Björn recenserade To have and have not av Ernest Hemingway
None
3 stjärnor
Not a novel that looks to be liked; the virulent racism of the narrator, the chopped-up narrative, the characters that come and go with no apparent purpose... and yet there's something here that makes it more than just a tall tale of boats and blood. Hemingway's political fury and disillusionment (written mid-Spanish civil war) is one part, the other is what I choose to interpret as a nod to his old colleague Mr Joyce, with the disjointed nature, narrator-jumping and gradually increasing foul-mouthedness of the last two thirds reading like a rum-soaked, boxing-gloved take on Ulysses if Leopold Bloom had been a bootlegger who could be played by Humphrey Bogart. I don't know that it actually works, certainly not enough to warrant a place next to U, but it's an intriguing idea that wrings some real emotion out of the story by the end.
ETA: Have now watched …
Not a novel that looks to be liked; the virulent racism of the narrator, the chopped-up narrative, the characters that come and go with no apparent purpose... and yet there's something here that makes it more than just a tall tale of boats and blood. Hemingway's political fury and disillusionment (written mid-Spanish civil war) is one part, the other is what I choose to interpret as a nod to his old colleague Mr Joyce, with the disjointed nature, narrator-jumping and gradually increasing foul-mouthedness of the last two thirds reading like a rum-soaked, boxing-gloved take on Ulysses if Leopold Bloom had been a bootlegger who could be played by Humphrey Bogart. I don't know that it actually works, certainly not enough to warrant a place next to U, but it's an intriguing idea that wrings some real emotion out of the story by the end.
ETA: Have now watched all four adaptations. For better or worse, nobody tries to do a 100% faithful version. Ranking from best to worst:
1. Nakhoda Khorshid (Taghvai, 1987)
2. The Breaking Point (Curtiz, 1950)
3. To Have And Have Not (Hawks, 1944)
4. The Gun Runners (Siegel, 1958)