An Old Man...a boy...a boat...the sea...a big fish...
a sleepy fishing village, Nothing else. Now spin a
story and you have this book THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA.
And a Noble Prize.
As simple as that.
Ernest Hemingway wrote this book, as only he can.
I particularly liked Ernest not just for his writing
but for the bohemiun lifestyle that he lived. He loved
living in Cuba alone, writing and drinking hard. He loved
to go out deep sea fishing in the sea.
At the age of 62, Ernest shot himself through the head.
What can you say about an Old Man and a Boy, who together
just went fishing in a skiff, caught a few using long lines.
What can you say about two most unlikely twosome. That
the Old Man taught the Boy all about boats, fishing gear,
and the Sea. That the Old Man taught the Boy to fish and finally
the Boy learned the wisdom of the Old Man in a short span
of a few months.
Usually the Old Man went fishing with the boy. But one day,
the Old Man went to fish alone.
And he caught this big big fish, 18 foot long.
Battling rough seas and winds, sometimes the Old Man got
the better of the Big Fish, other times the Big Fish
looked to be winning against the Old Man.
This titanic struggle went on for days. Finally one had to
win and the other had to loose.
Read the novel to find out how and who.
The genius of Ernest lies in spinning a simple short
story and gripping the reader from page 1 to page 100.
I always have a copy of this book in the Captain’s Cabin.
Nandu Chitnis