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Book Review of The Old Man and the Sea

The Old Man and the Sea
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It was great. This book should win an award or something.

Did your English teacher(s) ever tell you that fiction can be divided into 3 basic conflicts - person vs. person, person vs. nature, and person vs. his- or herself? And further, that there's only like one or two good examples of person vs. nature, and they were both written by Jack London? Oh, and that some fiction will fit into more than one category, and just about all good literature will fit into 'person versus his- or herself' in addition to the others?

Did it ever occur to you, as it did to me many years later, what a stupid categorization system that is, when basically nothing is one category, and everything is at least in another?

Old Man and the Sea reminded me of that. The struggle, as it is in all Hemingway, is not to win, but to acquit yourself well.