Rating: 
Summary: Moving in Threes
Review: Full of beauty and pain, this book is powerful. I found the imagery, dialogue and layout of this book breathtaking. Three stories, three facets of a man's life all interwoven to form a lush and stunning journey. Very mature compared to his earlier works. Perhaps alluding to, and expounding on himself in "For Whom the Bell Tolls", where he cites Donne's poem "No Man is an Island".
Rating: 
Summary: A book much like the gin he drinks
Review: Hemingway's protagonist in this novel favors gin with coconut water and lime, a drink he describes as cool, crisp, and clean-tasting. The writing is similar: cool and clean, stripped of unnecessary sentimentality. The book is about love and loss, and is all the more poignant because the loving and losing includes romance, family, and friendship. The descriptions of sights, smells, and tastes brings the narrative alive, while the stoicism with which Thomas Hudson, the main character, faces his grief is at once profligate, courageous, and tragic. There are also flashes of insight tinged with regret. While the second book could have easily been shortened, it works to illustrate the quiet despair Hudson's hopes to drown in daiquiris without sugar. The novel works as a whole as both a psychological drama and an adventure story - and the moments of drama, the dock and fishing scenes in the first book and the ocean chase that constitutes the third book, are indeed memorable.
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Summary: The theme of life in one book
Review: I found this book to be one of the best books I have ever read. Hemingway masterfully incorporates the theme of life in this "rollercoaster" of a book, usually going from the best of times to the worst of times. I recommend this book to everyone who is looking for a book that you will remember forever.
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Summary: Hemingway's Best!
Review: I have always been a big fan of Hemingway and this book is undoubtely his best. The way he describes Thomas Hudsons relationship with the boys are so touching, that it makes me cry everytime.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Hemingway, but not his best.
Review: I love Hemingway, enjoyed this book, but found myself getting lost a few times, finding myself reading a few pages and not remembering what I read. The first section of this book is great, I found though, it slowly falls apart from there. But, this book is a must for any Hemingway reader, but not a good starting point for a new Hemingway fan. I liked it, but was not draw in like I was with his other books.
Rating: 
Summary: The magic is gone at this point, Hem has lost his faculties.
Review: I really wanted it to be a good, great book, but when I finished it, I was left flat. The Bimini section had some wonderful parts; the struggle with the fish, for example, or some of the old, amazing Thomas Hudson thinking to himself narrative. Just for those two things, the Bimini section is worth reading, but for God's sake, avoid the Cuba section like the plague--it is simply terrible. I for one do not want to hear about the adolescent ramblings of a writer with an imbalance who is using his thinly veiled fiction to bemoan and give a romantic glaze to his own life. The at sea section was not as good as the Bimini section, but worth reading for the adventurous part. I wouldn't grant it any literary merit, though. All in all, if you are a great Hemingway fan, read it for the silly facts about his life and because it is one of the last books of his which you haven't read three times already (like myself). Otherwise, I'd recommend re-reading Farewell to Arms, his true masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: A disjointed book.
Review: I was very disappointed by this book. Perhaps that is explained by the fact that the writer did not finish it himself. I found reading it to be a waste of my time.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful book
Review: I was very suprised that this book was so incredible because I had never heard of it before I read it. I am a student writing a research paper on one of the works of Ernest Hemingway and this was the book I chose. I was discouraged by my teacher who said the book wasn't worth reading but I chose to read it anyway. I am very glad that I did now because it was very well written though each part seemed to be completely separate from each of the other parts. It was beautifully written.
Rating:
Summary: Four-And-A-Half Stars and a Favorite of Mine
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: 1 glorious story of life on the stream and 2 that fall short
Review: 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. Unfortunatley the latter 2 stories bring the overall rating down somewhat. That too could have been fixed through a little more editing. But regardless I would recommend buying this book to read the first section alone. It gives the depth and feel of what a child or adult on the stream experienced. I must admit when I first read this story I was horrified that the little island Bimini would get more fanfare from this. I had many memorable trips there but it's been years since. But at anytime I can pick up this book read the Bimini section and remember Brown's hotel dock, the Complete Angler, the beauty of the Ocean, the feel of the tradewinds, and the thrill of the fishing. The story of Tom Hudson life on the island almost gives one a jolt of envy that it wasn't them until the following developments that Hemingway is known for. What else can you say? If you enjoy Hemingway, the Sea, and Fishing buy it.
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