“We got out past the reef and I looked back once and saw the beach and the mountains starting to show up; then I put her on her course for Key West”
– To Have and Have Not
[ About the Book ]
Harry Morgan is a tough guy making his living during the Depression from his motor boat in Key West, Florida. Although he normally takes out fishing parties, sometimes his boat can be put to other uses. If the money offered is worth his while, Harry will run guns, rum and men to and from Cuba. But he is playing a dicey game. Hemingway’s hardest hero risks not just his living, but his life.
[ My Review ]
To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway was originally published in 1937. The edition I have is a Vintage Classic (Penguin Random House), published in 2017, and I was intrigued to discover more.
To Have and Have Not is a combination of three stories, all featuring the same character, tough guy Captain Harry Morgan. Hemingway originally published the first story in 1934 in Cosmopolitan and the second in 1936 in Esquire and subsequently decided to write a novella based on Harry Morgan’s activities. Publication was delayed until 1937 due to Hemingway’s involvement with The Spanish Civil War. On release it received much criticism, with The New York Times (October 1937) stating that ‘Mr. Hemingway’s record as a creative writer would be stronger if it had never been published.’
It is said that Hemingway’s writing was influenced by his experiences during The Spanish Civil War, hence why there is a very strong message throughout To Have and Have Not about the imbalance of society. This is reflected in the title of the book where it refers to those who ‘Have’ and those who ‘Have Not’. The main protagonist, Harry Morgan, is cynical about all aspects of life. He is angry all the time, with this disillusionment spilling out into his everyday routine. He charters his boat out for fishing expeditions and, sometimes, the money he earns is sufficient to put food on the table for his wife and kids, but other times luck passes him by and Harry resorts to black market activities to make ends meet. Dealing with an illegal trade carries great risks and, in To Have and Have Not, Harry Morgan gets involved with some very nasty people.
Hemingway depicts the hardship of life for the local residents of Key West and the feeling of emptiness that clings to them as they attempt to make ends meet. Much of the novel is taken up with descriptions of large amounts of alcohol consumption and violence, tying in with the neglect and poverty of the inhabitants. This is, of course, very much in contrast to the tourists, the wealthy blow-ins, who appear to have everything, yet have many troubles of their own.
To Have and Have Not is a very challenging and difficult book to review in many ways. Today, Harry Morgan would be termed racist, misogynistic and a bully. There is plentiful use of certain words, scattered throughout the book, that would be unacceptable in any work of writing today. But one has to look at it through a different lens, that of 1937, when society was a very different place indeed. To Have and Have Not is a bleak read set in the Depression. The dialogue is disjointed, snappy and abrasive. All the characters are troubled. The setting is dark and desolate. Hemingway had a social conscience on returning from Spain and one would have to wonder how this book would have turned out if he had never gone in the first place.
To Have and Have Not is no doubt a polarising book but one I am glad to have read. As ever I found myself down a rabbit-hole reading more about this writer who continues to fascinate. A tragic tale, To Have and Have Not, is a fragmented and uncompromising read that will challenge and intrigue, while also frustrate and confuse many readers.
Have you read Hemingway? Have you read To Have and Have Not? I really would love to hear your thoughts.
[ Bio ]
Ernest Hemingway was born in 1899. His father was a doctor and he was the second of six children. Their home was at Oak Park, a Chicago suburb.
In 1917, Hemingway joined the Kansas City Star as a cub reporter. The following year, he volunteered as an ambulance driver on the Italian front, where he was badly wounded but decorated for his services. He returned to America in 1919, and married in 1921. In 1922, he reported on the Greco-Turkish war before resigning from journalism to devote himself to fiction. He settled in Paris where he renewed his earlier friendships with such fellow-American expatriates as Ezra Pound and Gertrude Stein. Their encouragement and criticism were to play a valuable part in the formation of his style.
Hemingway’s first two published works were Three Stories and Ten Poems and In Our Time but it was the satirical novel, The Torrents of Spring, that established his name more widely. His international reputation was firmly secured by his next three books; Fiesta, Men Without Women and A Farewell to Arms.
He was passionately involved with bullfighting, big-game hunting and deep-sea fishing and his writing reflected this. He visited Spain during the Civil War and described his experiences in the bestseller, For Whom the Bell Tolls.
His direct and deceptively simple style of writing spawned generations of imitators but no equals. Recognition of his position in contemporary literature came in 1954 when he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, following the publication of The Old Man and the Sea. He died in 1961.
Can’t disagree with any of that. He’d certainly be out of place in todays world I think. I watched a BBC4 documentary about him a few months ago and he certainly had an interesting life. He was such a complicated character and contributed a lot to his own myth. I have read ‘For whom the bell tolls’ which I loved, and ‘The old man and the sea’ which is one of my favourites, a simple story beautifully told. I have ‘Farewell to Arms’ lurking in my TBR pile.Have you read them?
Adrian I have read For whom the bell tolls and Farewell to Arms is on my radar. He is such an interesting character as were all in that era
I have read Hemingway and more recently got his full collection of short stories on my Kindle. Some are excellent, some good and some not so good. He was prolific and sometimes his output was disappointing. He became extraordinarily popular which was a reflection of the time he was writing in, the topics he took on and his prowess as a writer. He set the bar as far as observational writing goes. His detailed yet simple, descriptive, approach is a unique style that many of us might aspire to but seldom achieve.
Along with being a successful writer commercially, he is also a writer’s writer. A must read.
Adrian I would agree. His dialogue is so interesting. Almost experimental I would imagine for the time. Farewell to Arms is next on my list of Hemingway reads I think.
Hemingway was certainly not prolific, not by a long chalk. Just five novels and a long short story and three collections are short stories in a working life of 35 years is not ‘prolific’. He also wrote to novels which were only published after his death but both had to be drastically edited – and substantially cut – to make any kind of sense. I happen to be reading The Group by Mary McCarthy at the moment (a far better writer than Hemingway) and she published more than 23 works including novels, non-fiction and short story collections in a working life of about 50 years.
From his short stories I would highly recommend:
“Hills Like White Elephants” (1927)
“The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” (1936)
“Up in Michigan” (1921)
While reading his work, one has to be cognisant of the prevailing attitudes when they were written / published.
Thanks Adrian. I agree with your words on the prevailing attitude. My Dad always says that…one needs to see some things through the eyes of the time.
I gave up. It was un necessarily disjointed. If you didn’t know it was Hemingway who wrote, I doubt people would get through it.
It most definitely was one that pushed a few buttons. I’m glad I did read it but not one I could recommend