"A man can be destroyed but not defeated." 
 This classic piece of man vs. nature sets a languid pace, woven with reverence, despair, and the luminous fortitude of humanity. 
 I can understand completely why some might find this to be a tedious read. It may be best to look at it as a character study; with the central point of tension being about an elderly man struggling to maintain his dignity and livelihood, even amid the waning strength of his twilight years. His battle with a monstrous marlin takes a backseat--or perhaps serves as an external manifestation--to his own internal wrestling. 
 The prose itself is simple, introspective, and sometimes lyrical: 
 "He always thought of the sea as 'la mar' which is what people call her in Spanish when they love her. Sometimes those who love her say bad things of her but they are always said as though she were a woman. Some of the younger fishermen, those who used buoys as floats for their lines and had motorboats, bought when the shark livers had brought much money, spoke of her as 'el mar' which is masculine. They spoke of her as a contestant or a place or even an enemy. But the old man always thought of her as feminine and as something that gave or withheld great favours, and if she did wild or wicked things it was because she could not help them. The moon affects her as it does a woman, he thought." 
 (Is it just me, or did Hemingway oh-so-eloquently imply that the sea has PMS?) 
 For this reader, the prose surprised on several occasions by wringing a deep pang of sympathy, and even a sense of staunch admiration for the old man and his gentle yet resolute mind. His respectful regard for the ocean and for all of the animals he encounters is downright symbiotic. And beyond that, I was most affected by the relationship between the man and the teen boy he'd once trained as an apprentice and who still held such devoted regard for him. 
 While I'll admit there were long, descriptive-rich stretches in which there wasn't much going on... the story still managed to hit me in the heart on several occasions. For that I acknowledge its greatness.