I read this book a few years ago but the experience of listening to it on tape, read by Donald Sutherland, was very different and quite wonderful.  Santiago’s courageous approach to his everyday life and to the battle with this superb fish were beautifully rendered by Hemingway.  The description of the fish, the sea, the old man, the relationship with the boy, Dimaggio, and on and on were so perfect that it is clear why this author, who had been failing both in health and in success, scored a Nobel Prize winning book when he wrote this one.  I think this is a book I’ll return to again as I myself age.