This is a Hemingway book. Let me list some of the more predominate themes:

*Being a Man
*Drinking
*Attention to simple yet real meals
*The Sea, predominately the Gulf
*Hunting - both animals (fishes particularly) and people (Nazis specifically)
*Suicide
*Suffering
*The Weather
*Whores
*Cats
*Beautiful Things
*Art
*Former lovers whom can only be referred to in way such as, her or the one he let get away
*Loss - get ready for dead children
*War - both internal and global

Let me list some of the things that are not predominate in the story:

*Adjectives
*Adverbs
*Female characters
*Happiness
*A Happy Ending

I really liked this book, but I did at one point call a friend and yell, "I BEEPING knew he was going to kill the BEEPING kids!"

I recommend it, but only if you're feeling strong.

If the author of this was an unknown it would never have gotten out of the slush pile.

Published posthumously, nine years after Hemingway's death. It does not show the polish of Hemingway's best work and there was a reason he didn't think it was ready for publication.

It must be difficult knowing your best days are behind you. Papa's last novel (Across the River and into the Trees) was not well-received although he did win the Pulitzer Prize two years later for his novella The Old Man and the Sea.

"Bimini," the first part of this book, introduces Thomas Hudson, an adventurer and painter living life on the island of Bimini in the Bahamas. He schedules his drinking around his painting and is surrounded by people who admire him. He is awaiting the arrival of his three sons for the summer. Not much is learned about Thomas other than he takes his drinking seriously; loves his boys (and his first wife); and is one helluva a fishing boat pilot.

This part is the most uneven and probably caused Hemingway the most consternation before giving up on getting it ready for publication. It's as aimless and leisurely as Hudson's life seems to be.

"Cuba" takes place during a respite from civilian anti-submarine activities during WWII. Again Hudson is a hero lost when he has nothing to fight against. But an encounter with Ginny Watson, Hudson's first wife, as she is on a USO tour reenergizes him as he sets forth on his next mission.

The book's second part relies on dialog to propel the story along. but there really is no life to the dialog until the entrance of Watson.

The final part of the book is the best. "At Sea" follows Hudson and his trusted crew of misfits and rejects as they hunt the crew of a sunken German sub through the Keys of Cuba. It is tense and suspenseful with several fine "Hemingway" moments, though it still seems unfocused. But the final line of the book struck me as particularly astute and still resonates in my head as I write this.

"Oh shit," he said. "You never understand anybody who loves you." That sums up Thomas Hudson pretty well. And perhaps Papa Hemingway also.

By far my all time favorite book.

When I started reading it, I thought: why isn’t this Hemingway’s most famous book? In the beginning, everything is so well and vividly written. But the answer to this question comes quite quickly. And it comes along with those strange phrases and dialogues that children use to communicate. The second part slows things down a lot, and for me personally, even the third part does not bring everything back to the speed.

But that is it. This book doesn’t try to tell a story. So don’t even try to look for one. It paints the picture of a man in the way the author wanted to paint it.

At times pretty slow. Ultimately a pretty sad journey through this guy’s live in stages on the Carribean. Kind of cool to put into perspective that most of us do have “three parts” to our lives when you really think about it, whether they are different geographically or not…

Muitos anos depois, voltei a ler Hemingway.
O escritor americano foi um dos autores mais importantes no início da minha carreira de leitor a sério, aos dezoito anos. Entre os dezoito e os dezanove anos, li cinco livros seus.

Ilhas na Corrente, o primeiro romance de Hemingway publicado postumamente, esteve anos (talvez décadas) na estante à espera do momento. Comprei a edição dos Livros do Brasil numa promoção de hipermercado, na esteira da "fase Hemingway" de jovem adulto por cinco euros. Na altura devia estar desiludido com O Velho e o Mar e, ao perceber que também este se passava todo na água (as três partes são: Bimini; Cuba e No Mar), adiei.

Ilhas na Corrente pertence a esta categoria de livros que caracterizam um tempo e um lugar, assim como os seus intérpretes. O pintor Thomas Hudson é Hemingway, e acção nas três partes da obra vai desde a década de trinta à fase final de II Guerra. E é uma experiência maravilhosa vermo-nos transportados para as Caraíbas de há oitenta ou noventa anos, e sentirmos como o personagem principal muda de uma parte para a outra de uma forma tão drástica, tal a força dos acontecimentos que o atropelam. Nem parece o mesmo entre Bimini, onde recebe a visita dos três filhos na sua casa da paradisíaca ilha das Bahamas, Cuba, cuja acção nos é dada quase exclusivamente através de diálogos que acontecem num bar da ilha, muito antes do tempo de Fidel, e No Mar, onde Thomas Hudson percorre o mar e as ilhas semi-desertas em perseguição de um submarino alemão (algo que o próprio Hemnigway fez). Só que a vida é assim, muda-nos e molda-nos, nem que seja à força do escopro das tragédias.

