Hemingway is not for everyone, and most of the time, he's not even for me. But the guy won a Nobel Prize for literature, and single-handedly changed 20th century fiction writing, so he's doing something right. Islands in the Stream is exactly that something. Islands in the Stream was discovered by Hemingway's fourth wife, Mary, shortly after he committed suicide. It was rough, but finished, and had originally been intended as a sort of comeback. You see, Hemingway was famous in his lifetime, and his career was followed like a rock star of sorts. A rock star with first hand experience in both World Wars as well as the Spanish Civil War, hung out with other literary greats of his day and lived exotic lives even during peacetime across Europe and the Caribbean while keeping his finger on the pulse of the Lost Generation. He was praised for his hits and criticized for his flops, and generally speaking, his career was on a downturn. He was in a funk. His suicide didn't come out of left field, so you have to imagine whatever emotional turmoil or depression he was going through would seep into his writing. Islands in the Stream is born out of that pervading sadness and inarticulate loss whilst also trying to reassert his worth, during his time in Cuba in those years before the end. The Hemingway Archetype is clearly defined in this novel through our protagonist Thomas Hudson. He's a man. A real man's man, as only Hemingway could write them. He could drink, and knew his way around a wet bar. He could fish and understood the sea. He could fight with his fists, and win. He was stoic, firm, confident, and capable yet always kept buried in his heart a deep and silent tragedy. A sadness as only a real man can feel (...I guess?). Thomas Hudson embodies all of that. He's an artist, a painter, and a friend to other artists and novelists who sadly and tragically struggle to convey the sadness and tragedy of life, despite living in paradise (Bimini in this case, an island in the Bahamas).
The minutia of fishing and how to fight and finish a thousand-pound marlin takes over the story for, I don't know, it felt like a hundred pages. A hundred pages of riveting intricacies as Hudson and his pal Roger (the boy's idol) coach him through every step of the process to wear the fish out and slowly coax him in. It should be the most obnoxiously boring and tedious kind of writing to read, but Hemingway, with his flat, sparse narration creates a kind of perpetual tension that tears into you. The family dynamic is what makes it so powerful, the fellow siblings as they struggle to be helpful without being annoying, the native man-servant as he reads the waters, Roger as he kneels in close to guide the boy and Hudson, as he watches his son from the flying bridge of the yacht, doing everything he can to pilot the boat in a helpful manner, wishing he could be there by his son's side, knowing it's better to let Roger do it (as his idol), hoping to God they don't lose the marlin, because he knows if his son does it, if he can truly bring it in, he'll not merely complete a rite of passage but he'll be a man. A real Man. He'll have something inside of himself that no one can take away, that will endure throughout his life. Of course they lose the fish. At the last moment, on the verge of success and after everyone lays their eyes on a creature larger than any that's been seen before, it breaks free. I truly wanted to cry. But the boy, he weeps only for the fish. He hopes it is okay. In the midst of all the struggle he no longer saw the fish as his adversary or enemy, but began to feel one with it. He only wanted to bring it closer. He's not sad at the failure at all. He's maybe found that thing that his father wanted for him afterall, not in the victory but in the struggle itself. Days after the children leave for their mothers in Europe, Thomas Hudson receives a message. The two youngest (including David) die in a boat crash with their mother. This concludes Part One. Part Two, years later, sees Hudson in a tavern, drinking and telling stories with his friends. He's just learned that his last son has now also died, flying in WWII. Not much happens in the way of plot, but we spend literally one whole day, start to finish, watching the many ways Hudson avoids thinking and dealing with his loss and the many ways in which he feels it nonetheless. And also the many rum daiquiris without sugar he can drink. Part Three of the novel then sees Hudson chasing a German U-boat crew around Cuba. The grief has all but eaten him away and there is very little left of the man as he hunts other men and chases down his own inevitable demise. The Old Man and the Sea haunts this novel from the outset, and it's difficult not to think of it while reading Part One because both are