I can unhesitatingly and boastfully claim that ‘my never- failing friends are they, with whom I converse day by day.’ And these friends, with whom I talk, converse and gossip as a matter of routine, are the BOOKS, that are stacked in our family-library. Their sweet, long company has made me a true book-lover in the real sense.
Without any doubt or reservation, I can frankly say that blessed are those, who are in constant company of books. Books never desert us, when we fall prey to evil days, and they never flatter us, when fortune smiles on us.
In my life so far, I have read many books including the titles on travels and adventures; biographies and autobiographies; love poems and nature poems; novels and stories and plays written by various authors of long standing and good repute.
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If I am asked to choose the book which I like most, I would go for the novel ‘the old man and the sea,’ written by the world-renowned novelist ‘Ernest Hemingway’ (1899-1961).
Hemingway was a highly successful, prolific, U.S. writer of international fame and his novel in question was awarded the coveted Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. ‘The Old Man and the Sea’, was, actually, brought out in 1952.
Naturally and undisputedly, a masterpiece of Hemingway, ‘The Old Man and the Sea’ is a beautiful description of the changing phases in the life of a man. It brings to the mind how the behaviour of acquaintances, friends, Nations and co-workers of a man undergoes a sea change with the drifting of a phase in life.
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The main character in the novel is an old fisherman, facing the loss of his lost vigour with great patience and fortitude. An expert master fisherman in his hay days, the old man had, in his by-gone days, trained a number of aspiring young men in baiting and catching fish.
They had all learnt venturing out into the sea and fight against the ebb and flow of tides under his expert guidance. They not only admired him for his great skill and courage; but heaped upon him praises for his daring nature and tact time and again. He had become a living legend for them.
But the time changed in the autumn of his life. He was considered a spent-force and was not in a position to catch any fish on a regular basis even for his own survival. There were no admirers left and the one-time hero had become almost a forgotten story. There were times, when he had to survive on charity of others.
However, the old man did not give up easily. He remained firm and unyielding and continued trying his luck with his not till the last moment. He proved himself a brave, struggling fighter. He accepted his fate not in despair but with courage and determination. One day he succeeded in catching a giant marlin; but was not in a position to pull it out. The result was that the catch was eaten by sharks.
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Besides the story and the over-all plot of the novel, the style of narration and the language are also highly impressive. Hemingway is nowhere bombastic or Johnsonian in the novel On the contrary, his style is greatly forceful with simple and easy-to-understand sentences, having few confusing adverbs or adjectives. This is why ‘The old man and the sea’ is the only book I have liked most.