It has taken me fifty years to read Ernest Hemingway although the man has been in my consciousness for many of those; through biography; through historical fiction in which he appears as a character; in the places I have visited, like Madeira, which were of importance to him. To say I had a connectedness to him is perhaps a bit presumptuous but he is someone with whom I have been intrigued for years. I have no idea why it has taken me so long to read his work.
And now I have and I am a little disappointed if truth be told. Maybe the length of time it has taken me to actually experience Hemingway is part of the problem: time has raised him onto something of a pedestal for me.
Because having read the Nobel prize winning The Old Man and the Sea, I’m a little bit disenamoured. I didn’t really enjoy it; in fact, at points, I found it quite boring. I feel almost sacrilegious saying it but it is my true opinion. And I keep reading reviews and mulling it over in my head to try and reconcile how its perceived in the wider consciousness, with my view, and I am struggling to think anything different to combat my rather lukewarm response.
It is a slow build, it is true, and I can understand how this is designed to build suspense and tension, imitating the winding in of the fish by the old man and the consequences of achieving the big fish prize and the regret almost of accomplishing what you set out to do when it results in inevitable destruction. And I did like parts of it. The intensity of the latter part of the book as the old man incongruously tries to preserve his prize with whatever he has to hand was good, analogous with life and what is needed to survive it. The idea of the lone man on the sea, enduring and enjoying his fishing for the experience it is has a romanticism to it to which I can relate.
But ultimately, I was glad to finish it and not because it was a sprint to get to the end and find out what happened – it was because it just did not set me alight.
And honestly, I was fully expecting Hemingway to be the man who could do it.
Scuffed Granny 
Sry to hear it didn’t do much for you. I thought it was a lovely symbolic story about man’s fight against an obstacle and ultimately against himself. Very relatable as well from when I’ve done high altitude mountaineering or other extreme challenges.
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Yes, not for me. I understood everything that Hemingway was trying to do but for some reason, it failed to involve me. I wrote a piece on Vocal about it as I felt disloyal when I finished it, like I was missing something crucial. I had to do some analysis to reconcile my feelings with the wealth of popular opinion.
https://vocal.media/confessions/we-need-to-talk-about-ernest
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