extremely similar and thorough in their depiction of catching a great marlin. Many people are familiar with it and/or read it in high school, which is where I read it. I still remember the couch I sat on as I plowed through it in mostly one sitting. The Old Man and the Sea was Hemingway's last work before he died. Islands in the Stream was his first work after he died. The Old Man and the Sea was the original Part Three to the Islands in the Stream, but at the last minute, was reworked to publish on its own (and good thing, too, because it ended his living career on a high note, causing everyone to reevaluate his life's work and realize it was all brilliant afterall, and cemented the decision to give him a Pulitzer and the Nobel Prize. Yes, it's that good!). The new Part Three comes from an unpublished short story (called Sea Chase) reworked by his wife and editor to complete the novel in lieu of it's original conclusion. Part of me wishes The Old Man and the Sea could've been the original ending, somehow, because of the way it naturally echoes the first part. It would've been a tale about the old man Thomas Hudson, decades deeper into his grief, catching up with that marlin that got away from his son, and though he catches it this time, as he watches the sharks eat it away on his return to shore (like in the real story), realizes how futile and empty the chase is, mirroring the futility and fruitlessness he feels in his life without his sons. Ya know, or something. Both glorify the struggle over the victory itself and end with tragic yet poignant outcomes. One sees the raising of a boy into manhood as he will soon have to face the perpetual struggle that is Life, while the other sees an Old Man who is beaten and weathered after that lifetime of struggle has worn him to the point of death. Both, like Rocky, go the distance without yielding, yet find only a symbolic victory for their troubles. That being said, I liked Part Three as it was presented, and I think it was wise of his wife and his editor to use it to complete the work. That there is little to no mention of his sons or the loss he experienced in the previous Parts is irrelevant. The grief hangs over the entirety of the "Sea Chase" regardless. You feel and sense the weight of the loss and the subsequent directionlessness Hudson falls into and which follows him to the end. He doesn't paint anymore. He doesn't even drink. He just chases. He literally coasts, in his boat, around the coast of Cuba, chasing an enemy he does not hate. I wonder if this eternal ennui is not a window into the depression Hemingway himself must've felt in those years, because the sad man-tragedy of it all actually precedes the loss of the three sons. Thomas Hudson was already adrift before the beginning of Part One. He is no less adrift when his children arrive, though he is happy, and he is no more adrift after they are dead, though he is sad. He is adrift because he is adrift. And all the details, the specific tragedies and loved ones he's lost, are just islands in the stream which never stops flowing. In this way, Islands in the Stream is a work study in preternatural grief, and the pervasiveness of a kind of listless depression that has no true explanation and no true cure. It functions as a psychological examination with undertones of social anxiety during a mid-life crisis. I think there are many other metaphorical implications as well, and interpretations in general. But this is how I experienced it, and in spite of this hopelessly downbeat description of the novel, I found that I truly enjoyed reading it. It felt profound in its tragedy and poignant in its wallowing. Almost uplifting, even, in its grief, like a funeral for a dear loved one who is no longer suffering.
Conclusion: Five stars out of five. Along with Old Man and the Sea, it is my favorite Hemingway so far (yes, I've read others!) Check out my other reviews: To Have and Have Not by Hemingway Breakfast of Champions by Vonnegut East of Eden by Steinbeck Don't forget to Like and Subscribe!
3 Comments
Wes
6/25/2022 09:45:44 pm
I agree with your analysis of the text.
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6/18/2023 07:00:29 pm
magical. pure escapism for a miserable, wretched child, an old adolescent, still in pursuit of the dream. a ride or die quest that draws me inexorably closer, although it remains forever on the horizon. I must confess that I skipped the ending, as I hope to skip the author's sad finale too.
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7/31/2023 08:57:22 am
I have read everything Hemingway wrote, often many times, and Islands in the Stream is my favorite book by any author ever. Hemingway writes of sorrow as no one eles ever has.
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