To Have and Have Not

To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway

My rating:

3 stars—I liked it.

My Thoughts:

I am a Hemingway fan. This book wasn’t one of my favorites, but I still enjoyed the cadence. The issue was, in my opinion, the storyline was disjointed.

If you are new to Hemingway, I wouldn’t start here. “A Farewell to Arms” is probably my favorite so far.

Description from Goodreads.com:

“To Have and Have Not is the dramatic story of Harry Morgan, an honest man who is forced into running contraband between Cuba and Key West as a means of keeping his crumbling family financially afloat. His adventures lead him into the world of the wealthy and dissipated yachtsmen who throng the region, and involve him in a strange and unlikely love affair.

Harshly realistic, yet with one of the most subtle and moving relationships in the Hemingway oeuvre, To Have and Have Not is literary high adventure at its finest.”

Monday Recommendations!

Monday Recommendation List

 

Random list of 10 books Monday! I have read and enjoyed each of these enough to flag for a potential personal library purchase.

Be bold and just choose randomly, stick to your normal genre...or step outside of your normal reading zone and try something you usually wouldn’t. You can look up the descriptions at Amazon.com, or search my blog for old posts by entering the title in the little search box in the top left-hand corner and clicking the magnifying glass.

This week-- 10 recommendations (in no particular order):

 

1. Then Came You by Lisa Kleypas
2. Escape by Carolyn Jessop
3. Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum
4. The Giver  by Lois Lowry
5. A Kingdom of Dreams  by Judith McNaught
6. Hiroshima by John Hersey
7. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
8. The Great Influenza by John Barry
9. Reclaiming History by Vincent Bugliosi
10. Of Mice and Men  by John Steinbeck

Monday Recommendations

Monday Recommendation List

Random list of 10 books Monday! I have read and enjoyed each of these enough to flag for a potential personal library purchase.

Be bold and just choose randomly, stick to your normal genre...or step outside of your normal reading zone and try something you usually wouldn’t. You can look up the descriptions at Amazon.com, or search my blog for old posts by entering the title in the little search box in the top left-hand corner and clicking the magnifying glass.

This weeks 10 recommendations (in no particular order):

1. Historical Fiction: The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
2. Sweet Romance: This Heart of Mine by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
3. Classic War Novel: A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
4. Touching gift to a child who lost his Father: A Journal for Jordan by Dana Canedy
5. For the Entrepreneurial Heart:  The 4 Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss
6. Thoughtful Parenting: Every Child is a Genius by Elise Griffith
7. Humorous Chick Lit: Chasing Harry Winston by Lauren Weisberger
8. Dysfunctional Romance: Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire
9. Suspenseful: Love You More by Lisa Gardner
10. Classic: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

A Farewell to Arms

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

Fellow readers often criticize Hemingway. I believe his style is misunderstood among many. His style is meant to be bleak, and he promises (and offers) no happy endings.

A Farewell to Arms is beautifully crafted. Set in WWI, an American ambulance driver is serving in Italy. While there, he begins a love affair with an English nurse.

The imagery is profound, the plot unnerving. Hemingway explores love and war, and grips the reader in the difficult characters.

I love this one!