May 31 2007

The Old Man and the Sea

Category: BooksChrisM @ 12:37 pm

The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway

This time Mr Hemingway did manage to capture and hold my imagination and interest. We find ourselves in Cuba, in a small fishing village. The old man of the title has been fishing a very long time, and has a apprentice/assistant who cares about the man as more than just a teacher/boss figure in his life.
The old timer goes out to sea, and carries out a long drawn out battle with a Merlin. (Think I spelt that right… a big fish basically.)
The author manages to capture the simple & difficult life the fishermen all went through, and I found myself actually caring what happened to the fisherman, a lot more than when I was reading ‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’.
Although set a long time ago, the tension that is built up does a good job in captivating you, and even though I usually choose to read SciFi or Fantasy type books, I was glad I finally got around to reading this.

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May 31 2007

A Farewell to Arms

Category: BooksChrisM @ 12:05 pm

A Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway

This book is at least semi-auto biographic for Hemingway. He did go and volunteer for service in Italy during WWI, and is assumed to have had a romance that inspired the other half of this book’s content. Personally, I did like the description of the futility if many types of war, but didn’t really warm to the love story/romance side of it.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad I read it, probably more than For Whom The Bell Tolls, for example (review coming in a few days), I was just expecting something a little different I suppose. I did quite enjoy reading the portrayal of the priest as a real human being rather than simply a plot device conveniently present whenever morality needed to be raised as a subject.
The main character starts out content enough in his ambulance duties, but after being badly wounded in a battle, he starts to lose his taste for war (despite meeting his GF at the hospital), and becomes more self-centred. He eventually deserts and well, you’ll need to read the book to find out more 🙂

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