The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway.
I first read this story back in high school. I can't really remember why except that I had already read Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises and enjoyed it, plus this looked rather short which I'm sure was appealing at the time. I've read it again since then and now this is probably my third or fourth reading of it. It's not that I like it so much that I have some need to read it repeatedly, but as it is so short and tells such an interesting story, I guess I've just felt the desire to pick it up again every so often. The case this time was that I was thinking about fishing for some reason and this book came to mind. I've always enjoyed fishing, the time spent alone over the water with your thoughts or chatting with a friend and not having to think about anything at all. This is indeed a very solitary story about fishing, where an old Cuban man has fished for many days without a catch and is thought of as having bad luck. But when his luck changes, he is the only one around to contend with it, and in many ways begins to feel an affinity towards his adversary and a oneness with it in their struggle. It is a simple story (I try not to give too much away in these little reviews even if most people have already read a book like this), but one that I have enjoyed many times, mainly because of the way Hemingway describes the scenes so completely and imbues the old man with a wisdom and earnestness that is difficult not to admire. Maybe it is because it is so simple that it can be so interesting, because so much in life, the seemingly simplest of things can have so much meaning to us.

- mike >> see previous reads