Of mice and men

I finally read John Steinbeck’s Of mice and men last weekend. I know a lot of people will encounter this book during High School or College but my school in Australia opted to have us reading Jane Eyre and The Crucible along with some more Australian themed stories. I’d been meaning to read some John Steinbeck books for a while and I enjoyed the first of his books that I’ve read.

Of mice and men tells the story of George and Lennie, itinerant farm workers in 1930s California. Life is tough travelling from farm to farm looking for work and the two men dream of one day owning their own place and being their own bosses. George looks after mentally disabled Lennie as they travel, promising him a happy future on their own farm with rabbits as pets. Trouble looms in their newly acquired jobs when a perfect storm of characters come together with disastrous consequences. Tensions flare between the farm hands and Curley, the boss’s son, over work and Curley’s lonely, bored wife.

Steinbeck’s novella (just over 100 pages long, so no excuses not to pick it up) has influenced literature and popular culture since its publication in 1937. Frequently challenged for its language and themes, it was based on some of Steinbeck’s own experiences as an itinerant farm worker and has gone on to be considered a classic.

The perks of being a wallflower

So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I’m still trying to figure out how that could be.

An addition to the already gargantuan amount of teen coming-of-age novels, The perks of being a wallflower stands out as a book that deals with the drama of family life and friendships in a straightforward and affecting way.

Charlie writes letters to an anonymous person detailing a year of his life. Friendless following his best friends suicide, Charlie’s first year of High School doesn’t start well. Awkward and introverted, he spends most of his time observing life happening around him but rarely engaging. Charlie soon meets two older students, step siblings Sam and Patrick, who befriend him and encourage his attempts to participate instead of being the wallflower of the book’s title. Central to the story are Charlie’s relationships with his family members. Secrets and unacknowledged issues bubble under the surface of family life, threatening to unravel Charlie’s carefully ordered existence. 

Set in 1991, the book is threaded through with references to the music, books and movies that Charlie discovers while attempting to get involved in the lives of those around him. The author Stephen Chbosky doesn’t shy away from dealing with difficult issues while creating a story that is funny and sometimes sad at the same time.

Recently made into a movie starring Emma Watson (Harry Potter), Logan Lerman (Three Musketeers), Ezra Miller (We need to talk about Kevin) and Nina Dobrev (Vampire Diaries), check out the book before the movie hits the cinemas later this year.

Drop everything and read…

Last Thursday RuTC students and staff participated in a Drop Everything And Read event. At 11am on March 1 a bell sounded letting everyone know it was time to drop what they were doing and pick up a book. It was great to see so many people reading all kinds of things. Here are some examples from staff:

• The New York trilogy by Paul Auster
• The Economist
• The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
• Heartbeat by Sharon Creech
• Paddy Clarke ha ha ha by Roddy Doyle
• Language and linguistics by J. F. Allwork
• The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
• The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid – Bill Bryson
• Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
• Financial Times
• Midnight Fugue – Reginald Hill

We’d love to hear which books everyone else was reading last Thursday, or even what you’re reading now.

Oryx and Crake

The second of Margaret Atwood’s books I’ve read, the first being The Handmaid’s Tale, Oryx and Crake explores science, genetic engineering and the hand that humans play in tinkering with the world.

Set in a possible and not too distant future the novel follows Snowman, survivor of a lab created pandemic, or waterless flood, that has wiped out civilisation and left behind only the genetically perfect creations of Crake. The story snakes through Snowman’s present and his past, when he was known as Jimmy, chronicling his friendship with the brilliant but driven Crake and his obsession with the enigmatic Oryx. As Snowman interacts with the Crakers, genetically engineered ‘perfect’ humans, and dodges wolvogs, rakunks and pigoons on his journey to survive in a world no longer fit for regular humans we gain some insight into what has happened to the world and who made it happen.

I don’t want to give too much of the story away but I really enjoyed reading this book, chilling as it sometimes is. The future depicted is not so strange and alien that it couldn’t exist. Margaret Atwood has looked at current events, science and technology and pictured a future of unrestrained usage. The internet is awash with live executions and shadowy, complex games, all food is genetically modified and the balance of power rests with scientists and geneticists who compete to control markets and thereby people.

I would recommend Oryx and Crake as a very interesting book that poses compelling questions about society, civilisation and our future.