Islands in the Stream: A Novel
4/5
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About this ebook
First published in 1970, nine years after Hemingway's death, this is the story of an artist and adventurer—a man much like Hemingway himself. Beginning in the 1930s, Islands in the Stream follows the fortunes of Thomas Hudson, from his experiences as a painter on the Gulf Stream island of Bimini through his antisubmarine activities off the coast of Cuba during World War II. Hemingway is at his mature best in this beguiling tale.
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway did more to change the style of English prose than any other writer of his time. Publication of The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms immediately established Hemingway as one of the greatest literary lights of the twentieth century. His classic novel The Old Man and the Sea won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953. Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. His life and accomplishments are explored in-depth in the PBS documentary film from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, Hemingway. Known for his larger-than-life personality and his passions for bullfighting, fishing, and big-game hunting, he died in Ketchum, Idaho on July 2, 1961.
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Reviews for Islands in the Stream
20 ratings12 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I've been reading this book and it gets better as I go along. I love the opening and how Hemingway establishes such a strong sense of place and quickly anchors the reader into this touching story.Except for a fight, the story moves at a relatively slow pace, which is characteristic of Hemingway and you get the feeling you're watching one of those movies from the 50's.I'll most likely keep this rating or even bump it up a star after I finish it, but so far I'm enjoying it.I think as time goes by, Hemingway becomes more popular because of the era the stories were written. If you like WWII, Spanish Civil War stories, adventurous family tales throughout the world, Hemingway is a good pick.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Just excellent. Thomas Hudson, the main character, was extremely relatable to me. Hemingway did an amazing job with the thoughts and inner-feelings in this one.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Reviews must be at least 10 words. The best reviews are 25 words or more.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The first section of this book should stand alone--the rest is all right, but it's more like a version of "I wonder what happened to this character AFTER the book was finished?" As in, "what did Nick Carraway do AFTER he went back home to the Midwest?" But it's worth it solely for the first (and, I believe, the longest) section--three-and-a-half stars.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A powerful read,, 17 January 2016This review is from: Islands in the Stream (Paperback)This work, like most of Hemingway's work, is extremely 'blokey' in style and subject matter. Fishing, fighting, drinking and war form the backdrop. And yet despite the fact that these are emphatically 'not my thing' I kept on reading. And although I somewhat lost the drift of the finer points of manoeuvres in the German occupied Cuban keys, (and did find my attention slightly wandering, if I'm honest), I have to give it a *4.This is the story of Tom Hudson, a painter on the Bahaman island of Bimini in the 30s. Twice divorced, he looks forward to the visit of his three sons...In the second part, it's a few years later, WWII is here, and we meet Tom on shore leave in Cuba .And in the third section, Tom is leading a crew as they try to flush out a German boat in the mangrove swamps of the keys...I knew this was a strong book when a certain something happens and you hadn't seen it coming and feel like you've been punched in the stomach. There's a lot of dialogue, through which you feel you're getting to know the characters. Also moments of real humour, which again bring the people more vvidly to life.Re-read the first part when you know how the story pans out: it tears you apart.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5This is one of the last Hemingway books that I haven't read. Overall, it's a very interesting portrait of Thomas Hudson-- a painter, and the various locations that he travels to. A bunch of the book is set with his three children while another part of it goes to a bar in Havana. Finally, there are the exploits that he takes hunting U-boats in WW2 (an experience tightened up by Hemingway's own experiences doing the same.) It is an intimate self-portrait of Hudson that is highly revealing and stark with Hemingway's own experience.Nonetheless, I felt that the prose faltered at many parts and that the story wandered and meandered through much of its duration. I did not feel that this was true Hemingway, rather than being a manuscript that was not realized in its full potential before Hemingway's death and was, likewise, published.2 stars.
