Steinbeck

I love a book shop, we all love a book shop, don't we? I was in Waterstones last Saturday and I was browsing, I have a Kindle and it's great but we all love a real book, don't we? Where's this going? I know. I saw a little row of four or five, John Steinbeck novels. Well, I bought, Of Mice and Men. There has probably been a million words written about it, here's a few more. I think my brain is wired up a little differently from most, maybe not so different though, the reason I say that is, I watched a lot off old black and white films when I was a kid, with my dad. My boy's do the same with me now and I hear myself saying the same words my dad did. I remember watching, The Grapes of Wrath, with the whole family. Mum, Dad, my two sisters and my big brother. I thought we were like the Joad family. The love they had for each other but couldn't show it. I love the scene when they are in a transit camp and they organize a Saturday night dance. Tom dancing with Ma and serenading her, singing The Red River Valley. Henry Fonda and Jane Darwell. She is a lady I'll never forget only in two or three movies, but she was incredible! Another scene is when Tom is wanted and has to lit out. He tells Ma about the injustices out there, he's seen it in men's haunted faces and he wants to do something about it. Ma begs him not to get mean and dead inside. Pa is sleeping in the tent and Tom stoops down and kisses him on the forehead, then sneaks off into the night. Then the family are back on the road, looking for a place to settle. Pa asks Ma what's gonna happen to us and she tells him and us, that we'll get by because we are the people. An optimistic ending to one of my favourite movies of all time. A John Ford, classic. Well that ain't the ending in the book, it's not such a rosy ending. John Ford at his best, how it should have been and God bless him for it. Anyway I said I thought my brain was wired up different, its because these old movies I watched as a kid get mixed up in my head with real events, false memory's I suppose, I suspect I'm not unique in this. "Maybe I'm crazy and maybe I ain't, but so was Picasso and so was the saints". Kris Kristofferson quote. Of Mice and Men, I promised you a few words, to add to the millions of other words. It's the story of George and Lennie, a pair of drifters looking for work in the Salinas Vally of California. Lennie is a simple minded giant of a man, who travels with George who is a little sharp witted fella. It is a short novel, 105 pages and I loved it. They are in the great depression of the 30s and like The Grapes of Wrath. Poor people are on the road trying to find a better life or just trying to survive. George and Lennie have a longing to buy their own place and Lennie loves to hear George tell him how it'll be. We don't know much about the pair, just that they have been in a few scrapes on the road and had to hide out then make a run for it. They start work on a Ranch and most of the story is set in the bunk house. The old swampy, Candy who hears George telling Lennie how it'll be, when they raise a stake and buy their own place. The old swampy tells them how one day he'll be to old to work and will be thrown of the ranch. He says he has a bit of money put by and he will give it to George if they let him go with them to their own place. I love the dialog between them, the way they speak. George says they can do what they please, If the circus came to town or if there's a ball game, we can go to her. I love the way they say that, lets give her a whirl. Is that misogynist to say 'her' that way? is it wrong? I say that quite a lot and it's not untill I wrote it down that it made me wonder. All their talk of a place of their own, where Lennie can tend the rabbits, you just know is all a dream and they'll never get her. That's her done, this post. I'll probably read all his books now, might even write another post after, East of Eden. So long for now George