On the first glance, The Old Man and the Sea is a very simple story about a Cuban fisherman fighting against a giant marlin. On the second glance ... it is still a very simple story. You won't find any complex characters in this story, you won't find even the smallest trace of complexity. One can try to find symbolisms in this story (and will most likely succeed), but as Ernest Hemingway said himself: 
 "There isn't any symbolism. The sea is the sea. The old man is an old man. The boy is a boy and the fish is a fish. The sharks are all sharks no better and no worse. All the symbolism that people say is shit. What goes beyond is what you see beyond when you know." 
 What remains when you take away the lack of complexity? A powerful tale about the efforts of a human being to achieve a certain goal and about how easy it is to lose what you have won. And powerful it is indeed. I was familiar with Hemingway's writing style and his tragic life due to preparing a school presentation about him years ago and reading some of his short stories, so I was able to direct my expectations to the necessary direction, ultimately finding - as surprising as this may sound - a lot to enjoy in here. 
 I don't know if any other author would have been able to spend 140 pages on a subject as simple as this (although Dickens probably could), but Ernest Hemingway succeeded in the attempt, creating a timeless classic. The language is not very demanding - sometimes even poor, if you look at the way he repeats himself unnecessarily at passages every writing adviser would cringe at. And yet there is something powerful, endearing behind those words, something which lures you in without you even realizing it. It is impossible to describe the atmosphere within this tale. Read it for yourself if you are open for classics without a lot of action going on - and this is a short one, a story I read in the course of two hours with interruptions - or don't if you need your complex plots. For everyone else, I'd highly recommend it.