The Old Man and The Sea

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Summary: One of the greatest works of literature ever.
Review: The Old Man and the Sea is the first step into the world of Hemingway. His writing is so deliberate- no word ever goes to waste. You can easily find yourself captured reading for symbols and meaning just as well as being fully encaptured by the aesthetic value of of "Papa's" words.

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Summary: Best book in the 20th century
Review: The Old Man and the Sea written by Ernest Hemingway was one of the best books of the 20th Century. Even though Hemingway wouldn't admit it, this book contains much symbolism. I would highly recommend this book for middle school students and high school students because I think at this age they would realize what the real truth to this book is: not just about a fisherman fighting to catch an enormous fish, though a man against nature in a never ending fight.

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Summary: This book was da bomb!!
Review: I loved this book! It was the best book I read in a long time. Hemingway is a genius.

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Summary: Simply magnificent from start to finish!
Review: Truly a masterpiece, this book perfectly describes a man's life on the sea, and the bond he feels towards the fish. As he faces the adventures, we become more and more aware of the author's superb writing style, and we also gain a great respect for man and wildlife.

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Summary: ... gives new meaning to the struggle between good and evil
Review: This work makes the reader think. It also asks more questions than it answers. Penultimate is "Who won?", followed closely by "Why?". There is something for everyone in this work, be they pantheist, fatalist, idealist.........

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Summary: Savor it!
Review: The one and only Hemingway book that I ever laid hands on - turns out that the story lingered in my mind longer than I took to read it. Highly philosophical and full of literary value. The language is simple to understand. If you have to read Hemingway's works, this one is a MUST.

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Summary: Has to be Hemingway's finest work.
Review: No book review - at any length - would do this simple, beauitful piece of literature justice. But consider this : Hemingway probably does more with less than any author in history with this novella. Take a few hours to read it, then a lifetime to enjoy.

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Summary: A Christian reading
Review: I have read in some of the submitted reviews on this page that "The Old Man and the Sea" was a boook frought with religious symbols, even if Hemingway himself didn't particularly want his book to have any symbolism. I am writing to give what I think is a more accurate symbolism of the themes in the novel. I have read, for instance, that the old man represented Jesus-Christ, or God himself, and one of the most convincing reviews sees the book as a story in which the old man, i.e. God, lonely and full of years, but his eyes still young, as the text says, sails the sea of creation in search of the deep self of man. When he hooks the fish, it is with the intention of bestowing on him all the love which he had in store for him since the origin of the world. But the author of this review goes a great length to make sure this God is not misunderstood as a cruel, man-killing God! For the old man does indeed kill the fish, beautiful as he is. And there is no allusion in this review to the passage where the old man wonders whether this killing might not be a sin. Now, would God wonder that? In fact, we may see the old man as Man, and the fish as Christ. The first Christians had adopted the cryptic word "Ichtus", which in Greek means fish, to represent Christ, because of the fact that its letters, in Greek, are the letters which begin each word of the sentence "Jesus Christ Son of God Saviour". This in itself would not be a sufficient element to interpret the story, but also bear in mind that the old man's name is Santiago, or Saint James, one of the apostles, whose letter in the New Testament urges christians to show their faith not just in words but in deeds. The old man therefore represents man stuggling with God, who injures him, just as Jacob had fought with God's angel at the Yabbok and had hurt him after the fight. And Jacob, like the old man, had been victorious. The fish is Jesus caught by man, accepting to be caught by man, accepting to be killed by man, beautiful though he is. The old man is here in the position of all men who have killed God on the cross (the wood of the boat, on which the fish is tied), and it is natural that he should ask himself the question of transgression: hasn't he "gone too far" in fishing such a fish? The answer is no, for out of the evil of death springs the good of the eucharist: the sharks represent men nourished by the body of Christ, men both evil and good, for the kingdom is given to all. One can also see a sort of vision of the resurrection of the "fish-Christ" in its last jump out of the water, the word "rose" being used by Hemingway in that beautiful passage, in which the fish shows all its glory. (But naturally it is before the death of the real fish here.) One of the commentators rightly saw everyman carrying his cross when the old man goes back home, carrying his mast to the shed, while the skeletton of the fish is still (as it will ever be) tied to the wood as a memorial of his capture by men. The last ironical- but profoundly telling - trait comes when some tourists, seeing the skeletton of the swordfish, confuse it with that of a shark:God has really become one of us.

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Summary: Pretty good
Review: I do admit that the book was a little slow. I don't recommend it for those with low attention spans. But if you do read on, after about 1/3 of the book, it get really good and you can't put it down.

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Summary: It was an average book but it gets better
Review: I thought the book was average because it was slow going. if you ever come across it you will problably stop after the first 30 pages but keep on going because it gets better. The time when he got attacked by sharks and waited 5 hours for this huge fish. SO READ THE BOOK AND YOU WILL BE REWARDED.