotten lurid backwaters of bureaucracy.
Suffering through the next act of my horrific Coming of Age - in an organization known to its ramrod strict managers as a place in which to simply Delegate 'n Disappear - this story scuttled my equanimity.
Steinbeck was revealing to me the Awful Fate that awaited all of us paltry Little Guys!
When we first awaken - we children of Good Intentions - to the sordid Real World, it is a shock... And that's just the beginning. We're suddenly adults!
The world must extract our poor pound of flesh.
And just so you know, this will be a complicated surgical procedure without anaesthetics. Sorry, but there it is in a nutshell.
In my office, the Department of Delegating and Disappearing sought solely to turn us into Square Pegs. If that meant carving off our heads, arms and legs to fit, so be it!
But the two anti-heroes of Steinbeck's novella are so embarrassingly flesh and blood that the operation is always postponed. Perhaps a lobotomy would be more kosher in this case?
Perhaps, but hopeless cases such as these two men are - unfixable misfits, and prize idiots as they are labelled - stand for an Eternal Truth hidden amid all of men's cheap lies:
That such souls as these -
Set apart by God -
Are, like His Angels, INDESTRUCTIBLE.
Suffering through the next act of my horrific Coming of Age - in an organization known to its ramrod strict managers as a place in which to simply Delegate 'n Disappear - this story scuttled my equanimity.
Steinbeck was revealing to me the Awful Fate that awaited all of us paltry Little Guys!
When we first awaken - we children of Good Intentions - to the sordid Real World, it is a shock... And that's just the beginning. We're suddenly adults!
The world must extract our poor pound of flesh.
And just so you know, this will be a complicated surgical procedure without anaesthetics. Sorry, but there it is in a nutshell.
In my office, the Department of Delegating and Disappearing sought solely to turn us into Square Pegs. If that meant carving off our heads, arms and legs to fit, so be it!
But the two anti-heroes of Steinbeck's novella are so embarrassingly flesh and blood that the operation is always postponed. Perhaps a lobotomy would be more kosher in this case?
Perhaps, but hopeless cases such as these two men are - unfixable misfits, and prize idiots as they are labelled - stand for an Eternal Truth hidden amid all of men's cheap lies:
That such souls as these -
Set apart by God -
Are, like His Angels, INDESTRUCTIBLE.
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Reading Progress
Finished Reading
July 23, 2023
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by
Terrie
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rated it 5 stars
Jul 23, 2023 06:07AM
Glad to see your 5⭐️for this one, too! Steinbeck’s writing always seems to touch my heart and soul.
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The latest of his books for me - Travels with Charlie - reverberated deeply in my heart as well! Ty ♥️!
Always love your reviews, Fergus ❤️ It’s been many years since I read this one and I may have to read it again- thanks
Oh, many thanks for your encouragement, Teresa! I read it when Adam and Eve were still so real to a little spooked out kid. Hopelessly naive, I still remember the novella’s dismembering impact on me!
Ty, Terrie! 🌺
