Tag: Ernest Hemingway

Dusted Off: To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway

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On December 23, 2013

In Fiction, General Fiction/Literature

To Have and Have NotTo Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway

What a miserable book! Harry Morgan is an almost thoroughly despicable character in a pointless book full of sad, pathetic and incomplete plots. I think I can see where Hemingway was trying to stretch as an author, the multiple perspectives he writes from here is a different approach for him (one that doesn’t succeed too well), for example. But I thought this failed utterly.

Towards the end of the book, there’s a few pages where Hemingway gives us snapshots of various characters aboard different boats in the marina — all of whom we only see here in a few paragraphs — I thought this was effective, light years beyond the rest of the novel. It felt quite out of place, a diamond in the rough. (which may suggest it wasn’t as good as I thought, it just seemed so much better — I don’t think that’s the case, but it’s possible)

Oh, this also featured possibly the least erotic sex scene I’ve read this side of Tom Wolfe (actually, may be worse than Wolfe). Nothing to make hay about there, just thought I’d note it as it really bugged me.

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2 Stars

Islands in the Stream by Ernest Hemingway

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On October 31, 2013

In Fiction, General Fiction/Literature

Islands in the Stream
Islands in the Stream

by Ernest Hemingway

I typically don’t bother with posthumous novels, but for some reason* I went ahead and tried this one, and on the whole, I’m glad I did, despite my rating. There’s a lot to the characters in this novel that weren’t in the previous novels. Still, as much as I appreciated various aspects of the novel, I just couldn’t get into it as a whole.

Part 3, “At Sea,” did almost nothing for me — Thomas Hudson is almost impossible to recognize, and it’s probably harder to sympathize with him — or his crew. Given that they’re hunting Nazi’s, it should be a pretty easy sell.

Part 2, “Cuba,” had some really interesting moments, some dialogue that leaps off the page, and once his first wife appears, Hudson becomes likable for the first time since Part 1. I don’t recall Hemingway’s characters having a pet before, and while Hudson’s relationships with his cats seem more than a little strange, just having them made him seem more human. Like in Part 3, he’s very different from the character we met in Part 1, but it’s a bit more understandable here. While I didn’t find that much to like about the character, the physical descriptions he gives towards Honest Lil are about the best, and most evocative, I remember in Hemingway.

Part 1, “Bimini,” is what made this worth the read. Other than the kid in The Old Man and the Sea (which a significant portion of this section evokes), we don’t really see children in Hemingway. But here, Thomas Hudson’s two sons from different wives are spending a few weeks with him, a chance for them all to reconnect, and give their mothers some sort of break. I really liked these kids — probably more than any other characters he’s devised. And Hudson’s relatable, sympathetic, and even likable as a person — something that he loses quickly, and only regains briefly toward the end of Part 2.

Honestly, if you’re inclined to give this a try, only read Part 1 — you’ll be happier for it, and the scenes with Hudson and one or both sons are really great. Otherwise, you probably have better things do with your time.

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* I’d already checked it out from the library before I found that out.

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2 Stars

In Medias Res: Islands in the Stream by Ernest Hemingway

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On October 10, 2013

In Currently Reading, Fiction, General Fiction/Literature, In Medias Res

as the title implies, I’m in the middle of this book, so this is not a review, just some thoughts mid-way through

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Islands in the Stream
Islands in the Stream

by Ernest Hemingway

Part 1 of this had some of the most enjoyable passages (for me) in Hemingway’s works, some things I just didn’t see the point of, but overall I really liked this.

Part 2? Now, that I’m only getting through because I’m stubbornly persisting, that’s all.

I hope Part 3 turns this around.

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

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On September 6, 2013

In Fiction, General Fiction/Literature

because what else are you going to post on the same day as a review of an installment electronic serialized novel about Fairy Tales invading the Real World?

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The Old Man and the Sea
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

With the possible exception of The Torrents of Spring (I’ve pretty much repressed most of my memories of this one), there’s been at least one scene in every Hemingway novel I’ve read this year where someone recounts (or has) a man against nature or man against animal experience. Frequently, this is the best part of the book. So it’s not surprising that the time he threw out all the rest — war, love, dissipated living, etc. — and just focused on that element, man vs. the natural world, that he wins The Pulitzer. Here he’s really at his strongest.

