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A review by jonscott9
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
4.0
This is Santiago's story. He's an aged Cuban fisherman who once paired with a helpful boy in his skiff but has gone fishless for 80-odd days straight. He goes way out on the waters early one morning and subsequently finds himself in the fight of his life to bring in a wondrous marlin.
This is a compact, crafty read for anyone who can't break away from all the mysteries of the sea. Hemingway knows better than most how to inject meaning into the seemingly quaint parts of life, or rather reveal the meaning embedded in our quaint days. He provides more insights in 120 pages than a whole lot of authors do in 400 or more.
It doesn't hurt either that this book came in the twilight of his writing career -- after Farewell To Arms and The Bell Tolls, after receiving the Nobel Prize in literature in 1954, after all the fanfare. This book is Hemingway's final act of greatness. It is fierce and tranquil, the story of a man who goes out every day to lose and find himself at sea.
At day's end, what does a man have to show for himself and his work? And near the end of his life? What is worth more, the fight or the trophy? These are just some of the questions seething below the surface in this short tome.
This is a compact, crafty read for anyone who can't break away from all the mysteries of the sea. Hemingway knows better than most how to inject meaning into the seemingly quaint parts of life, or rather reveal the meaning embedded in our quaint days. He provides more insights in 120 pages than a whole lot of authors do in 400 or more.
It doesn't hurt either that this book came in the twilight of his writing career -- after Farewell To Arms and The Bell Tolls, after receiving the Nobel Prize in literature in 1954, after all the fanfare. This book is Hemingway's final act of greatness. It is fierce and tranquil, the story of a man who goes out every day to lose and find himself at sea.
At day's end, what does a man have to show for himself and his work? And near the end of his life? What is worth more, the fight or the trophy? These are just some of the questions seething below the surface in this short tome.