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- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I've long been a fan of Old Man and the Sea - it was my all time favorite beach read a while back. So, when I learned that these stories constituted the foundation and origin of that story, I was eager to read it on vacation this year. Our vacation was interrupted, and reading wasn't an option, so I'm just now finishing it - far from the shore.Islands in the Stream are three connected stories published together posthumously by Hemingway's wife and publisher. They had editing duties - giving 400 or so pages the ax - but informed sources say they were well acquainted with EH's editorial preferences, and they added nothing to the text.The protagonist is a wealthy painter with a history of being an international celebrity who hobnobs with the greatest minds and creators of his time... this isn't a relatable circumstance, but probably what readers wanted most with their escapism reading. The wealth and privilege aren't very becoming when it comes to how his life of leisure, stable of servants, and variety of luxury living situations are concerned. This isn't to say he lives a life free of pain. Pain is something he has no shortage of, and as the story progresses - it becomes nearly all he has.It was endearing and fascinating to read how "the other half" lives, and how that life relates to (and is in contrast with) my own experience. Especially when we have art in common. Thomas Hudson prides himself on a strong work ethic - probably to not lose his male audience who already has to swallow the story of a man who lives in luxury doing as he wishes, with occasional visits from (virtually abandoned) children and starlet ex-wives. Very little of his character's mindset is relatable to an artist. Rather - TH sounds a lot more like a writer posing as an artist (several factors make Stephen King's Duma Key look to be influenced by IitS).The sections were of distinctly different tones and flavors. The protagonist at times only feels like the same character because he shares the same name, and sparse sentences of reference to an earlier phase of life. He certainly strives to erase his pain by both ignoring it, and drinking his brain into a state malleable enough to forget. The sources of his pain are felt and empathized with by this reader, at least, so that tenuous connection still holds.It isn't 100% clear how Old Man and the Sea originated with this period of working - but if it was intended as follow-up to a struggle in the first act (Bimini), the result will always be a different staging when reading OMatS, and a powerful one.Hemingway is forever analyzed for his portrayal of gendered issues - and those looking closely tend to give him more slack as the years go by. I don't personally get the sexist claims and demonized perspective others paint him with - I see genuine reflection, given honestly, by someone who loves women - but is not himself a woman or a man who would make an effort to put himself in a woman's shoes, not being one. There may be an empathy gap there - but his empathy gap is broad and showing at all times for other men, of other race, proclivity, social and financial means. He's true to himself (whatever we think of that self), and he proudly broadcasts that women are frequently at the center of all his happiest memories, relationships, and enriching life moments.A man feeling a need to erase painful loses is at the heart of the stories. So much so, that a couple of those critical and pointed loses are never again referred to after book one. The absence hurt me. The lost lives were more pronounced for it. By not dealing with some things, he made those things much, much bigger - but the notion that a man must cry, but that seeing that crying is a chief disgust, has shackled him to a damaged and hobbled existence with dwindling meaning. And we (I) never stop relating and connecting with that life. At times uncomfortable, to say the least, I never stopped liking the story and wanting more of it.The book reads like an album assembled by the family, and remaining band members, after the death of a band's lead vocalist. I can't see it as complete or as a pure product of its creator - however hard I try. That is what keeps it from achieving a 5th star, for me. But it is his work, and what's there of it is absolutely worth the time to share with him.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I think I read this novel when I was much younger. Probably in the '70's. Reading it now, 40 years later it takes on many visceral textures that a 20 year old just cannot feel. But in my 60's I feel I understand mr. Hemingway a little bit better and the enormous sadness he carried within him.A slow read. The story line demanded to be laid aside and allowed to seep into you.Absolutely beautiful in a manly man way.
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- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellent wonderful heartbreaking story. I'd forgotten what a wonderful writer EH could be. The cover of the paperback I have is ridiculous, making it look as those this book is a maudlin love story. That's why I only recently got around to reading it. It is a love story though ... a father in love with his children, a man in love with his cat, a friend in love with his friends and only lastly, almost an afterthought, a man in love with the mother of his son. The long intricate description of the fight to land a big one, as a metaphor for his son becoming a man was simply brilliant. The description of his love affair with his cats was heart wrenching. This book was published posthumously and I'm very glad that it was made available. It was truly wonderful.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is the most honest book I've ever read. It's based on his own experiences as a fisherman, sub hunter, and artist. But he seems to put a lot of his private melancholy into this one, more than his other works. I give it a five, though I think it was longer than needed. I suspect he would have edited it down even more than his heirs did. I also appreciate the rare book that can combine nature, romance, and adventure with equal depth in the same story.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This book was strange in that I very much liked it but apparently for no good reason. Hemingway doesn't seem to make any big point with Islands in the Stream, although certainly this is excusable since it was published after the author's death and was never properly edited by him. The novel is enjoyable solely on the merit of Hemingway's moving characters, namely the protagonist, fictional American painter Thomas Hudson. Parts of the story drag while some moments are overly-macho (yes, even for Hemingway), but more often then not the writing is very good. I would recommend this book to anyone, but I would suggest reading A Farewell to Arms or For Whom the Bell Tolls first; this shouldn't be your first taste of Hemingway.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A posthumously pulished novel about a civilian's adventures hunting German submarines in the Caribbean during WWII.