OLD MAN AND THE SEA

Rating:
Summary: I was extremely disappointed with this book.
Review: I found The Old Man and The Sea very boring. It lacks any real plot. It is exactly (and only) what it sounds like: an old man fishing. The book is very simple, but even a 2nd grader would not enjoy it for lack of excitement or suspence. True, many people say that there is a deeper meaning to it. I, for one, happen to enjoy books with a deeper meaning, but this book does not have one. Everything is just what it appears to be. Basically, do not waste your time on this book when there are millions of great ones to choose from.

Rating:
Summary: This book is the best.
Review: This book must be the best book by Hemingway I have read yet it is an awesomely powerful book and it couldn't have been written better, by anyone. Hemingway is a wonder, he wrote about what he loved, and he loved what he wrote and he never got too wrapped up in himself. This book is excellent, the best I have ever read.

Rating:
Summary: no commercials, huh?
Review: For God's sake, this story is a little more than a hundred pages...how can it "drag on?" If the rawness of the story, the depth of the symbolism, or the simplicity of the setting don't grab you, I don't know what will. I guess people's inability to focus for more than ten minutes is a result of this novel's not having commercial breaks.

Rating:
Summary: I did not like it
Review: I agree that children who hate reading and doing book reports should not post their reviews on Amazon, because the kids are going to hate reading it anyway since it is an assignment. As an 18 year old book lover, I thought I would give this book a try. Nobody forced me to read it, I read it for my own enjoyment. I just did not find this book interesting. I kept thinking..Santiago, let that fish go and row back to shore. Was it really worth all that trouble? I gave this book two stars because the book had one or two genuine moments in it that inspired me, but I did not care for the story as a whole. The book left me disappointed, so I started reading "A Brave New World". It is a much better book, in my opinion.

Rating:
Summary: Yeah, like I could critique Hemingway...
Review: The thing that impresses me about Hemingway most is that he knew what he wrote about and, therefore, wrote with such confidence and authority as to dispel all doubt about the authenticity of his characters and what they did and what they thought and said. This book is an easy quick read and a good introduction to Hemingway. But don't stop there. Go back and read it again and notice how rich the detail is and how much you missed the first time through.

Rating:
Summary: Marvellous!
Review: I think that the Old Man and the Sea is a great book! If you dive down beneath the words, you find something I have never found before. This tale of triumph and tradgedy is so moving you just want to hug Santiago. If you think about it, this happens to so many people. Santiago probably would have prefered to watch the fisherman, not be one. I would recommend this book to anyone because anyone can read this novel. It is so simple, yet so profuond, it is probably one of the greatest stories ever told.

Rating:
Summary: Could have been condensed to 1/2 its length
Review: Fantastic book with excellent symbolism, but the small amount of plot development vs. number of pages in the middle of the book seemed to me to be Hemingway fleshing out the novella for his publisher. Or perhaps, with one of the themes of the book being perserverance, Hemingway was deliberately making his readers perservere at the book. From the reviews I've skim-read nobody seems to have mentioned the pessimism that seems to somehow parallel the hope in the book (the sharks killing the Marlin obviously). Don't forget that this was one of Hemingway's last works before he shot himself. Perhaps we are getting a look into the troubled psyche of the great author himself.

Rating:
Summary: A stunning and surprisingly good novel
Review: This book shows a beautiful portayal of extreme courage in individual, unrecognized situations. I this Hemingway was trying to convey that everyone fights their own battles, no matter how big or small they are. These battles are not the ones you see on the news, but they are just as extraordinary. -An 8th Grader

Rating:
Summary: Who are all these kids...
Review: Writing these clueless reviews; are teachers actually encouraging them to clutter the Amazon.com site by making their "comments" mandatory? Please spare us; grow up (for our sake) and resist the temptation to view the human condition as "boring" (for your own).

Rating:
Summary: Terrible
Review: Terribly GOOD. I was so suprised at the meaning and symbolization of this book because i took it even to higher level. I discovered that the book was a reflection of the life of ernest Hemmingways later career along with other crap he put in there, such as the christian symbolization, just to throw those with a shallow mind WAY off track... Look into it. It is Awesome!