I'm wondering whether I can explain," said Lee. "Where there is no likeness of experience it's very difficult. I understand you were not born in America." "No, in Ireland." "And in a few years you can almost disappear; while I, who was born in Grass Valley, went to school and several years to the University of California, have no chance of mixing." "If you cut your queue, dressed and talked like other people?" "No. I tried it. To the so-called whites I was still a Chinese, but an untrustworthy one; and at the same time my Chinese friends steered clear of me. I had to give it up.

The book is very different in tone from Steinbeck's amoral and ecological stance in earlier works like Tortilla Flat and Cannery Row. The story is about two traveling ranch workers George and Lennie trying to work up enough money to buy their own farm/ranch. Soon after he began work on East of Eden (1952) which he considered his best work.

John Ernst Steinbeck Jr. (February 27 1902 – December 20 1968) was an American writer. As the author of twenty-seven books including sixteen novels six non-fiction books and five collections of short stories Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962.