Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Old Man and the Sea

Top positive review

Classic!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 17, 2023

This book never gets old I can read it and re-read it year after year. The book arrived in perfect condition and as well made it still looks fabulous has been read many times by our family and friends

2 people found this helpful

Top critical review

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Luiza

Not bad, just extremely boring

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 2, 2023

After reading each chapter there was not a single plot point I could recall. Very slow paced and very tedious.

37,908 total ratings, 4,564 with reviews

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From the United States

Mimi Brown

Classic!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 17, 2023

Verified Purchase

2 people found this helpful

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Timberforester

Great old book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 21, 2023

Verified Purchase

Before I watch the movie again I wanted to read the book. Very different life the character has. Crazy story.

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Kreative Pen

Sharks in a pool of fresh blood

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 28, 2022

Verified Purchase

Oh my, what a sad, sad story.

The old man, Santiago, and the young boy, Manolin are friends. This setting is in Cuba. Santiago would take the young boy with him and teach him about the practice of fishing. The old man who is down on his luck thought he should never have been a fisherman, but realized that fishing was the thing he was born for.

One day, a great marlin took Santiago on an adventure leading the old man out to sea all alone. The great marlin kept a steady pace throughout the night with the old man in the boat in tow until sunrise. The old man had seen many great fish and caught two but never did it alone. He wished he had the boy as company, to see this and to help him. Yet he knew he had to go this journey by himself.

After being out to sea for a couple of days, having caught and killed his great marlin, he had to fight off a pack of relentless man-eating sharks that eventually ate the marlin he was going to bring back to the market. In the end, after the old man made it back to shore Manolin came to visit him. Santiago told the boy that the sharks beat him. He was going to give up fishing. The boy told him, "He didn't beat you. Not the fish."

The old man faced his adversary, his battle with a giant marlin out in the Gulf Stream. While Santiago had to deal with the injury to his hands, fighting off the aggressive attacks of the sharks in a pool of fresh blood surrounding his skiff (his small boat) his determination wasn't shattered. It didn't occur to the old man that in his time of weakness and apparent defeat, he garnered incredible strength to fight and win over his seemingly unbeatable foes.

Easy recommended read!

3 people found this helpful

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Alejandra Rodriguez

Nice

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 27, 2023

Nice

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 22, 2023

Verified Purchase

Great book physically and literally.

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M. C Cardoso

Wonderful story-telling; mature Hemingway delivers. Santiago is a great character.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 22, 2009

Verified Purchase

Hemingway delivered his last masterpiece with this book, a cultural phenomenon when first published in the early '50s: in an unprecedented move, Life Magazine published the novella in its entirety,recognizing that Hemingway, the most influential writer of 20th century American literature and then a world-wide celebrity, had delivered a long-awaited masterful story. The Life magazine edition sold more than 5 million copies in a week so this book reached tens of millions of people within days - not many authors can achieve that! And that's before becoming a much beloved story translated into scores of languages. It is fair to say that this book, which won the Pullitzer Prize, reignited the interest and respect for Hemingway as a serious writer and might have been the decisive factor for his Nobel Prize award.

It is so disappointing when people say that story is boring and has too much simbolism... if you have experience fishing or sailing or simply appreciating the sea and nature, then the book offers a marvellous account of man AND nature (not man vs. nature). As for the simbolism, don't dwell too much on it. Hemingway himself said that the book is about "an old man, a boy, a fish and the sea", but if the story is told well enough (as it is on this book) it can mean so much more.

And the story is indeed so much more, in no small part because of the inherent goodness of the old man. That's how I enjoy and interpret the book: it is a straightforward tale of an old man embracing the struggles and rewards of life with courage, dignity and still full of the human spirit. Santiago is one of the most dignified characters in Literature, and I have to say he is my favorite and a bit of a personal hero... the old fisherman strives to be the best he can be and do the best he can do... he does not complain of his living in poverty, do not blame others for anything. His spirit is big, generous, undefeated. While other Hemingway heroes might have disappointed some people by way of too much machismo, Santiago keeps all the best traits of courage, resilience and non-nonsense survivalism, while displaying more maturity and humility - perhaps reflecting the middle-age wisdom of the author (then is his fifties).

Hemingway story-telling skills are at his best here. I am a big fan of his style, particularly in the short-story format, but here he is astounding all the way. yeah, the prose is deceptively simple at first, but if you pay attention we can see the craft of a master. The opening sentence alone is formidable and could only be delivered by a master of the short-story format. Ihe last sentence is also wonderful and pure Hemingway- simple but infinitely deep, and in this story hopeful and bitter-sweet.

In between, Hemingway writes with uncanny power,in such a way that you can fully experience what the character is going through: first you see what the old man does, from mundane tasks and spadework to the excitement of the deep-sea hunt and the exhausting struggle, and in the process you start to think the way Santiago thinks and finally you are feeling the way he feels. It is magical if you only give it a try. Granted, it is easier to immerse into this story if you are familiar with the ways of fishing and the ocean, but in any case, when Santiago is alone in the boat looking at the sea creatures or at the night-sky... I guess the recognition of the infinite solitude of human condition, mitigated by the bonding with the life and the world around us, that is truly universal.

I am so glad that such a sweet, simple, timeless story became the classic that it is. You have to try this one too!

5 people found this helpful

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Jeff Yin

Good

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 3, 2023

Verified Purchase

This is a gift for my daughter as her birthday gift. She likes it and finishes reading it one time,then she wants to read another time to better understand the meaning of the book.

One person found this helpful

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William C Scott

The best

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 12, 2023

Verified Purchase

My dad suggested that I read this as a child. It was great then, and great now, 25 years later.

One person found this helpful

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Doc Gizmo

The writing.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 18, 2023

Verified Purchase

It's Hemingway. If you need a review, move on.

2 people found this helpful

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Bob Johnson

Terrific story

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 26, 2023

Verified Purchase

I don’t consider myself a “fan” of Hemingway, but I’d love to be as gifted a writer. He tells a great story.

One person found this helpful

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5 star		71%
4 star		19%
3 star		6%
2 star		2%
1 star		2%

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Old Man and the Sea

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