Book Review: The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

I can’t believe Ernest Hemingway actually made me care about an old man catching a giant marlin. I have absolutely zero interest in fishing, so I was entirely expecting to feel ambivalent about this book or be completely bored by it. But by the end of the book, I was genuinely rooting for the old man to get that giant marlin back home intact so he could show everyone what he’d done. 

This book read differently to me than the other Hemingway novels I’ve read. There seemed to be more emotion in the writing itself. While the writing is still stripped back and precise in classic Hemingway style, Hemingway had to narrow his focus to a single man and a single activity that took place over just a few days, and I think this narrowing of focus allowed more emotion to shine through. I think that’s the only reason I could ever become invested in a novel about fishing, even if it was written by Hemingway. 

There were times throughout the novel where I just wanted Santiago to give up on the marlin and thought to myself, “only a man would ever…,” which is me falling into stereotypical thinking, but his persistence did serve to show the pride of humankind, its resilience, our yearning for youth, and our individualistic nature. And throughout all of what he went through, Santiago showed superior respect towards animals, allowing humans only the benefit of intelligence. 

Remember: the pain tells you that you are alive.

Some quotes I liked:

“He no longer dreamed of storms, nor of women, nor of great occurrences, nor of great fish, nor fights, nor contests of strength, nor or his wife. He only dreamed of places now and of the lions on the beach.”

“Do not think about sin. It is much too late for that and there are people who are paid to do it. Let them think about it. […] But he liked to think about all things that he was involved in […so] he thought much and he kept on thinking about sin.”