I often wonder why complicated stories like this are suggested as required reading in high school. When I read this as a teenager, I really didn't care for it. It seemed boring to me because I couldn't relate.

Now, 25 years on, I can appreciate it more. I think it's impossible for a teenager to imagine the hardships you might experience in life and what it can mean to cling desperately to a hope for happiness and have that dream torn away from you through something that is no fault of your own.

What really stood out to me this time through were:

1. The portrayal of Crooks as a person with depth and not just a two-dimensional stereotype, given the original publish date.

2. The clever foreshadowing with Candy's dog. The mention of Lennie's previous problems and his issues with small animals was, I guess, foreshadowing, but it was heavy-handed. You really shouldn't have gotten past the first 50 pages without knowing how this book was going to end.

3. I wondered how many people wound up as itinerant laborers like George, Lennie, Candy, and the rest of the bunch. The story was written during the 1930s Great Depression years. I really should read more about that period.