To Have And Have Not
(Ernest Hemingway)
This novel is set in the gulf-coast fishing town of Key West. The period is around Probation. It is a very typical Hemingway novel. Its protagonist is a strong silent type who views the world with dignified contempt. Women find him attractive and his friends find him reasonable. He wants to be self-reliant but learns eventually that in this world no man has a chance all by himself.
At times, the novel is a collage of lives of the many people who were in that town at that time. Hemingway is full of contempt for the government and the many cruel businessmen who ruined the lives of the poor people.
His characters include writers, proffesors, cuban revolutionaries, sleazy lawyers, desperate wives of adulterous husbands, adulterous wives of impotent husbands and many other tourists who came to the town. Infact a fair bit of the novel deals with the life of another typical Hemingway man, Richard Gordon, a tanned faced, sandy haired, well-built man (another Hamingway archetype) who had a very pretty wife. She leaves him eventually for another man Jon MacWalsey, a proffesor. Gordon wrote popular novels, much like Hemignway.
Hemingway potrays with deep sympathy the lives of the poor inhabitants of Key West. Their simple lives, simple ways of dealing with moral problems is a la Hemingway.The inhabitants are not shy from commiting crimes to support their families. Harry Morgan, the protagonist, murders a criminal without the slightest remorse and his major source of income during prohibition was from running liquor.
Its a very interesting read that ends in tragedy. Perhaps not written as well as 'For whom the bell tolls'.
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- The Old Man And The Sea
- Hemingway's Chair
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