I bought a mixed lot of books on tape on eBay. There were a few Hemingway titles. I finished To Have and Have Not, yesterday. Back around 1972, while waiting to be drafted, I read every Hemingway title at the Forham Library. I remember being confused, because I had liked the movie. The book has nothing to do with the movie, except for the name of two of the characters and a boat.

The book is a dark journey through the last days of a smuggler from the Florida Keys. Hemingway has an incredible ability to create characters with broad Picasso like strokes. The characters are mostly not very likeable, though. He kills off his best characters and spends way too much time on trivial ones.

I find myself yelling at the tape. “Why the hell did you write that?”

He telegraphs all of his plot points so we get to worry about them in advance, and by the end of the book I was glad the hero was dead and the book was finally over.

I have tremendous respect for Hemingway’s style and control. I am sorry that he was so messed up personally. I wish that I could create such real characters with so little effort, but I’m glad that I don’t have deep emotional problems that cause me to write great novels.

On the positive front, I just found out that I may have four The Who tickets for MSG this September. You guys out there in the blogosphere better be nice to me while I decide who gets to go with me.