TO HAVE OR HAVE NOT by Ernest Hemingway ⭐⭐⭐

I don’t know enough about Hemingway, and reading this makes me wonder if that’s a good or a bad thing. Trying to research a bit about how others feel about him, it seems to be both.

Did I like it? I did, though I’m having a hard time figuring out if I should, if I really did, and if it’s okay to. I’m still not positive on any of that.

This is the second work of his I’ve read, and quite the dive into a seedy, offensive, and violent atmosphere. I try to understand what makes a classic a classic, even if I expect to miss the mark others have so easily dissected. To me, this is simplistic humanity to the core, told with no filter and no interest in fluff or for even one more word than necessary. And in that, with the darkness it brings about, is a truthfulness that is hard to stomach or agree with but is impossibly intriguing to read. A truthfulness of the author and of the time, and unfortunately, of the way things have always been, in more ways than one.