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19/8/2006: "Ernest Hemingway, "The Old Man and the Sea""

It's not a long book - my version (courtesy of YL) stands at 109 pages of neat, well-spaced text. Many reviewers have praised it as sparse, taut, every word bolt-sharp in its place. The economy of language in "The Old Man and the Sea" is fitting for a tale this elemental - the tale of a man, a boat, a fish, and the sea.

His choice had been to stay in the deep dark water far out beyond all snares and traps and treacheries. My choice was to go there to find him beyond all people. Beyond all people in the world. Now we are joined together and have been since noon. And no one to help either one of us.

This is the story of a hunt, of "man versus fish". From the moment Santiago - the eponymous "old man" - decides to go out to sea, from the moment he sets his lines and feels the fateful tug - he enters a dance with a giant marlin that is graceful, deadly, and ultimately futile. But for Santiago, this is as much a battle with a marlin as it is a battle with himself, a test of human endurance and determination.

He could feel the steady hard pull of the line and his left hand was cramped. It drew up tight on the heavy cord and he looked at it in disgust. "What kind of a hand is that", he said. "Cramp then if you want. Make yourself into a claw. It will do you no good."

....

Then he was sorry for the great fish that had nothing to eat and his determination to kill him never relaxed in his sorrow for him. How many people will he feed, he thought. But are they worthy to eat him? No, of course not. There is no one worthy of eating him from the manner of his behaviour and his great dignity.

I do not understand these things, he thought. But it is good that we do not have to try to kill the sun or the moon or the stars. It is enough to live on the sea and kill our true brothers.

Hemingway leads us through Santiago's struggle against the marlin and himself. As night falls, Santiago finally succeeds in killing the marlin and lashes it to the side of his tiny skiff. But he has gone too far out to sea, and on the journey back to port, the marlin is devoured by sharks drawn to its blood, even as Santiago tries, unsuccessfully, to fight them off. "They beat me, Manolin... they truly beat me", says Santiago of the sharks. But his young friend Manolin has already convinced him that they should fish together again. "I'll bring the luck with me," urges Manolin. Slowly, Santiago begins to plan for the days ahead - a good killing lance, the blade ground from the spring leaf of an old Ford; a knife; three days of heavy brisa. "The Old Man and the Sea" is many things, but it is not a story of defeat.

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