Islands in the Stream [Audiobook, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

 

 

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The Good, the Bad, and the Mediocre...

...in that order. I'd probably give this book 3.5 stars, somewhere between it was good and it was OK, if I could.

The first of the three sections of this novel is truly good. It introduces us to Thomas Hudson, a painter and a thinly veiled Hemingway, and his life on the island of Bimini. Hudson, like Hemingway, is an artist who is serious about his craft and about his work ethic. We learn of his life among the characters of the island, including the locals and his friends. The richest part of all is the visit of his three sons (by his first two wives) and the good times they share. There is good character development of all three boys, each so different from the others and each showing different parts of their father's personality. And there are the friends and servants of Hudson's, whom he loves and who play important parts in his son's lives, often where it is difficult for a father to enter. There is a tense shark attack and an epic battle with a monster marlin by the middle son, and there is a great deal of psychology of boys and men woven richly throughout. Hudson is a father who can't seem to love all-out, whole-heartedly, even though his sons need and want it. The feelings are there but the wiring in Hudson's head and heart shorts out a little and never conducts his deepest, truest self to his boys. Tragically, Hudson learns of the death of his two youngest sons and their mother (his second wife) at the close of the story.

The middle section of the book certainly has some good description and some realistic conversation, but overall it is one running conversation after another, mostly in the context of a bar where Hudson and his companions (who come and go) are drinking heavily, about very little of any importance. Hudson has just gotten wind of his first son's death (a pilot in WWII) and ultimately this accounts for the drinking but probably also for the attempts by Hudson to avoid any topic of significance in his conversations with others. Hudson's first wife and the only woman he ever deeply loved shows up and they have a rendezvous before Hudson can work up the fortitude to tell her of their son's death. They grieve and love together and she has to leave. All in all, a draggy and hopeless section of this story that doesn't live up to the first and last sections.

The last section follows Hudson and his crew as they conduct anti-submarine activities from his small ship (or large boat) in and around Cuba. The story is a game of cat and mouse in which Hudson and his crew is the cat and the surviving crew members from a German U-boat is the mouse. Hemingway builds tension in the hunt and between Hudson's crew members well. There are some really exciting moments and some truly touching interaction between Hudson and his crew, as they must try to overcome their differences and dislikes of each other to band together to find and fight the enemy. After the middle section this is a welcome change...there is actually stuff happening here, a plot. But it does pail in comparison to the richness of the opening section of this book.

All in all, I was glad I read this but the middle section prevents me from liking this book with anything close to whole-heartedness. And if you are someone who enjoys happy endings, none of the three sections of this book end that way. The reader is left thinking that likely, as the sons went, so the father goes. There is much tragedy and hopelessness in this book, which too is a fair reflection of Hemingway's own life.

I wish Amazon would incorporate 1/2 stars but I guess that would make things even more complicated. This is one of my favorite Hemingway books and one of the few published posthumously that lives up to his legacy.

The book, broken into three distinct sections, recounts chapters in the life of Thomas Hudson, a somewhat thinly veiled version of Hemingway. That's not to say that this is a story about Hemingway himself, but its pretty clear there is a lot of Hemingway in Hudson.

The first section, considered by many to be the best (and, as a I recall, the focus of the film made of the book), takes place in Bimini, where Hudson is leading a fairly idyllic life. The second is centered in Cuba but has an entirely different tone from that of the first. Whereas the "Bimini" section is almost light-hearted and somewhat breezy, the tone of the Cuba section has changed dramatically. Hudson is now a depressed individual having lost a son in an accident. He has a reunion with his first wife, but even though she is the love of his life, he knows it won't end happily. The third part, "At Sea," recounts Hudson's efforts as a Nazi sub hunter.

Hemingway is at his best throughout much of the book, his men are all striving to prove that they are, well, men, or at least the ideal of what a man should be in Hemingway's eyes. And naturally enough, no Hemingway man, in this case Hudson, would be complete without a little tragedy in his life. "At Sea," while powerfully told, seems somehow incomplete, which may well be the case since I do not think Hemingway completed the book before his death. In fact, the ending seemed extremely abrupt and left me wondering, did Hudson survive his wounds?

Still, this is some of Hemingway's best work. A must read. The only reason I did not give it five stars is because of the abrupt ending and a few other brief passages in the book that seem somehow incomplete and unfinished.

Ernest Hemingway is my favorite author. It began by reading "For Whom the Bell Tolls" in a high school English class. The way he writes is his own. I have not read another that uses the same style Hemingway does. He is able to portray the lives of others in a way the allows the reader to understand them. I find his words to be quite similar to actual human experience. They are not romanticized or unreal.

This novel has three parts about Thomas Hudson. The first is the one I like the most. It starts out slow, but a fight and a deep fishing scene create excitement, and I couldn't put the novel down. Hemingway, a master of tragedy, creates another tragic ending. The second part is not the great, but not that bad. It deals with his life during the war and a reunion with his first wife. The third part reminds me off "For Whom the Bells Toll" because it seems more action packed than the rest of the novel. The first two parts are based on human interaction, while the third is a chase at sea for a German U-boat crew.

This is a great novel and I highly recommend it if you like Hemingway.

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5.0 out of 5 stars In the tropics, they come and they go!
Of the Hemingway books I've read or tried to read, Islands in the Stream is my favorite thus far. All the great and not-so-great elements of his legendary style are here, from... Read more

Published on April 15 2003 by David A. Bede

5.0 out of 5 stars One of his best
_Islands in the Stream_ is my favorite novel by Ernest Hemingway. Like most of his works, the prose is relatively sparse but very readable and very entertaining. Read more

Published on April 4 2003 by Ross James Browne

4.0 out of 5 stars 1 glorious story of life on the stream and 2 that fall short
If the first section on Bimini (the Island on the Stream [the gulf stream for those who still do not understand]) was package by itself it would have received 5 stars... Read more

Published on April 2 2003 by B. Bond

3.0 out of 5 stars Good - Bad Hemingway
This is a good - bad book. The good is the first part, set in Bimini in 1940, and the third part, which describes the hunt for a U-Boat crew off the coast of Cuba. Read more

Published on Mar 23 2002 by Walter Boldys

5.0 out of 5 stars The best Hemingway book ever!
Before this book, my two favorite Hemingway novels of fiction were The Old Man And The Sea (in my top three of all time!) and The Sun Also Rises.
Not any longer. Read more

Published on Dec 1 2001 by Sean Erik Ponce

5.0 out of 5 stars Islands in the Stream
Ernest Hemingway's Islands in the Stream is my favorite book by Hemingway, and indeed, my favorite book. Read more

Published on Oct 31 2001 by lindsay@willinet.net

2.0 out of 5 stars Unless you LOVE Hemingway... don't bother
The cover reads, "His greatest love story." There is only a tidbit of love speckled here and there. Read more

Published on July 31 2001

5.0 out of 5 stars His best piece of work
Islands in the Stream is such a beautiful novel...discriptive and captivating....tragic and joyfull......if you havent read it......you simply must...... Read more

Published on Jun 16 2001

4.0 out of 5 stars the handbook of my youth
islands in the stream became one of the handbooks for the conduct of my early years: adventures in the caribbean, adventures in europe, serious drinking and questions of... Read more

Published on July 13 2000 by C. M. Newland

5.0 out of 5 stars The great American novel
(Actually, I would give this book 6 stars.) With all the controversy about "True at First Light" and the validity of posthumous works this book this is a clear, strong... Read more

Published on April 27 2000 by Jerry Gunning

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