The Old Man and the Sea
by Ernest Hemingway, 1952.
I picked this book up the same day I picked up Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, thinking it was time to re-read this classic & see if I would like it more as an adult than I did as a kid. I'd had to read it in Mr. Ewing's 8th grade class, and wasn't particularly fond of it--I found it dry & boring, except for the part where the old man urinates over the side of the boat. (That sounded pretty cool, and very convenient!)
I still don't get why it's considered a classic. I'm not fond of the simple, clipped diction style that Hemingway uses. I found the battle between the old man and the fish to be drawn out (although that does give me a sense of the exhaustion he must have felt!).
Eventually I'd like to try another Hemingway book--maybe I'll like one of his other books better.
p.s.--It seemed appropriate to have read this book now, as at about this time Cuban/American relations were changing. Just days before writing this, Fidel Castro was laid to rest.
I picked this book up the same day I picked up Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, thinking it was time to re-read this classic & see if I would like it more as an adult than I did as a kid. I'd had to read it in Mr. Ewing's 8th grade class, and wasn't particularly fond of it--I found it dry & boring, except for the part where the old man urinates over the side of the boat. (That sounded pretty cool, and very convenient!)
I still don't get why it's considered a classic. I'm not fond of the simple, clipped diction style that Hemingway uses. I found the battle between the old man and the fish to be drawn out (although that does give me a sense of the exhaustion he must have felt!).
Eventually I'd like to try another Hemingway book--maybe I'll like one of his other books better.
p.s.--It seemed appropriate to have read this book now, as at about this time Cuban/American relations were changing. Just days before writing this, Fidel Castro was laid to rest.