"The Old Man and the Sea" by Hemingway

sorabji.com: Worst book you've ever read: "The Old Man and the Sea" by Hemingway
THIS IS A READ-ONLY ARCHIVE FROM THE SORABJI.COM MESSAGE BOARDS (1995-2016).
By Be on Sunday, January 4, 1998 - 03:01 pm:
    I don't even know if I spelled his last name right. This old man used to be the greatest fisherman in his whole fishing town. now he's old. (thus, the title) the younge people make fun of him. He decides to show them by catching the biggest fish ever. he goes out into the sea.
    Here's the thing: it's a 120 pg book (approx.)...he fights the fish for 100 pages! He dosn't really fight it either, he just sits there with the rope and remembers his youth and affairs with women he had in Spain and how tired he is and how great he used to be at arm wresteling. Then he catches the fish, it's huge, he'll have everyone's respect againg........and sharks eat it. so he goes home. THE END.
    The book is supposed to have some deep inner meanings about life and age and fish but it just becomes boring. I was fourced to read it in 7th grade, culture is so lost on 13 year olds I guess.
By Jeffrey Scott Holland on Sunday, January 4, 1998 - 07:27 pm:
    Read it again now that you're older, you might like it better. In works like "The Old Man and the Sea", "Beowulf", "Moby Dick", etc., the chase is not the object of the story, even though it's set up to give the impression that it is. It's simply the Ground behind the Figure, which in this case is our hero making all sorts of musings about life.

    I cautiously enjoy Hemingway, but I prefer writers like Selby, Burroughs and Bukowski, who gave up even bothering to contrive a backdrop for the musings, and just had their characters sitting around thinking, reminiscing and emoting for an entire novel. I like it better that way, without the distractions of plot ;)
By Stone on Sunday, January 4, 1998 - 07:47 pm:
    the wine was disgusting
By BOBBY WHITE on Tuesday, January 6, 1998 - 01:49 pm:
    I'm in the process of reading the book and so far it is not as good as everyone makes it out to be.
By Puzzled and Frustrated on Wednesday, January 7, 1998 - 07:17 pm:
    The book was OK, but now I have to write a report on it. I can't figure out the under-lying meaning. This book isn't as wonderful as its supposed to be. It is really boring--I mean who cares about an old guy who goes fishing!?!
By Teresa conrad age 12 on Thursday, January 8, 1998 - 02:55 pm:
    This book was a very good book
    we read it in class.
    I was absobed in it
By Tiersha Harrell on Monday, January 12, 1998 - 08:38 am:
    I have to write a story from the perspective of one of the animals in the story (dolphin, flying fish etc.) I chose the marlin. We have to show emotion and tell how the animal feels about the old man. Wow! some story this is gonna be for an eleventh grader!