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Summary: THE BEST
Review: Only two works of fiction have ever brought tears to my eyes, The Old man and the Sea, and The Triumph and the Glory. What beautiful themes, what timeless writing. Of course, Hemingway's short story is beyond compare, it is the reading experience of a lifetime. If only it had been a full length novel !
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Summary: The old man and the sea- The basic principles of life
Review: The old man and the sea is truly one of the greatest novel's of all time. Through an old man having difficulty catching a fish, hemmingway narrates the bacid principles of life. With the old man in internal debate of letting the fish go or not, man's purpose on earth is revealed. This book gives value to the morals by which we live.
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Summary: God, This Boring Book About Fishing Should Be Banned--
Review: it could be single-handedly responsible for narcolepsy. But I guess since the bigshot Hemingway wrote it, we're all supposed to nod our heads and smile and say "way deep novel symbolizing man's struggle against nature" like subjects in The Emporer's New Clothes. Well, I for one will not call invisible talent talent just because it was written by "literary" royalty. Please, spare yourself the misery of this dreadful waste of trees. Hopefully, it is no longer required reading like it was when I was in school.
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Summary: Simplicity at its finest.
Review: This is one of the most colorfully written books in print
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Summary: One of the most profound and moving books of my life
Review: Okay, I'll start by conceding the obvious: 1. The plot is a down-on-his-luck old fisherman hooks a huge marlin, is pulled out to sea before killing it, and loses it to various shark attacks on his return voyage. 2. There's not a lot of action. 3. Yes, the old man talks to his hand (and a bird, and the fish).Personally, I feel that the most compelling aspect of this wonderful novel is the struggle inherent within the old man's task. It's a labor for something he not only wants but needs. It's an uphill climb against a gradient that only gets steeper. He succeeds, but only to lose the prize in the end. Yet, at the end of it all, he is not defeated. He is ready to sleep, to wake, and to do it all again. Call it the triumph of the human spirit when pitted against all odds. I first read this book in the fourth grade, after one of my parents left it laying around the living room. I finished it within three hours. Ever since, I've made it a point to pick it up at least once a year. I'm now 24 years old. And I still find it to be an absolutely captivating novel. -J.
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Summary: Papa Hemingway?.... Moses?... how could you go wrong?
Review: Yes, it's as good as you think - buy it
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Summary: Great Hemingway
Review: Do not come to this book in a hurry. Leave your rush and your problems somewhere else. It is pleasurable reading. Let your mind roll over the sentences and let yourself relish in their long rhythms. The Old Man and the Sea is about one thing only. It is a simple story, beautifully told. Allow it to speak to you. It tells the story and only the story. Nothing else enters. It is not a long book but it is just as long as it needs to be to say what it has to say. Hemingway wrote it at the one point in time when the height of his powers met the most he would ever know.
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Summary: A beautiful study of man and nature.
Review: This short novel was the winner of the 1953 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. It was required reading in one of my high school English classes and is still required in many schools over thirty to years later. Many believe it was the publication of this book that assured Hemingway of winning the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature. This book is a parable of man's struggle with the natural world and the inherent dignity of a man. An old Cuban fisherman named Santiago takes his small boat out into the Gulf of Mexico and has a battle with a giant marlin and with several sharks. He has to deal with his own weaknesses, with nature, with loneliness, and with his own mortality. It is a great novel and a reader can get much out of it with a little effort. I also feel that I have to respond to some of the comments from those earlier reviewers who rated the book with low scores. The book isn't about fishing. It's about man. Hemingway hadn't written a book for ten years. But, as soon as this comes out, he picks up a Pulitzer Award and the Nobel Prize! An earlier reviewer from Kansas (May 30, 1999) commented that Hemingway was no Jack Kerouac or F. Scott Fitzgerald. I love both those writers; but, they weren't even nominated for the Nobel. And, to the Canadian reviewer of March 29, do you actually think that Philip Pullman himself would classify his works, as enjoyable as they are, greater than those of Ernest Hemingway? But my most impassioned response is to the bizarre comments of the reviewer of May 11, who awarded "The Old Man and the Sea" five stars. After reading his comments, I went through all of the earlier comments, attempting to find what he was referring to. Except for grammatical errors (such as ending my previous sentence with a preposition) or spelling mistakes (such as misspelling mispelling), I saw nothing crude or offensive. Don't we have freedom of expression here? Even though I may disagree with others comments and opinions, they still have this right. And, more power to them (and to amazon.com). But, what I found most bizarre from reading this person's comments was that it would appear, from reading his last sentence, he awarded the book five stars yet hadn't even read it! At least those who gave the text a low rating had actually read the book.
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Summary: the catch
Review: This is the story of Santiago, an old man who, like the rest of us, must fill his niche in life. The niche Santiago fills is that of fisherman, a fisherman who has known better days, for he has been out many days without a catch. When he finally does hook into something big, sail along with him as he struggles with getting it into the boat. Some will find this struggle tiring, but if the reader looks at it as a man doing what must be done, he will come away with a lot. It is a story of dignity: that of the fisherman; and respect for life: the spent life of the fish the man catches and then sees debased my scavenger sharks. Hemingway's spare style is obvious in this prize-winning novelette.
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Summary: One of the Greatest short novels ever written!
Review: The Old Man and the Sea is truely one of the greatest short novels ever written. There is much insight to the theme of the power and struggle between man and Nature and that Nature will always win...but perhaps there is more insight to the thoughts and emmotions of an old man's struggle to make his pathetic life less lonely. The only person in the world that the old man meant anything to was the young boy who was no longer allowed to see the old man. Old man, young man, and the biggest marlin these parts have ever seen...and then there is loneliness. This is the first book that ever made me cry.
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