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Here, for a change, is a fish tale that actually does honour to the author. In fact The Old Man and the Sea revived Ernest Hemingway's career, which was foundering under the weight of such post-war stinkers as Across the River and into the Trees. It also led directly to his receipt of the Nobel Prize in 1954 (an award Hemingway gladly accepted, despite his earlier observation that "no son of a bitch that ever won the Nobel Prize ever wrote anything worth reading afterwards"). A half century later, it's still easy to see why. This tale of an aged Cuban fisherman going head-to-head (or hand-to-fin) with a magnificent marlin encapsulates Hemingway's favourite motifs of physical and moral challenge. Yet Santiago is too old and infirm to partake of the gun-toting machismo that disfigured much of the author's later work:
"The brown blotches of the benevolent skin cancer the sun brings from its reflection on the tropic sea were on his cheeks. The blotches ran well down the sides of his face and his hands had the deep-creased scars from handling heavy fish on the cords."Hemingway's style, too, reverts to those superb snapshots of perception that won him his initial fame:
Just before it was dark, as they passed a great island of Sargasso weed that heaved and swung in the light sea as though the ocean were making love with something under a yellow blanket, his small line was taken by a dolphin. He saw it first when it jumped in the air, true gold in the last of the sun and bending and flapping wildly in the air.If a younger Hemingway had written this novella, Santiago most likely would have towed the enormous fish back to port and posed for a triumphal photograph--just as the author delighted in doing, circa 1935. Instead his prize gets devoured by a school of sharks. Returning with little more than a skeleton, he takes to his bed and, in the very last line, cements his identification with his creator:
"The old man was dreaming about the lions."Perhaps there's some allegory of art and experience floating around in there somewhere--but The Old Man and the Sea was, in any case, the last great catch of Hemingway's career. --James Marcus
Amazon.co.uk Review
Here, for a change, is a fish tale that actually does honour to the author. In fact The Old Man and the Sea revived Ernest Hemingway's career, which was foundering under the weight of such post-war stinkers as Across the River and into the Trees. It also led directly to his receipt of the Nobel Prize in 1954 (an award Hemingway gladly accepted, despite his earlier observation that "no son of a bitch that ever won the Nobel Prize ever wrote anything worth reading afterwards"). A half century later, it's still easy to see why. This tale of an aged Cuban fisherman going head-to-head (or hand-to-fin) with a magnificent marlin encapsulates Hemingway's favourite motifs of physical and moral challenge. Yet Santiago is too old and infirm to partake of the gun-toting machismo that disfigured much of the author's later work:
"The brown blotches of the benevolent skin cancer the sun brings from its reflection on the tropic sea were on his cheeks. The blotches ran well down the sides of his face and his hands had the deep-creased scars from handling heavy fish on the cords."Hemingway's style, too, reverts to those superb snapshots of perception that won him his initial fame:
Just before it was dark, as they passed a great island of Sargasso weed that heaved and swung in the light sea as though the ocean were making love with something under a yellow blanket, his small line was taken by a dolphin. He saw it first when it jumped in the air, true gold in the last of the sun and bending and flapping wildly in the air.If a younger Hemingway had written this novella, Santiago most likely would have towed the enormous fish back to port and posed for a triumphal photograph--just as the author delighted in doing, circa 1935. Instead his prize gets devoured by a school of sharks. Returning with little more than a skeleton, he takes to his bed and, in the very last line, cements his identification with his creator:
"The old man was dreaming about the lions."Perhaps there's some allegory of art and experience floating around in there somewhere--but The Old Man and the Sea was, in any case, the last great catch of Hemingway's career. --James Marcus
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hemingway and the natural world,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Old Man and the Sea (Paperback)
The Old Man and the Sea is a classic literary work. Hemingway was at his shining best when he wrote about the fearless old man, Santiago, and the epic personal battle with a hooked marlin. Here, unlike in Melville's Moby Dick, Hemingway's main character is both at odds with himself while seemingly being at peace with the natural world. Many time he describes the marlin as his "brother." Hemingway is also a master of unconcious symbolic gestures. Many times the old man describes his wish for a young man to help him with the tasks aboard his small skiff. There is a young male character who had fished the ocean prior to the start of the text with Santiago, but if the reader has read such books as Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises and Farewell to Arms one would interprate this as another one of Hemingway's symbolic loopholes that leads us to a further understanding of the intristic nature of Santiago. In simple terms, The Old Man in the Sea examines the search for youth through the experiences of an old Cuban fisherman who examines his life while praising DiMaggio and cursing his lack of strength. But, all the while, never losing his confidence and spirit. A beautiful story.
12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Subtelty used at Hemingway's staggering best,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Old Man and the Sea (Paperback)
This novella is not one for the lazy reader. For them it is a story about a man trying to catch a fish off the Cuban coast. However for the thinking reader this book is second to very few I have experienced. Hemingway's theory that "the grace of movement of an iceberg is due to only one eighth of it being above water" has never been more relevant than to this text.Above the surface an old fisherman, Santiago, befriended by a young bog, Manolin, sets off as usual and catches a Marlin, resulting in a lengthy battle to reel it in. However below the surface is a commentary on masculinity, a common Hemingway theme, and the tragic tale of a man whose once considerable powers have now deserted him, leaving him hungry and alone apart from his apprentice. It doesn't take long to read this book, but it does take a long time to fully appreciate it, and I would advise re-reading it a few times to make sure you get absolutely everything from this tale. Not that this will be a problem, however, I read it three times and each time uncovered some new twist, such is the beauty and subtlety of Hemingway's craft. The reader gets out of this book what they put it, but if you put in the time you will be left with a truly memorable read that you will definitely want to return to in the future.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
bland story line . . .,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Old Man and the Sea (Paperback)
quick synopsis for those of you who havent read it and are considering it: an old man is pulled around the ocean by a fish, talking to his HAND (yes, his hand) and ends up almost dead for a fish that eventually gets eaten by sharks. There you go. Sound good to you? No. I kept wondering what would possess a man to write and publish a book with a story line like this. I understand all of the religious imagery, and all of the symbols with the mast, and everything, but this book really sucked! But, I dont really think that it deserves 1 star. If you want a good Hemingway read, I recommend A Farewell to Arms. That is a great story.
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