Saturday, January 11, 2014

The Old Man Aand The Sea - Ernest Hemingway

I read this 10 years ago. No greenhorn even then but stupid enough to miss the struggle of the old man against the sea, against life itself. Now when I saw the book yesterday I felt like reading it again - it's a very readable size at 105 pages and I was done in a little over 2 hours. Two of the best ours I spent.

What I read now was totally different. It made a huge impact on me and I guess I will now revisit all those old classics I read years ago to see them with this new light, this new perspective of mine. Santiago, the unlucky fisherman who has now gone 84 days without catching a fish, who has no food to eat and almost nothing going on in his life except his strong will and pride, and his love for baseball, is heading out to sea to change his luck. He has one young friend who cares for the old man in such a nice way as to not upset the one thing he has, his dignity and pride, one who offers to go with him even though his father has forbidden him to go with the unlucky fisherman.

Santiago ventures alone, far out into the sea and hooks one of the biggest fish ever seen, an eighteen foot fish that's bigger than his boat. The fish is strong and pulls Santiago and boat far out into the sea over two days. As he struggles to stay alive, to tire the fish out, Santiago suffers wounds, hunger and even delusions, and lack of sleep. The drama is gripping as he combats his mind, his reduced physical strength, and still fights the fish with the one thought clear in his head - I will kill you, my brother. Santiago kills the fish in the end but its bigger than his boat so he ties it alongside. But he is so far away from shore that he has to combat many sharks that come to bite at the fish tied to his boat and by the time he fights some and kills a few, his fish is stripped to the bone. Santiago makes it back, barely. The next morning everyone knows that he has caught the biggest fish ever from the remains of the fish tied to the side of his boat, though he could not get it in. The boy runs in to help his old friend, and tells him he will go fishing with him now, no matter what.

Unbelievable drama. Superb characters. Santiago (played by Anthony Quinn in the movie version) and his constant thought of what the baseball star Di Maggio would have done in his place (the strength that our heroes give us is incredible!), his fierce dignity and pride, his confidence that he can hold his own against anything - even a fish bigger than his boat, his love for the sea, the fish, is a great character. The sea is another character, the boat is one and the fish certainly. Wonderful reading and I am so glad I read it again. This was the book that Ernest Hemingway got the Nobel for and the one that many say cannot be faulted.

1 comment:

Rajendra said...

Anthony Quinn again in a classic? He was in Zorba the Greek too. Lucky actor!