book # 4

The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway)

I liked this. A good read. This is the first Hemingway I've read, other than a couple short stories. I like that style- simple and clear, the deeper reading is very open to interpretation. There are the obvious points- Hemingway's elevation of manhood, as mentioned by most of the other reflections I read.

Santiago was a charming character. There was something about "dreaming of the Lions" that really struck a chord with me. It seemed so poignant and sweet and powerful. It seemed startlingly appropriate that Hemingway closes by calling that back- he knows what I was thinking!

An interesting point is that, I always thought that this book was about a struggle- that the great fish was a combatant that the old man triumphs against. But increasingly it becomes clear that the man feels really a love and a brotherhood with the fish. This point is made quite clearly with the discussion of "El Mar" vs "La Mar"- the masculine, combative use as used by other fishermen; and the feminine, as Santiago uses, treating the ocean with affection and understanding. In retrospect it feels so appropriate that this is called The Old Man and the Sea.

The last section is really fascinating, and particularly captivating. When Santiago slays the fish, it feels almost anticlimactic- it really was indeed a long, exhausting, tense struggle, but never that moment of epic confrontation. But upon tying the fish to the side of the skiff, the sadness and poignancy that Santiago had to kill him, it really hits. And then when the sharks come… damn, then it gets both exhilarating and brutal. I also found the epilogue pretty stirring, the fisherman excitedly measuring the skeleton of the marlin, the old man lying in bed, the boy in tears.

There were a few times when I should have stopped and looked up some of the terminology- some of the boat and fishing specifics, I had trouble visualizing.

Some other moments that really caught me:

"I would rather be exact [than lucky]. Then when luck comes you are ready."

beautiful line: "But she can be so cruel and it comes so suddenly and such birds that fly, dipping and hunting, with their small sad voices are made too delicately for the sea."