Muitos anos depois, acertei no momento. Naquele tempo, pela decisão de trazer para casa um prazer futuro à espera de maturidade; e no presente por ter levado a leitura a bom porto. Não um livro perfeito, mas já tinha saudades de Hemingway. Foi bom voltar aos tempos da Faculdade, onde descobria Hemingway nas viagens no comboio da linha de Cascais, a sentir por que foi ele foi tão importante na minha vida.

I picked this book up on a whim, and I'm so glad I did! What a strange, melancholy, compelling story! It was published posthumously and not edited by Hemingway, which makes me wonder what it might have been like if he'd finished it himself, but as it is, I liked it a lot. It might be one of my favorites this summer, which is odd, because when one thinks of summer reads, one usually thinks of light fiction or fun nonfiction, neither of which this book could be called by any stretch. Yet in summer, when it's light and warm, I feel more willing to read books that are darker and deeper, books that might make me feel rather glum on a gray winter's day. I won't go into the story, because it's difficult to describe, segmented as it is, but the first part and the last were my favorites, though the in between was engaging as well. It shouldn't make me want to take up deep sea fishing and go to Cuba, but it does;-) Slightly at a loss what to read next!

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Hemingway at his sad best. And sad Hemingway is the best.

Bimini (Part 1) is the strength of the book.

Bogen er ganske fin, men Hemingways skrivestil er omtrent lige så forvirrende, som den er flot. Jeg ved ikke, om det er min yndlingsstil; det bør dog også nævnes, at min oversættelse var ret gammel. Jeg glæder mig til at læse flere af hans værker senere hen.

Bogen her handler om Thomas Hudson, som er kunstner og en rigtig levemand. Bogen bearbejder hans emotionelle traumer efter først skilsmissen med hans kone og hans børns få visit, derefter de traumer, der kommer af at hans børn og deres mor dør. Hemingway havde selv oplevede lignende ting, som der bliver skrevet om i bogen, og det er desuden en posthumt udgivelse. Kan anbefales at læse :)

Хемингуэй - это особая глава в моей книжной жизни. Это писатель, которому удается разговаривать со мной не посредством букв на страницах, а на каком-то подсознательном уровне. У меня нет ощущения, что я черпаю слова с экрана читалки или с пожелтевших страниц бумажной книги, я просто слышу их у себя в голове. Когда я беру книгу Хемингуэя, эти слова рождаются у меня в крови и начинают растекаться по телу. Мне иногда кажется, что можно даже и не открывать книгу, я и так все пойму, без слов. Как по глазам можно понять, что чувствует очень близкий человек.

Я прекрасно понимаю, почему творчество Хемигуэя может быть "не по душе". Я даже могу показать те места в "Островах в океане", которые могут навевать скуку / раздражать / вызывать циничные смешки и т.д. Вопрос исключительно в том, под каким углом на все это смотреть. Для меня главный герой книги Томас Хадсон не банален, а стиль Хемингуэя не сух и обрывочен. Для меня это Искренность. Это что-то сродни реалити-шоу. Вот герой и я живу и чувстсвую вместе с ним, неотделимо. Даже когда он три часа напивается в баре, мне не делают "монтаж", я все это время сижу на соседнем стульчике и также, как и он, потягиваю дайкири.

Без спойлеров писать об этом невозможно, но некоторые моменты "снесли мне крышу". По-другому не скажешь. Вот, допустим, первая часть "Бимини" - это сосредоточие такого абсолютного счастья, что порой кажется, ты можешь в нем утонуть и захлебнуться. Такой огромный океан, прекрасные острова, отец, сыновья, верные друзья, красивые девушки... и в конце Хемингуэй выбивает у тебя почву из-под ног. Так внезапно, что возникает полнейшее ощущение того, что ты правда падаешь! А финал! Боже, ну зачем же так?! Хочется самой бросится в бой да вот только непонятно с кем. Хочется отвоевать судьбу главного героя. Только вот у кого? У книги? У автора? У вымысла? Но Хемингуэй в "Островах в океане" был щедр. Для таких сумасшедших, как я, есть крошечный луч надежды, который и за луч надежды может принять лишь тот, который очень сильно хочет его найти.

10 / 10

The setting for this three part Hemingway novel that wasn't published until '87, motivated me to read it. Out of respect for the author, I'll point out that readers should be aware of possible reasons that an author's work might have been with held in their living years. Harper Lee's "Go Set A Watchman" is another that failed to deliver in spite of the author's reputation.

For the curious or those equally interested in settings that are rooted deeply in an author's psych, "Islands in the Stream" is a worthy read. However, if one is looking for remarkable, economic and poetic writing, this one falls way short. In my opinion, this work isn't much more than an author's rambling stream of consciousness tossed onto the page while drinking heavily.

I love Hemingway's work - the work he had published in his living years. I'll be re-reading those works again and again as I find so many previously missed hidden gems. Gems of poetic, economical and deep meaning that illuminate and resonate each time I digest them.