here's a review i saw,and it needs to be posted for all to read. i voted for it. you might want to do the same.
gary
Kim's review of The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: The Finca Vigía Edition
follow reviews The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: The Finca Vigía Edition by Ernest Hemingway Kim's review rating: bookshelves: maurice, short-stories status: Read in August, 2009
So, I didn’t read the Complete short stories of Hemingway. I wanted an introduction, I’d always thought of Hemingway as..well, I’d never really given him much thought. He was just someone I wasn’t interested in reading. Lord help me, I can be dense.
I’ve read about a dozen of the stories in this anthology. I asked my husband for his opinion on which ones I should start with and I think that I’ve read a fair sampling, I’ll probably continue to pick this up every now and then and throw another one down. Some of these stories are what I expected of Hemingway. When I think of him, I see a large man, with a gun and a cigar and hell bent on killing something. I see wilderness and war, I see the old sea captain and the disillusioned writer in the euro café. And sometimes I see my grandfather but that just might be the Gary Cooper influence.
I was expecting the hunting, fishing, wilderness angle and The Big Two Hearted River Part I & II delivered with a yawn. The morality of The Good Lion and The Faithful Bull was fine and dandy and the cleverness of Homage to Switzerland wasn't lacking. These stories didn't give me that jaw dropping, must read everything effect that I so often hope for, but they were well written and entertaining.. Mostly, they were short and bearable.
Now the ones that I can truly say blew my Havana lovin', Zelda hatin', Hemingway image apart were A Day's Wait, a quick 4 page story about a child thinking he is about to die and how he prepares for this. I was impressed with the emotion that was so quickly and brilliantly emoted. I remember when I was about six or so, I swallowed a penny and thought I was going to die. It's not a good feeling, people. I remember standing over my parent's bed trying to prep them for this. I totally relate to Schatz.
And the acerbic tone in The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber, The Seeing-Eyed Dog, Hills like White Elephants, and The Snows of Kilamanjaro were awesome. I've always been down with the cynical, the mean-spiritedness, and this somewhat frightens me that I'm so attracted to it, because I'm really trying to be a better person. Hell if I can't enjoy some of the nastiness.
My favorite of the bunch is the first story that I was told to read.. A Clean, Well-Lighted Place. I'm sure many of you goodreaders are already aware of this gem, but I have to say even late to the game, I was just stunned by it. So short and so poignant. So beautiful. It makes me want to take on a sugar daddy so I can sit in European cafés mumbling nada y pues nada y nada y pues nada.
gary
Kim's review of The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: The Finca Vigía Edition
follow reviews
The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: The Finca Vigía Edition
by Ernest Hemingway
Kim's review
rating:
bookshelves: maurice, short-stories
status: Read in August, 2009
So, I didn’t read the Complete short stories of Hemingway. I wanted an introduction, I’d always thought of Hemingway as..well, I’d never really given him much thought. He was just someone I wasn’t interested in reading. Lord help me, I can be dense.
I’ve read about a dozen of the stories in this anthology. I asked my husband for his opinion on which ones I should start with and I think that I’ve read a fair sampling, I’ll probably continue to pick this up every now and then and throw another one down. Some of these stories are what I expected of Hemingway. When I think of him, I see a large man, with a gun and a cigar and hell bent on killing something. I see wilderness and war, I see the old sea captain and the disillusioned writer in the euro café. And sometimes I see my grandfather but that just might be the Gary Cooper influence.
I was expecting the hunting, fishing, wilderness angle and The Big Two Hearted River Part I & II delivered with a yawn. The morality of The Good Lion and The Faithful Bull was fine and dandy and the cleverness of Homage to Switzerland wasn't lacking. These stories didn't give me that jaw dropping, must read everything effect that I so often hope for, but they were well written and entertaining.. Mostly, they were short and bearable.
Now the ones that I can truly say blew my Havana lovin', Zelda hatin', Hemingway image apart were A Day's Wait, a quick 4 page story about a child thinking he is about to die and how he prepares for this. I was impressed with the emotion that was so quickly and brilliantly emoted. I remember when I was about six or so, I swallowed a penny and thought I was going to die. It's not a good feeling, people. I remember standing over my parent's bed trying to prep them for this. I totally relate to Schatz.
And the acerbic tone in The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber, The Seeing-Eyed Dog, Hills like White Elephants, and The Snows of Kilamanjaro were awesome. I've always been down with the cynical, the mean-spiritedness, and this somewhat frightens me that I'm so attracted to it, because I'm really trying to be a better person. Hell if I can't enjoy some of the nastiness.
My favorite of the bunch is the first story that I was told to read.. A Clean, Well-Lighted Place. I'm sure many of you goodreaders are already aware of this gem, but I have to say even late to the game, I was just stunned by it. So short and so poignant. So beautiful. It makes me want to take on a sugar daddy so I can sit in European cafés mumbling nada y pues nada y nada y pues nada.
I'm such a girl.