Just Finished Reading: To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway (FP: 1937)

Whether it was just plain bad luck or payback for a too generous nature it was surely when the rot set in. When his apparently rich hire lost an expensive rod and tackle and promised to pay for everything – including the outstanding hire of the boat – but flew out that same day back to the States Harry Morgan was down to the change in his pocket. With a wife and daughters to support he did the only thing he could – offered himself for hire, no questions asked. Of course that meant smuggling – people or booze it was all the same except the people tended to be more trouble if more profitable. Harry tried both but it seemed that his luck, if he ever had any, had deserted him. Smuggling is a very competitive business and the competition often carries guns and are more than happy to use them to keep their profit margins high. Harry found this out and lost both his load and his arm. Ever more desperate for work he ignored the warning signals all around him and agreed to run a group of Cuban revolutionaries back to the island. He knew it was risky so took out insurance in the shape of a well-oiled Thompson sub-machine gun. The only question in his mind was if that was enough….

This was yet another one of those books I picked up decades ago (my copy was printed in 1966) and always meant to get around to. I saw the Hollywood adaptation (or actually part adaptation) and loved it – it’s one of my favourite movies – but this is a very different book. For obvious reasons the movie plot involving the French resistance doesn’t appear in a novel published 2 years before WW2 started. The movie was based on the French island of Martinique where the book is based (mostly) on Cuba. The first 20+ pages are weirdly almost word for word from the beginning of the movie. After that, naturally, there’s no Lauren Bacall love interest (Harry is married with children in the novel) so it takes a very different trajectory. The book also has a lot of (apparently irrelevant) side stories which, at least to me, seemed strange and plot-wise pretty pointless. I found the whole thing a rather strange experience. It was well written and the characterisation was often excellent but the plotting seemed all over the place. It hasn’t put me off reading more Hemingway – there are a few I’d like to try – but I wasn’t exactly gripped or that impressed by this work.