The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway

Borrowed this book from a dear friend, for companionship in a 4-hour train to home; and what a faithful mate it proved to be! Stuffed between my fellow passengers on either side, neither the beads of sweat trickling down my spine nor the beautiful sun-basked paddy fields of “Kuttanad” could keep me off this book, which, unsurprisingly I finished before my train hit TVM Central station (a personal record).

A novella by Ernest Hemingway that added value to the author’s literary contributions, eventually winning him a Nobel Prize.

The story is about Santiago, an old fisherman living at the coast of Gulf Stream. Once a master, he is now an old man, the left fortune being memories of his dead wife and the legend he was. There is Manolin, a young boy who revere Santiago deeply as a teacher and as a friend.

The story starts when Santiago is on an extremely dry spell of 84-days without a catch, Manolin is forced by his parents to assist on another “lucky” boat, though he is reluctant to do so. Santiago, old he maybe, still trusts his own skills and believes he can catch a ‘great’ fish and sets out to the sea on the 85^th day.

Rest of the story portrays the struggle of the old man – struggle to catch the fish, keep it on hook as it pulls his skiff forward, struggle to kill it and finally when killed and tethered to the side, struggle to keep away the attacking sharks. Throughout the book, we are always reminded of how able Santiago is – his reflexes and responses to unconceivable situations, how the “tricks” he proudly boasts about come to his aid while defending his own life against starvation, the young and stubborn heart within the frayed old body with a ‘never give-up’ spirit. But, at the end, Santiago is shown to continue his unlucky streak to the 85^th day as well. He catches a giant marlin, only to loose its carcass to the hungry sharks enroute.

There is a moment towards the end, where we may wonder that skills and ability alone may not be enough, you need a pinch of luck as well. Santiago is ready to accept this fact as well, but he does not sit idle though. This is clear in one the passages:

Others let them drift with current and sometimes they were at sixty fathoms when the fishermen thought they were at a hundred. But, he thought, I keep them with precision. Only I have no luck anymore. But who knows? Maybe today. Every day is a new day. It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact, then when luck comes, you are ready

Nevertheless, I like to conclude that the old man, reassured at his own strength after all the action slept peacefully, dreaming of his youth and of lions (a place where he finds peace).

 

There are quite several conversation excerpts that stay in your head in this book, one of which I noted down:

“Age is my alarm clock” the old man said. “Why do old me wake so early” “Is it to have one longer day?”

“I don’t know” the boy said. “All I know is that young boys sleep late and hard”

 

No One Writes to the Colonel - Gabriel García Márquez

 

A novella by the celebrated Columbian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez – jumped to grab this one hoping it might pave my way into reading One Hundred Years of Solitude, the world-renowned novel by the same author – my hunch got right, I am going to give One Hundred Years of Solitude a try soon.

No One Writes to the Colonel is about a veteran Colonel and his asthmatic wife creeping through a monotonous, poverty-ridden life. The Colonel being an active soldier in a civil war in Columbia is waiting for his rightful pension promised to him and fellow-soldiers around 15 years back.

The backdrop throughout the novella paints tragedy and misery, of that of the demised son, curfews and restrictions of martial law, poverty and hunger, but seeing all this from the optimistic Colonel’s view, we tend to overlook the grey part and focus on the ‘hope’ part which burns inside the Colonel throughout the book.

This ‘hope’ that the Colonel has, which drives him to follow the postmaster every Friday, is not shared by the majority, in fact we see a lot of snide remarks in the book wherein different characters try to bring down this positivity in the Colonel. For instance, when the Colonel insists that the letter was sure to be delivered that Friday, the postmaster replies, “The only thing that comes for sure is death”. The people of the town are not just without hope, rather, they have learnt to accept the fact that life is not fair. This is where the Colonel is an exception, his son was shot in front of him, his wife is dying due to deteriorating health, they seldom eat a whole meal, despite everything he breeds a rooster in the corner of his room, ‘hoping’ to win the cockfight.

The most positive phrase (purely personal opinion) repeatedly said by Colonel at even unimaginably tough times is “It is never too late”. For all those moments we sat still to let fate take over our lives, just because we thought “it’s too late”, this phrase could have been of use.

Overall, a short, small, beautiful book on life which has some excellent quotes and excerpts, one of which with which, I will be wrapping up this post:

One day, when Colonel and his wife, contrary to the usual, had a good meal, he asks her about the source of food to which she replies “When the neighbor boys bought corn for the rooster, there was extra, and the rooster shared it with us. That’s life”.

Colonels reply to this statement is something we would never expect from a man in his situation.

“That’s right, life is the best thing that’s ever been invented.”