In many ways, the first three quarters of To Have and Have Not are a good adventure story complete with murder, mayhem, and brisk action. The action, which moves swiftly between boat decks and the back of Freddy's bar, is peppered with shady deals hammered out in tough street-talk. Hemingway's real-life model for the bar was an establishment on Key West run by a man named Sloppy Joe. Hemingway drank there, and prior to the book's publication, he repeatedly boasted that it would be a blockbuster. True to his word, To Have and Have Not went through four printings in the first two months, stayed on the best-seller's list from October to December 1937, sold 36,000 copies in the first five months, and earned him his first appearance on the cover of Time. How could anyone be so sure of success? It is likely that Hemingway's conviction had something to...