Rating: 
Summary: Depression Era Perils In The Florida Straits
Review: This short novel was written when Hemingway was living in Key West and paying regular visits to Cuba, before moving, lock, stock, and barrel, to Havana in 1939. The author was a keen deep-sea fisherman himself, who craved a laid-back tropical lifestyle between bouts of high adventure. To Have And Have Not draws heavily on his intimate knowledge of early nineteen-thirties life in the Florida Keys, the north coast of Cuba, the Gulf Stream in between, the fishing boats that worked those waters, and the men who owned and manned them.This was the time of the Great Depression. Harry Morgan has been bilked of his dues for a fishing charter out of Havana. Broke, he turns to smuggling - with its inevitable risks - in order to support his family while the author treats the reader to a simply told, suspenseful, and sometimes poignant morality tale. A tale with a rich share of characters ranging from down-and-out "rummies", Cuban revolutionaries, bar-owners, customs men, and an inevitably crooked lawyer, to the wealthy owners of luxury steam-yachts. Interestingly if a little quirkily structured, the book is divided into three parts. The first is told in the first person, most of the remainder in the third. To Have And Have Not should be viewed as a product - as well as a story - of its time, particulary in respect of terminology that would be seen today as highly racist and derogatory. Not "Papa's" best work, but most assuredly a yarn that held this reader's attention throughout.
Rating:
Summary: To Have and Have Not - Classic Hemingway
Review: Widely accepted as Hemingway's worst novel (stated by Hemingway himself), this novel still makes other authors' best works pale in comparison. Harry Morgan is one of the most intriguing characters Hemingway has come up with.
I disagree quite a bit with a previous reviewer who characterizes Harry as a cold, abrasive, and uncaring person even for his family. I think what Hemingway is successfully conveying with Harry's character is the hardships of the times. Harry is an ex-cop, a position that generally holds some moral and ethical standing, turned fisherman turned rum/illegal alien/bandit runner. Harry is driven by his paternal and machismo inclination to provide for his family. He murders for his beloved Marie and his three daughters - not because he is particularly murderous or is greedy with an acute thirst for money. The final chapter about Marie encapsulates the beauty of the Morgans' life. They had everything, regardless of material wealth because Harry always provided for his family. Juxtapose this life with the lives described in 2 or 3 chapters before the end of the extremely wealthy people who own the yachts and we can see exactly what the title of this book means. Some people have, and some people have not. The rich people whose lives are closely examined in this novel are miserable. And though Harry loses an arm and eventually more than that he still is the one who Has in the theme "To Have and Have Not."
This novel, though somewhat disjointed and difficult to organize in your mind, is a beautiful criticism of what many people think is the key to happiness: abundance of wealth. Thinking back, the disjointedness is what makes this novel so beautiful and sensical. The chapter examining all the different characters in their yachts is one of the most intelligent and wonderful criticisms of the upper class I have ever read, anywhere. You will not be disappointed with this book.
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