This. The struggles of the old man and the sea are universal. Aging, fragility, longing for youth, losing strength, struggling to provide for yourself, determination, failure. Those are just the themes I related to off the top of my head. The idea that women cannot relate to those concepts is indeed obtuse, regardless of OP’s intentions behind the post. No, I do not love the way he portrays women, but characters with rich internal lives and parallels between their inner and outer struggles are indeed something women relate to. It feels necessary to point out that women are not pieces of a unified mind and some will relate to characters that others will not, and some will like a writing style that others don’t. We are just people. Individuals.
I agree. The words are stripped so bare that it just leaves nerve endings exposed. I find his work to be very emotional. His style is simply very curated and all the fat is eliminated.