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Malcolm's Reviews > To Have and Have Not
To Have and Have Not
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by
Meh.
It starts very strongly -- good character development, definite Hemingway commentary tone -- lots of Hemingway Southern Hemisphere fun in Cuba.
But midway -- he just sort of wanders off and starts pointing his Hemingway at anything that moves. He introduces secondary and tertiary characters with incredible detail, but with no discernible purpose.
It's not one of his better books, and ends leaving you wondering how much better it would have been if the writing from about the second third on was more substantially interconnected.
What's great about this book, if you want to enjoy it/study it/comment on it -- is that he really does scatter shot his Hemingway. You could tear out just about any page of this book, and it's pure him. His meaningless meandering details are done with true depth and edge ... but they really never imbue the reader with any concern for the characters that he sort of follows randomly.
It would be the equivalent of going to a train station, closing your eyes, opening them, writing something about the first person you see, closing them for another hour, opening them again, writing about the first person you see and so on ... but meanwhile, there's a CRITICAL character standing off to the side smoking a cigarette doing absolutely nothing.
Go read The Old Man and the Sea -- or "For Whom the Bell Tolls" ... leave this for the poor sots at school who are forced to read everything by him.
It starts very strongly -- good character development, definite Hemingway commentary tone -- lots of Hemingway Southern Hemisphere fun in Cuba.
But midway -- he just sort of wanders off and starts pointing his Hemingway at anything that moves. He introduces secondary and tertiary characters with incredible detail, but with no discernible purpose.
It's not one of his better books, and ends leaving you wondering how much better it would have been if the writing from about the second third on was more substantially interconnected.
What's great about this book, if you want to enjoy it/study it/comment on it -- is that he really does scatter shot his Hemingway. You could tear out just about any page of this book, and it's pure him. His meaningless meandering details are done with true depth and edge ... but they really never imbue the reader with any concern for the characters that he sort of follows randomly.
It would be the equivalent of going to a train station, closing your eyes, opening them, writing something about the first person you see, closing them for another hour, opening them again, writing about the first person you see and so on ... but meanwhile, there's a CRITICAL character standing off to the side smoking a cigarette doing absolutely nothing.
Go read The Old Man and the Sea -- or "For Whom the Bell Tolls" ... leave this for the poor sots at school who are forced to read everything by him.
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Reading Progress
January 5, 2009
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Started Reading
January 8, 2009
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by
Jered
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rated it 3 stars
Jun 13, 2010 10:31AM
I think this review misses the greater point of the novel.. the title, in fact, says it clearly: This is a book about "the haves" and "the have-nots." The protagonist is the spokesman for "the have-nots:" the residents of Key West that make their livings the hard (and mostly honest) way of fishermen, laborers, barkeeps, and the like. "The haves," (movie stars, playboys, intelligentsia, and other socialites that only VISIT Key West as tourists) are interspersed into the story as a juxtaposition that more clearly defines the life of the protagonist and other full-time residents. It is certainly unconventional the way that Hemingway includes these characters, but I disagree with this review in its assessment that the novel is wandering and disjointed. I think it was a literary experiment that worked. Unconventional, but thoroughly entertaining and thought-provoking.
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"pointing his Hemingway".I love that expression - I'm going to use that!
Totally agree. Starts strong then it's a mess
this review is spot on... except I'd give it a two :) the pure Hemingway is worth that much.
My apologies for stumbling upon this review so late as it is now a bit long in the tooth, but just have to say I quite enjoyed it.
Hmmmm.I am now both convinced and yet unconvinced that I should venture into reading this particular Hemingway experiment ??
Umm. Thanks.
I think? : )
This review is 100% accurate. I was nodding the whole way. Well done.
Agreed. This book could have been helped greatly by an editor, to make it more coherent, and maybe cut some parts. Some things would have been very easy to fix, such as some chapters being written in first person and others in third. According to Wikipedia鈥檚 article on the book it was based on two short stories and one novella, which were all mashed together into a whole book, and that鈥檚 exactly what it feels like. Disjointed.
Even conceding the point that the change of focus in the second half of the novel is jarring, a one star review of this book cannot be taken seriously.
They don鈥檛 read him in British schools nowadays.
Agree. Just happy this wasn鈥檛 my first Hemingway novel or I may have stopped.
This is so unbelievably accurate. It was my first Hemingway and took me a YEAR to read. I kept falling asleep..
Amazing review, thank you!!
