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jameskennedy 's review for:
To Have and Have Not
by Ernest Hemingway
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Hard to give this book any higher given just how appallingly racist some of the descriptions of the characters are. The first half of the book is good, the second half seems to lose focus of the plot and almost becomes a short story compilation at points as Hemingway describes the lives of some insignificant side characters. Hemingway finds an extremely interesting setting in pre-revolution Cuba but manages to completely butcher it by painting Cuba and its residents as nothing more than a medley of crime.
The book, especially the second half, would have definitely benefitted from fleshing out the revolutionary characters rather than simply reducing them to one-dimensional caricatures. There was clearly a point Hemingway wanted to make about communism and violent revolutions but it gets mixed up in all the typical masculinity of his writing that it's honestly hard to pinpoint what it is he wants to say.
As with most things, more communism and less self-insert masculinity would have made the book better.
The book, especially the second half, would have definitely benefitted from fleshing out the revolutionary characters rather than simply reducing them to one-dimensional caricatures. There was clearly a point Hemingway wanted to make about communism and violent revolutions but it gets mixed up in all the typical masculinity of his writing that it's honestly hard to pinpoint what it is he wants to say.
As with most things, more communism and less self-insert masculinity would have made the book better.