From the Bookshelf of Read Between the Wines…

The Old Man and the Sea

Ernest Hemingway

Start date: March 1, 2014

Finish date: March 31, 2014

Discussion: Book Club Discussions

Why we're reading this: This book was nominated by Allisen.
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Feb 05, 2011 Jason rated it really liked it

Shelves: for-kindle, wine-club, drunkenly-reviewed

Hi!!!!!

I’m drunk again.

So, this book. Ostensibly about a geriatric dude who goes fishing, The Old Man and the Sea covers way more bases than that. One could say it is a book whose themes include “the solitude of man” or, um… “one being pitted against the world.” Or maybe even a “powerlessness against nature” or whatever. And all of these things may be true, but I think I would have enjoyed this touching novella even if it didn’t capture those thematic bases. Of course, I only say that because I Hi!!!!!

I’m drunk again.

So, this book. Ostensibly about a geriatric dude who goes fishing, The Old Man and the Sea covers way more bases than that. One could say it is a book whose themes include “the solitude of man” or, um… “one being pitted against the world.” Or maybe even a “powerlessness against nature” or whatever. And all of these things may be true, but I think I would have enjoyed this touching novella even if it didn’t capture those thematic bases. Of course, I only say that because I enjoyed the book to the extent that I did, and had it not employed those themes into its narrative perhaps I wouldn’t have liked it so much. Who the fuck knows? But I did and here’s (I think) one of the reasons why: Hemingway writes like a simpleton. I remember this sort of stripped down, bare bones writing from books like For Whom the Bell Tolls and stories like Hills Like White Elephants (which is one of my favorite short stories ever, by the way), and it works just as well here, if not for different reasons.

Santiago is an old man who fishes out of his skiff somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico. Havana is mentioned, so maybe this takes place in Cuba? Although 90% of the story takes place in the ocean so it doesn’t even really freaking matter. The point is, Santiago is an old man who fishes out of his skiff somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico. He lives alone and has seemingly one close friend, a young boy named...actually I forget his name. That’s really weird. I just finished this book yesterday and I already forgot the kid’s name?

OH!

Manolin! Yes, that’s right. Manolin. Anyway, Manolin’s his only friend and there’s a level of mutual respect and admiration that exists between the two characters which is highlighted by the very understatedness of Hemingway’s simpleton writing. The boy wants to go with the old man (oh, who cares about names anyway) except the boy’s parents have decided maybe he shouldn’t hang out with the old man, and not because the old man is creepy or anything which you’d think might be a bit concerning but apparently nope. It’s the fact that the old man hasn’t caught a fish in four months. Which is a super long time not to catch a fish when all you do in life is catch fish.

So the old man goes out into the sea by himself and breaks his fishless streak by landing himself the biggest marlin ever, and there’s a lot of internal struggle that occurs here, which is brilliant—there’s self-doubt which creeps into the old man’s psyche and is replaced by “fake it ‘til you make it” confidence, which then circles back into more self-doubt. There’s an overwhelming sense of loneliness, both physical (being leagues away from shore) and emotional (the old man misses the boy BUT NOT IN A CREEPY WAY), and there’s also this really beautiful union with nature that occurs as the old man tries to land the fish. He recognizes the fish as his foe but ultimately becomes “one” with it as he begins to identify it as an extension of himself. It’s all very layered for a guy whose sentences contain seven words or fewer.

I won’t say what happens after he catches the marlin because I’m almost wondering if even saying that is spoilerish but boy howdy do you guys want to know what happens after he catches that marlin or what??! Well, then maybe you should read this book.

I’d also like to say that Weinz is wrong about margaritas being for pussies. That is all. ...more

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