I feel kind of weird rating a literary classic only 3 stars, but that's honestly how I feel about this book. I was really excited to read it, but to me it didn't live up to all the potential or the hype. Perhaps it was because I already knew the ending that I didn't enjoy it as much--after all, we've talked about his book a lot in various English classes, and I knew how the book ended in its entirety before reading it. Perhaps if I hadn't known the ending, the steady edging towards Lennie's mistake and the consequences thereof would have felt more ominous, the slow-building tension more unbearable. But instead, I wanted to get to the ending so I could simply say that I read the book.