I’ve read a lot of theories/takes on what Hemingway was really trying to say here, what/who the Old Man symbolized, who/what the giant marlin symbolized, who/what the Sea symbolized, and so on. Or that this is a minimalistic Moby Dick (if so, great, it’s needed!). And some of these might be right, a lot of them are full of more hokum than the typical literary criticism. I think it ‘s equally valid to go more surface-y on this one. Looking at how Hemingway lived his life, I tend to want to go for this being a straight-forward story of a regular guy, down on his luck that runs into the challenge of his life and comes out on top — momentarily, at least — and then has to fight for survival and the chance to do it again.

And as such, it succeeds. I really was gripped throughout (something I can’t say I’ve experienced with Papa before), after a slow (but necessary) introductory few pages, this story takes off and you just can’t help but feel for this Old Man and his last-ditch effort to eke out a living. I know it annoys some readers, but I enjoyed his talk of “the great DiMaggio,” his fisherman father, and the rest of MLB. I’m guessing these readers haven’t worked long hours alone — you have to do something to keep your wits about you, and you tend to get a little more eccentric than you otherwise would’ve. That part rang utterly true, and was amusing anyway.

A strong, deceptively-quick, compelling read. If nothing else, you get a feisty, elderly Cuban laying a beat-down on some sharks. That’s enough, right?

Across the River and into the Trees by Ernest Hemingway

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On August 3, 2013

In Fiction, General Fiction/Literature

Across the River and into the Trees
Across the River and into the Trees by Ernest Hemingway
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

It’s like a December-May version of the movie Before Sunrise. Except instead of Ethan Hawke, you have a bitter ex-General (now Colonel) in the US Army with some sort of terminal cardiac condition. And instead of Julie Delpy, you have a young, selfish, stupid/naive girl (or at least one who acts stupid and naive). The relationship between the two is so skeevy that you can imagine that some reviewer came up with the word just to describe this. Okay, so it’s actually nothing like Before Sunrise in that it’s very talky and the couple spends the time bouncing around a European city.

There’s practically nothing redeeming about this novel — there are flashes of Hemingway’s brilliance. Occasionally — very occasionally — the couple’s dialogue is dynamite. The conversations the Colonel has with a portrait of the girl are almost completely superior and more interesting. You have sentences like

The Colonel breakfasted with the leisure of a fighter who has been clipped badly, hears four, and knows how to relax truly for five seconds more.

You can’t hate a book that contains things like that — as much as you might want to.

It’s books like this that make me wonder if I’m just not as savvy a reader as I think, that all the literature courses I took were a waste. This was just pointless — and not in an artistic, or even Seinfeld-esque manner. The conclusion was typical for Hemingway, and broadcast for about 90% of the book. And then you get the infuriating last line, which I’ll be honest, I don’t get. Was it supposed to be funny? Nihilistic? Something else? By this point, I couldn’t bring myself to care enough to get it.

Flashes of brilliance like I said, but not enough to warrant the time or effort involved. Spare yourself.

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

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On July 12, 2013

In Fiction, General Fiction/Literature

For Whom the Bell Tolls
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was the fifth Hemingway novel I’ve read this year, and by far the most ambitious in length, scope, topic, and style. This classic follows Robert Jordan, American Spanish professor turned Republican Demolition officer in the Spanish Civil War as he leads a small guerrilla band to destroy a bridge that will play an important tactical role in an upcoming battle (as will its destruction). This classic has been analyzed, reviewed and studied far more intensely and deeply than I do around here, so I’ll stick to some general impressions/observations.

  • First, this took me a long time to read — sure, it’s chock-full of Hemingway’s deceptively simple prose, but something about this one took forever to slog through. I’m not sure why — and what it says about the quality of the book — but this took 4-5 days longer than I thought it should to read.
  • Hemingway didn’t pull any punches at all with foreshadowing, pretty much every plot point is predicted within the first 50 pages or so. And then you’re hit over the head with them for the rest of the book.
  • Even though this is a third person narrative, it felt far more personal and intimate than his previous novels — even those that were told in first person.
  • The part of the book where Pilar describes how she, Pablo and others took over their hometown from the Fascists? Horrific, totally believable and it’ll stick with me far longer than any of the shenanigans regarding the bridge will.
  • Oh, hey, finally know where the silly phrase, “the earth moved” (and the interrogative form) comes from. Speaking of that, is it just me, or does it take people longer to fall in love in a Nora Ephron script than in a Hemingway novel? Sure, whatever, it’s war . . . things are more intense, things happen faster, yada, yada yada. Not buying it. Forever and ever, amen love should take more time than it does to brew a cup of coffee.

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