The Old Man and The Sea

The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway  128 pages

I haven’t read this novella since I was in junior high school (I think it’s called middle school now). I didn’t care for it then. I have never been a Hemingway fan. But I had three reasons for picking it up again.

First, it was my turn to pick the book for my writing group. I knew I wanted something short, as one of our members isn’t a big reader. Second, March’s topic for the On the Same Page with Central Library Goodreads challenged its readers to re-read a hated book from high school. Third, is I’m a big fan of Paula McLain’s The Paris Wife.

The copy I checked out at the Library has an introduction by Charles Scribner, Jr. Interesting I thought as his father was one of the two men to whom Hemingway dedicated this book. If you pick up this copy, DON’T read the introduction; it gives the whole story away. I remembered how it ended, but I didn’t need to be reminded of the details.

The Old Man has been without a catch for 84 days. Everyone in his Cuban village claims he is unlucky and begins to shun him. NOTE: Hemingway went to Cuba and fished as part of his research. Still he goes out, sure that today would be his lucky day.  He hooks the fish of a lifetime and spends the next four days, barely eating, drinking, or sleeping, reeling it in.

I so enjoyed this story; it was unputdownable. It did take me two evenings to read, but I tried to read slow and enjoy the adventure. I have to admit that I wanted to read fast, but Scribner’s spoiler spoiled some of the fun.

After finishing this story of the old man who has hooked the fish of a lifetime, I may go back and try to read some more Hemingway.

I give The Old Man and The Sea 6 out of 5 stars.

A Little Life

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
720 Pages


"When four classmates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they're broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their center of gravity. Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he'll not only be unable to overcome--but that will define his life forever."


To hear the critics go on you'd think this was the greatest book ever written.  I think it was just okay for two reasons.  One,  two of the characters of the four friends are hardly part of the story at all, the third character is a little deeper but the book is mainly about Jude.   The second reason is that the author has created the damaged character of Jude who dwells in his pain about his past and lets it control his life.  Then the author has all these additional bad things happen to Jude over and over again.  It becomes a bit soap operaish.