In Reading Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not, Kirk Curnutt explicates dozens of topics that arise from this controversial novel’s dense, tropical swelter of references and allusions. From Cuban politics to multifarious New Deal “alphabet agencies,” from rum running to human smuggling to byways, bars, and brothels, Curnutt delves deeply into the plot’s rich textural backdrop. Most important, he reminds us what a very different novel To Have and Have Not would have been had Hemingway not undergone a political change of heart.