The old man and the boring novel (The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway)

Member Name: moronboy

Product:	The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
Date:	23/08/00 (129 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Short

Disadvantages: But it doesn't feel short

I would imagine that of all great twentieth century writers, Hemingway is the one most likely to be doomed to an unread future in the twenty-first century. The endless emphasis on masculinity, the spare, rather mannered prose, the obsession with manly pursuits like bull-fighting and fishing.

The best Hemingway is a short story or piece of non-fiction (there's an account of a boxing match he wrote which embodies all of his strengths in a few pages). 'The Old Man and the Sea' is barely long enough to be considered a novel, and it's still way way too long. It's a pared-down study of man against the elements, an old cuban fisherman struggling endlessly against the sea, and against a big fish. I'll be honest, I haven't a clue what it means, but it's interminably boring and lifeless. Give me Melville's 'Mody Dick' anyday, a novel of men against the deep which is ten times as long (at least), and yet much more compelling.

Summary: