This classic story of a pair of unlikely friends is probably the most moving of Steinbeck's novels. A discerning comment on the loneliness and alienation of California's farm laborers in the 1930s, Of Mice and Men is also a gripping tale of one man's selfless love for another. Lenny, a lumbering hulk of a man with the mind of a child, and his caretaker and good friend, George, dream of owning a farm together. Now that they've landed a job on a vegetable farm in the Salinas Valley, the dream seems within their grasp. But the boss' son has a flirtatious wife, and guileless Lenny is no match for her. In a few fateful minutes alone with her, he dashes all hope of leading a normal life. And George must make the most difficult decision imaginable.
