Andalucia Life - Glitterati Book Review, July 2008

“Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck and “Blood River” by Tim Butcher.

The reviewer’s bread and butter is the hot-off-the-press best seller; in publishing as in pop music novelty is all. Predictably, many chart-toppers land in the remainder bins after just weeks.

So, at this time, as our teenage children await the results of their exams, it’s refreshing to reflect on the amazing durability of some fiction. The set books in English Literature don’t change much, whether in Spain or in Britain – one evergreen, for years now an exam text and a tremendously good read, is Steinbeck’s powerful novella from 1937, set in California during the Depression. Steinbeck, himself a rancher’s son, was consumed by a fierce sympathy for the misery endured by the migrant workers drifting into his home state. He wrote a trilogy of books in which he tried to give a voice to the lonely and the dispossessed, and in the process exploded the myth of the American Dream; of these, Of Mice and Men is the best known.

This uncompromising exposure of agricultural exploitation tells how two itinerant ranch hands, the ambitious George and the strong but simple Lennie, develop a shared dream of owning their own farm, but have it shattered when Lennie accidentally kills a girl.

Taking its title from Robert Burns’ poem about plans that go wrong, the book celebrates Steinbeck’s preoccupations with enduring friendship and the powerlessness of the working class. His use of strong language and his concern for social justice once earned him hostility and censorship, but today it is required reading in the schools of America and all English-speaking countries.

For many young people this will be their first encounter with a really “grown-up” book, and over the years even the shadow of exams doesn’t seem to dim their enthusiasm. To make classic fiction such as this totally understandable, for exam success and personal enjoyment, Glitterati Tutors are now available in this area to support students revising for or resitting their exams.

Also under the Glitterati umbrella meet the growing Reading Group, which recently discussed “Blood River” - Tim Butcher’s epic account of his attempt in 2004 to re-trace the 19th century explorer Stanley’s journey through the Congo. Rated by the Foreign Office as one of the most dangerous of African states, the Congo proved to be dirty, deadly and depressing. Journalist Butcher’s buoyant optimism was put to the test by the pervasive violence and corruption he encountered at all levels of society. Not a book for the squeamish!

William Beatty