nicanical

I've only read a little Hemingway, just The Sun Also Rises and some short story collections, but I enjoyed all that a lot. So I was disappointed that I couldn't get into this one.

Plainly, it's the fishing. It's boring to read about. It's handlining too, not fishing with a rod or a net, so you'll read a lot about Santiago's hand pain. I didn't even take it all in as a tragedy in the end, more of an admonition of Santiago's unpreparedness.

I enjoyed the beginning and the end the most, where Santiago interacts with the boy. And of course, the prose is beautifully crafted as expected of Hemingway.