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3.17 AVERAGE
3.17 AVERAGE
adventurous
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism
To Have and Have Not is the tale of the ups and down of fishing boat captain Harry Morgan. This adventurous tale is riveting, and Hemingway keeps you hooked at the end of his line, with the twists and turns Harry endures trying to keep himself and family out of poverty. There is violence and super unfortunate and I found gratuitous use of the word nigger, that being said, I am a tremendous fan of Hemingway's spare prose style. I find being immersed in his stories soothing to my spirit.
adventurous
emotional
funny
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I really enjoyed this, seeing as how I finished it so quickly compared to others lately. The story of our poor bastard, Harry Morgan, and how he's turned smuggler to keep his wife and three daughters afloat in the Florida Keys during the Great Depression.
Thought provoking text in how Hemingway portrays different classes of people in this setting. Phenomenal contrasting analysis across the spectrum of those doing everything they can just to survive to those who have to do ultimately nothing to get by since they are provided for and how these folks' challenges in life are different. Not solely different economic classes, but includes US Veterans of the era and Cuban Revolutionaries. Hemingway paints everyone in a dastardly light except maybe our struggling hero Harry himself (and his wife). The veteran who enjoys being beaten up was outstanding. I laughed out loud several times throughout this dark comedy.
Quite overboard on bigotry, even for a 1930s novel. LOTS of n-word, likely more than any single text I've read before, mentioned countless times in the first chapter alone. Antisemitism is rampant. I imagine plenty of readers are unable to look past those offenses.
Change in narrators early on was a curve ball, but I read online this was originally two short stories and a separate novella before combined into one story. When considering it was three separate texts at one point it works surprisingly well. I can see myself reading this one again.
Thought provoking text in how Hemingway portrays different classes of people in this setting. Phenomenal contrasting analysis across the spectrum of those doing everything they can just to survive to those who have to do ultimately nothing to get by since they are provided for and how these folks' challenges in life are different. Not solely different economic classes, but includes US Veterans of the era and Cuban Revolutionaries. Hemingway paints everyone in a dastardly light except maybe our struggling hero Harry himself (and his wife). The veteran who enjoys being beaten up was outstanding. I laughed out loud several times throughout this dark comedy.
Quite overboard on bigotry, even for a 1930s novel. LOTS of n-word, likely more than any single text I've read before, mentioned countless times in the first chapter alone. Antisemitism is rampant. I imagine plenty of readers are unable to look past those offenses.
Change in narrators early on was a curve ball, but I read online this was originally two short stories and a separate novella before combined into one story. When considering it was three separate texts at one point it works surprisingly well. I can see myself reading this one again.
I enjoyed the first 2/3rds of the book, but then there are large chunks of the last third of the book that introduce new and unrelated characters and storylines that never tie to the main story and character. For this reason, I am rating the book a 2 instead of what would have been a 3 if the book had stayed with the main story.
This was a re-read, but it had been so long since I last read it, I'd completely forgotten how strange it is, especially in terms of structure and storytelling style. This time around, I was struck by the shifting POV and internal monologues. It was interesting. It felt like a precursor to Jim Thompson's work, in that sense, and also in the way that the story dwells on most of the worst aspects of each character, and how some still manage to find a sort of love for one another.
"You know how it is there early in the morning in Havana with the bums still asleep against the walls of the buildings; before even the ice wagons come by with ice for the bars? Well, we came across the square from the dock to the Pearl of San Francisco Cafe to get coffee and there was only one beggar awake in the square and he was getting a drink out of the fountain. But when we got inside the cafe and sat down, there were the three of them waiting for us."
"I ain't no radical," he said. "I'm sore. I been sore a long time."
"A large white yacht was coming into the harbor and seven miles out on the horizon you cuold see a tanker, small and neat in profile against the blue sea, hugging the reef as she made to the westward to keep from wasting fuel against the stream"
"I ain't no radical," he said. "I'm sore. I been sore a long time."
"A large white yacht was coming into the harbor and seven miles out on the horizon you cuold see a tanker, small and neat in profile against the blue sea, hugging the reef as she made to the westward to keep from wasting fuel against the stream"