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A review by kristyleunggg
To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
3.0
This is like Ozark but old and with fisherman. Beginning had me pretty hooked, there's a lot of really good action scenes in this. Near the end, the plot gets a little lost in random people - like a tom buchanan style 4 way cheating mess for reasons I still do not understand. I liked it for the drama but only as a housewives viewer and not a reader of this damn story. There's another part before Harry's death reveal where the author pans across random people in the sea who in similar dire situations as Harry and from a literary POV I get it but I had to skip even though I rarely do this.
Also an uncomfortable amount of slurs in this, I know this man lived in a different time but it's still super jarring. Also Hemingway loves to emphasize how ugly and awful every woman in this story is. Like why. There was one chapter where a guy sees Harry's wife looking a little dishevelled as she's walking to the sheriffs office (because her husband was literally helping smuggle Cuban revolutionaries and DID NOT COME HOME) and the guy goes yuck did you see her boobs. That was the whole chapter.
Star allocation:
1 for all the times harry fights for life at sea despite his #2 almost always dead/dying or dead weight
2 for few scenes between harry and his wife, this man can write romance missed opp, should've just dropped the scenes about literal fish to make room
3 for when harry kicks the bucket and his wife closes the book by saying she doesnt a shit about her kids lmaoooo
Also an uncomfortable amount of slurs in this, I know this man lived in a different time but it's still super jarring. Also Hemingway loves to emphasize how ugly and awful every woman in this story is. Like why. There was one chapter where a guy sees Harry's wife looking a little dishevelled as she's walking to the sheriffs office (because her husband was literally helping smuggle Cuban revolutionaries and DID NOT COME HOME) and the guy goes yuck did you see her boobs. That was the whole chapter.
Star allocation:
1 for all the times harry fights for life at sea despite his #2 almost always dead/dying or dead weight
2 for few scenes between harry and his wife, this man can write romance missed opp, should've just dropped the scenes about literal fish to make room
3 for when harry kicks the bucket and his wife closes the book by saying she doesnt a shit about her kids lmaoooo