Reading 1001 discussion

Critics have remarked about the disjointed feel to this novel because it was cobbled together from a couple of short stories and a novella and because the different perspectives of the story teller seem quite random. My experience is even more disjointed because I started reading from a compendium of Hemingway and had finished Chapter 16 of Part Three: Winter before I realised that the whole novel was not there. I needed to buy a copy and the first I tried from Kindle was one of those poor sorts with odd symbols making it almost impossible to read. I had to download a second version and read it from the start already knowing the results of the violent actions of Chapter 16!
It is a long time since I read any Hemingway and what struck me the most was how appealing Harry Morgan was as a character despite his propensity for violence and his hardboiled approach to his encounters with the characters he meets in bars. From the perspective of two women: one his wife and the other a casual acquaintance he meets in such a bar, he is an attractive man who moves easily despite the loss of the use of one arm. Harry is the protagonist, one who is swindled into becoming a Have Not and tempted into illegal activities in order to support his loving wife (a former prostitute) and daughters. A wonderful sequence describes the Haves, on their yachts in the marina at Key West, with problems of thier own which are as unenviable positions as Harry's and the other Have Nots.
I remember on my trip to Cuba that everyone wanted me to visit the bar which Hemingway frequented in Havana and being not the least interested in buying overpriced drinks with other gullible tourists, but I reflect now that bars were Hemingway's milieu, and his description of the banter and brutality is depicted here with admirable vividness and authenticity with the sparse use of adverbs. Hemingway uses simple words to depict people and things he observed with such focus. I still had to look up a few, such as Conchs for the locals of Key West and grunts for a fruit cobbler and old rale for syphilis. Which brings me to some of the characters. There are rummys, alcoholics no longer able to earn a living; a young Harvard man selling himself to an older, wealthier man to survive; and a socialite who beds all the men she meets despite her husband's presence. There are also military characters who enjoy being beaten up and descriptions of old men who allow others to urinate on their beards for a dollar. It is quite the intriguing adventure story.

A very good story with a lot of authentic Key West-Havana color from the 1930s. The story is almost nothing like the old movie, in which the location is moved to WW2 France and Martinique. The novel has no Lauren Bacall character and no romance except between Harry and his wife, both middle-aged. There's quite a bit of violence and the racism could be hard for some readers, but that's the way those folks were then. This was my second reading of it, the first time back in the late 70's I think.
Pip there is a fish in the Gulf called a grunt, they're fairly small, like 8", and sometimes used for bait for big fish but are also cooked and eaten. I haven't heard of "grunt" as a cobbler. I did go into the Havana bar that Hemingway frequented- there is a statue of him near the bar! Apparently he set a record for the number of Daquiris drunk in one sitting there.

Read in 2019 and gave it 3 stars. I was quite interested in the smuggling story, and the air of 1930s Cuba achieved here was enjoyable. I just didn't think it was the strongest Hemmingway I've read, and I'm not sure his more simplistic style works best here.

Reason read: botm February 2023, reading 1001
The novel was written in 1937 by Ernest Hemingway, set in Key West/Cuba. This book almost feels like a collection of short stories with connected elements told by different POV. The event that starts the book is a "have" person bilking a "have not" person and the consequences of that event. Therefore this novel is considered to have Marxist philosophy that the author picked up during the Spanish Civil War. Consequences are based on the division of "haves" and "have nots" rather than choices made.

I have read other Hemingways and found The Sun Also Rises almost unreadable and For Whom the Bells Toll quite wonderful. I have not read Farewell to Arms or The Old Man and the Sea, which many believe are his masterpieces.
I had believed that I had read this book when I was in high school but it quickly became clear to me that I had only seen the movie and that the movie and the book bare little resemblance to each other. Evidently Faulkner worked on the screen play to the movie so it is the only movie that two Nobel Prize winners contributed to. Of course, what I remember about the movie was a 19 year old Lauren Bacall and a 45 year old Humphrey Bogart exploding with chemistry on the screen.
Back to the book:
Although strangely disjointed and seemingly patched together, this book did work for me in that it presents its theme about the desperation of those without wealth and power contrasted with the decadence of those with wealth and power. The book touched on the need for change in Cuba, before the revolution, and the need to support the working man in the US. It also demonstrated the love that can exist between a man and a woman even in "middle age". The characters were quite a collection of alcoholics, cold blooded business men, revolutionary "criminals" for a cause, the sexually promiscuous and all manner of those attempting to cob together a living or a fortune during the great depression. Harry Morgan, the Main Character was made to be strangely appealing as a single man up against fortune and fate. However, the ending made clear that the individual did not stand a chance in this world.

Two quotes:
"It takes discipline and abnegation to be a Communist; a rummy can't be a Communist"

"One man alone ain't got. No man alone now. No matter how a man alone ain't got no bloody fucking chance".

I watched the documentary of Hemingway by Ken Burns which stated that this book was originally two short stories with some new material added to make a novel. I can see the two short stories; there is Harry Morgan and then Richard Gordon the writer and his wife. The documentary stated that the critics did not like it and that Hemingway did not either.

This is my fourth book by Hemingway. His novels are a hit or miss with me but I enjoy his rapid-fire writing, it is easy to read. I liked the first half of the book more so than the second half, the book started to fizzle for me. I enjoyed the Harry Morgan storyline the best.

“There’s no honest money going in boats any more.”