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Loading... To have and have not (original 1937; edition 2002)by Ernest Hemingway
Work InformationTo Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway (1937)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. A book club pick ;) The only Hemingway I’ve ever read was The Old Man and the Sea, and as a school assignment besides. So I voted yes with enthusiasm when my book club suggested we read this one. I enjoyed the writing from the start. The descriptions of fishing were magnificent. And yet, why would you fight a beautiful creature of the sea, just so that you may win and it may die? The dialogues are alive, rich and colourful, you can taste them. “What happened to your arm?” the lawyer asked Harry. Harry has the sleeve pinned up to the shoulder. “I didn’t like the look of it so I cut it off,” Harry told him. I liked how Hemingway lets you catch glimpses of a different time and place, with a word here, or just a hint of a scent, a colour there. Despite all this, I felt annoyed and bored. The women were mostly very silly and ridiculous. In general, there was a lot of “of its time” stuff in here, and I am still not sure how I felt about that. Also, I have seen this story before; I’ve met all these people before, in various reincarnations, in other books. Had this very short novel been better constructed, I would have been willing to overlook this. The POV changes and jumps between first and third person jarred, I felt. The cacophony of characters by the end added nothing to the narrative and just felt chaotic. They were not people, either, they were more like bugs under a magnifying glass – watch them crawl, oh, look, they picked up a piece of shit and are eating it, such weird bugs. I mostly just wanted the book to be over. P.S. There might be better Hemingways out there. Recommendations, anyone?
". . . a turbulent, searching story of Key West and Havana in these strange years of grace. . . . stronger than 'The Sun Also Rises,' not as good as 'A Farewell to Arms' . . ." Belongs to Publisher SeriesIs contained inErnest Hemingway Book-of-the-Month-Club Set of 6: A Farewell to Arms, A Moveable Feast, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Sun Also Rises, The Old Man and the Sea, The Complete Short Stories by Ernest Hemingway (indirect) The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: The Finca Vigía Edition by Ernest Hemingway (indirect) The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Old Man and the Sea, The Complete Short Stories--Finca Vigia Edition and A Moveable Feast (6 Volume Set) by Ernest Hemingway (indirect) Five Novels: The Sun Also Rises / A Farewell to Arms / To Have and Have Not / The Old Man and the Sea / For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway Hemmingway - The Sun Also Rises, a Farewell to Arms, to Have and Have Not, for Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway Narrativa completa 2 Aguas primaverales / Fiesta / Adios a las armas / tener y no tener by Ernest Hemingway Has the adaptation
The dramatic, brutal story of Harry Morgan, an honest boat owner who is forced into running contraband between Cuba and Key West as a means of keeping his crumbling family financially afloat. His adventures lead him into the world of the wealthy and dissipated yachtsmen who swarm the region, and involve him in a strange and unlikely love affair. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.52Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1900-1944LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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Also an uncomfortable amount of slurs in this, I know this man lived in a different time but it's still super jarring. Also Hemingway loves to emphasize how ugly and awful every woman in this story is. Like why. There was one chapter where a guy sees Harry's wife looking a little dishevelled as she's walking to the sheriffs office (because her husband was literally helping smuggle Cuban revolutionaries and DID NOT COME HOME) and the guy goes yuck did you see her boobs. That was the whole chapter.
Star allocation:
1 for all the times harry fights for life at sea despite his #2 almost always dead/dying or dead weight
2 for few scenes between harry and his wife, this man can write romance missed opp, should've just dropped the scenes about literal fish to make room
3 for when harry kicks the bucket and his wife closes the book by saying she doesnt a shit about her kids lmaoooo ( )