The Old Man and The Sea

For a long time now I have felt that it might be a good idea not only to review Christian books on this blog but any book from a Christian perspective. I'm often aware of my own lack of culture, both Gaelic and English, and wish to do something about it. Travel often broadens the mind.

For the past six days I've been in Paris with my good friend Jason Lewallen. Ernest Hemingway came up a lot in discussion with Jason and other Americans I met, as well as his appearing in the film Midnight in Paris. So, when I was in Shakespeare and Company book store I purchased the book which won him the Pulitzer Prize, The Old Man and The Sea.

I read it within three days and I was really surprised at the sort of book it was. I had expected difficult prose with articulate language that would tickle the fancy of the intellectuals and academics among us and be lost on a simple lad from Lewis. What I got was a simple but graphic tale of a sad old man down on his luck and fishing alone when suddenly he has the adventure of a lifetime, and we with him, on his boat catching his biggest ever fish. The story is filled with love (of a young boy who cares for the old man who taught him how to fish), mystery, intelligence and experience, and tragedy. We are swept along the ocean given details most mundane but in such a way as that we are gripped and our interest held firmly until finally we reach the end of the tale where our man survives a hero in a humble community.

Try Hemingway. Tolle Lege.