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Like Charlie, I'm sure I read this in my youth, but have no recollection of it. I found it quite hard going to start with - I know Hemingway is known for his spare prose, but this was almost too spare. There was a lot of "telling" rather than "showing", which is supposedly a no-no, at least these days (I'm of the view a bit of both is okay). As a result I didn't enjoy it much, at least until the struggle with the marlin started to take shape. Then I got hooked (no pun intended). Despite my misgivings about the picture of the heroic hunter, which has been somewhat tarnished in the modern age, I was still gripped by the struggle of the old man and the huge beast that was the marlin. I've always had a bit of a "thing" about the creatures in the depths (yes, Mr Spielberg, I'm looking at you). Fundamentally, the old man was trying to make a living and his actions are understandable in that context. That he was unlucky, ultimately, when the sharks found him (perhaps inevitably) is undoubted, and I did feel sorry that he didn't manage to salvage at least some of his catch, given how desperately poor he was.
Overall I agree that it is a story about love, not just for the boy and the village, but for the marlin and the sea as well. I gave it 4 stars.
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