On May 22 (one week early because of the Memorial Day holiday), the Monday Book Club will begin its new series “The Adventure of Reading” with a discussion of Ernest Hemingway’s classic short novel “The Old Man and the Sea” at 6 p.m. in the Taylor Books art gallery.

In the book, Hemingway traces the epic struggle of a Cuban fisherman named Santiago who ends his streak of bad luck by hooking an enormous marlin that he battles for three days, only to have it destroyed by sharks during the long voyage back to his village.

Hemingway

For those unfamiliar with the works of “Papa” Hemingway, the storyline of “The Old Man and the Sea” and other novels mirrors Hemingway’s own interests in fishing, big-game hunting and bullfighting. Hemingway’s years in Key West, Fla., and Cuba helped shape the vivid descriptions in the book, and Santiago’s pursuit with his quarry continues the theme of man’s struggle against impossible odds that Hemingway used so effectively in earlier novels such as “The Sun Also Rises” (1926), “A Farewell to Arms” (1929) and “For Whom the Bell Tolls” (1940).

“The Old Man and the Sea,” published in 1952, was the last of Hemingway’s works to be published in his lifetime. The book won him the 1953 Pulitzer Prize for fiction and led to his Nobel Prize win the next year.

Despite his many successes, Hemingway frequently suffered debilitating episodes of depression toward the end of his life. He committed suicide in Idaho in 1961. Two more novels, “Islands in the Stream” and “A Moveable Feast,” and several collections of essays, short stories and poetry were published after his death.

For more information on Hemingway’s life and work, visit www.ernest.hemingway.com or www.hemingwaysociety.org.

To contact Regina Holbert, use e-mail or call 348-7936.