To Have and Have Not

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Ernest Hemingway: To Have and Have Not (1937, Macmillan Pub Co)

Paperback, 262 pages

English language

Published Jan. 1, 1937 by Macmillan Pub Co.

ISBN:
978-0-684-71809-5
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3 stars (12 reviews)

This 1936 novel tells the story of an American fishing boat skipper who dabbles in a little smuggling to make ends meet. In need of money for his family the captain reluctantly becomes agrees to smuggle a group of Chinese immigrants from Cuba to Florida. This is Hemingway’s only novel to be set in the United States.

25 editions

Review of 'To Have and Have Not' on 'GoodReads'

2 stars

I pleasurably read this book up until part three. The first two parts read like a beatific adventure tale with all the hooks and lines expected of such, it was the third part that was a sinker. I've only read Hemingway's A Moveable Feast, which I thoroughly enjoyed. This, however, was a bit loose on a thread. The pensive ending felt like a narrative filler, I think in the hands of a direct and understated style, it kind of flops. I'm not one to uphold a piece of writing just because surrounding works of an author have been acclaimed, and To Have And Have Not may very well be an acclaimed work, I don't know, but what I do know is that in the range of similar novels of its time, for me it doesn't stand up as being particularly well written. I should have approached it as a few …

Review of 'To have and have not' on 'Storygraph'

4 stars

"No matter how a man alone ain't got no ... chance"

Sounds depressing, nihilistic, suicidal - throw in a lot of rum and whiskey it's obvious why the author committed.

There is a realistically and creatively depicted tender love relationship amist all the booze, bozos, and low lifes.

This is classic Hemingway style. However some of the dialogue gets a little hokey and tiresome - have a drink, take it easy, rummy, punchie, cool him, he's tight, old woman, etc.

Subjects

  • Literature: Texts
  • Classics
  • Literature - Classics / Criticism
  • Literature: Classics
  • Fiction
  • Smuggling