Ernest Hemingway The old man and the sea novella - Books review

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The old man and the sea by Ernest Hemingway review - The perfectly written novella

I picked up The Old Man and the Sea because I’d never read any of Ernest Hemingway’s books before and the fact that it was this novella that had made him a famous figure in literature in the first place. Written in 1951 and published in ’52, it picked up a Pulitzer prize and helped Hemingway to the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. It was also his final work to be published during his lifetime.

The first thing that you notice when reading the book is how perfectly written it is. Every word, sentence and paragraph is faultless. The story of Santiago and his life as an old luckless fisherman in Cuba is written with such perfect simplicity that you can picture yourself in it so easily that you half become Santiago or Manolin yourself. You even imagine yourself as the great Marlin that he hooks after eighty four days of unsuccessful fishing.

Allegorically packed with notes on humanity, The Old Man and the Sea encompasses much in so few an amount of pages; pride and ignorance give way to brotherhood and respect, memories and the struggles of life melt into pain, disappointment and regret. It’s a book that is as much a mirror as it is a window and it’ll leave you with fresh perspectives on your own life as well as more of an understanding of what motivates everyone else around you.

It’s importance is just as present now as it was in the ‘50s, if not more so, considering the condition of the world’s oceans and the overfishing that dominates the industry.

For me, the book explores the capabilities of man, the threats of life and the importance of consequences (just because a thing can be done, doesn’t mean it should be) but more than anything else, it’s a great story that pulls you in at pace and leaves you stripped bare by the end.

4.2/5