The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

I thought I would cap off Papa Hemingway with this classic, gripping, 150 page novella that I've been wanting to read.

The tale of the old man ends in disappointment, when his prize catch of a gargantuan marlin, caught after 84 days without a single catch, is eaten by sharks on the way back to port.

I suppose the central message is the sadness and inevitability of aging.  

But then again, after the old man returns to port, his fellow fishermen are amazed with the size of the fish, although only the head, fins and spine remain.  They are spotted measuring the size of these remains while the old man sleeps.

So his reputation will live on, even if his actual life is spent up.  He achieves a sort of immortality that the younger fishermen have yet to achieve.

We are all winners and we are all losers.  Everything depends upon your perspective.