Book Review: The Old Man and the Sea — Ernest Hemingway

An Overrated Classic

Quick Summary

An old fisherman goes to sea, desperate because he hasn’t found any fish for almost 3 months.

Finally, it bites on his line. And this is the beginning of his adventure with a blue marlin that he will accompany until its death and even after.

My Thoughts

The plot is simple, and can even seem quite boring at the first glance. But the narration is incredible and manages to make a mundane story rather poignant. You almost feel sorry for the old man towards the end of the book.

This narration earned him a Nobel Prize, and I think it is deserved. However, this book was still slightly boring. In fact, there is not much going on. To make the analogy, it’s like reading a whole book about the preparation of a cake by a pastry chef. No matter how well you manage to put emotions into it, to make the reader experience something, in the end it’s just not possible to do something really interesting based only on one action.

On the other hand, the character of the fisherman is very interesting. And the relationship he creates with the fish is surprising, but also interesting. Hemmingway manages to make us feel pity for both the fisherman and the fish, who are both best friends but also worst enemies. This paradox is impressive and well done.

The book could have stopped at the death of the fish and would have been good enough, but seeing how the sequel destroys the fisherman’s character and takes a dramatic turn is something well thought out.

In short, it’s a book that I liked a lot, I wouldn’t call it a masterpiece since there are some moments where I got bored, but it’s not far from it.

To Read or Not to Read?

If you are young, I would not recommend reading this book. You need to have some sense of storytelling to enjoy it, and not just see it as “a fisherman catching a fish”.

On the other hand, from a certain age a little more mature, one understands all the subtlety of the story and the simplicity of the story becomes secondary, leaving room for the emotions.

To explore more of my book reviews, click here! You can also access all my content by checking this page.

If you liked the story, don’t forget to clap, comment, and maybe follow me if you want to explore more of my content :)

You can also subscribe to me via email to be notified every time I publish a new story, just click here!

If you’re not subscribed to Medium yet and wish to support me or get access to all my stories, you can use my link: