When in Key West it only feels fitting to spend some time reading Hemingway. While reading I could easily imagine Hemingway sitting at Sloppy Joe's drinking and listening to the locales tell their tales.
This is definitely not his best work. It was released between two much more acclaimed works: A Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bell Tolls. However, even not his best was still pretty good. The vignettes of the people living in Key West were poignant and colored.
You could easily tell, however, that these were three different stories. The writing styles and the narration change somewhat between each of them. It left the story feeling more true to what it was: a series of short stories and a novella.
Overall, this was middle of the road for me. I enjoyed reading it. Most of that I think was envisioning the history of the Conch Republic. The story is dark and gritty and sad which felt a bit heavy for vacation but true depiction of the character's struggle.
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