THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA

Inspired by the excellent Ken Burns documentary of Ernest Hemingway I decided to read one of his works.

For Whom the Bell tolls I read at school and found it heavy going. Farewell to Arms I knew the story from the film.

I’m not a reader of short stories so I plumped for the audio version of The Old Man And The Sea. The reader was Donald Sutherland.

The story is of a Cuban old fisherman Santiago who has not caught anything for over 80 days.

He sets off and catches a marlin. The marlin is so huge that the fish drags the skiff way out to sea. The fisherman has to use his hands on the line to haul the marlin in, which he attaches to the side of the boat.

In returning to harbour, the marlin is attacked by a couple of sharks that the fisherman wards off but a shoal of them reduce the marlin to a skeleton. He has nothing to sell.

Some of the reviews endow the story with a spiritual quality bordering on the religious. I do not agree.

It’s an elemental story of man against nature.

Its simply written and short. It was Hemingway’s last novel, published in 1952 and won him the Nobel Prize. It’s an excellent read and Donald Sutherland the correct choice to do so.

Would Hemingway ever be restored in popularity?

Not in today’s era.

The alpha male of drinking, 5 wives, who liked bull fighting and boxing was criticised by Edna O’Brien and another female contributor in the documentary.

Today his third wife – war correspondent Martha Gellhorn – is the  more likely to be venerated.

It’s a shame as Hemingway was not just a great writer but a reporter on The Spanish Civil War and World War Two.