Maybe I am a truly unsophisticated reader but I did not enjoy reading Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. I read it for Books & Beer Club. If I make it to the book club meeting, I'm sure it will make for an interesting, fully engaging discussion. But this was a novella that I couldn't wait to finish.
I liked the story better than the writing style. Is it totally ignorant to say this? It's the story of Santiago, an old fisherman who, after a long string of bad fishing days, catches a marlin. The marlin is so big and for a few days pulls Santiago further and further away from the harbor and his home. Both Santiago and the marlin put up a good fight. The writing, though? Is this how all of Hemingway's books are written?
On further reflection, I realized that Fredrik Backman's And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer is a similarly themed novel. Old age, place in the world, reflecting on the past. I much preferred And Every Morning...
Another classic I can say that I've read.
The edition that I took from the library included all sorts of notes, correspondence and a draft of a similar short story that Hemingway had written. I think I preferred the draft story.
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