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Benedict Arnold

What About Ernest Hemingway?

I am currently reading A MOVEABLE FEAST, and typically read a Hemingway book every ten years or so…not because I like his books, but because he is part of the generation who “lost faith in the central institutions of Western civilizations” after World War I...and I want to know about that.

So please tell me, what have you read of Hemingway, what is your impression of him, his writing?

Posted - February 23, 2017
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Responses


  • It's probably forty years since I read any of his books and the last was probably The Old Man and the Sea. I also read his book on journalism and the one thing I remember from it was in the very early pages where he wrote, "The first thing any journalist needs is a shock-proof sh1t detector."

    It's not only journalists who need those. :)
      February 23, 2017 3:57 PM MST
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  • Dozy, your memory is remarkable!
    Yes, I can see that comment would be important to you...would stay with you...
      February 23, 2017 4:10 PM MST
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  • It's a strange memory, Virginia. It seems to remember all kinds of quirky stuff and misses out on much of what's important. :(
      February 23, 2017 4:44 PM MST
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  • Dozy, you are a gentle soul...my own personal theory, there is something other than our logical mind that sometimes chooses what is important to us.
      February 23, 2017 4:47 PM MST
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  • I'm not about to argue with that. Once we get into that area things become fascinating. :)
      February 23, 2017 4:50 PM MST
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  • I've read three of his books many years ago. The man could capture your mind with his stories. I should read more of them. He can write intense if he wanted too. I read Farewell to Arms, The Snows of Kilimanjaro and my all time favorite of all : The Old Man and the Sea.
    This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at February 23, 2017 8:01 PM MST
      February 23, 2017 5:54 PM MST
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  • Hi Rooster,

    Your comments are so encouraging! Encouraging me to persist with Hemingway...this memoir I am reading of post-WWI Paris, it sneaks up on you...one example, they are all sitting in a cafe with a painter and his two beautiful models, sexual banter, ho hum quite ordinary...and then Hemingway finishes up like this:

    "He looked more like a Broadway character than the lovely painter that he was, and afterwards, when he had hanged himself, I liked to remember him as he was that night at the Dome. They say the seeds of what we will do are in all of us, but it always seemed to me that those who make jokes in life are covered with better soil and a higher grade of manure."

    I almost jumped out of the chair!
    ...and THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA was my very first outing with Hemingway, SO long ago yes, unforgettable.
      February 23, 2017 6:56 PM MST
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  • 7683
    I loved The old man and the sea, what an awesome novel, the narration never boring and that was fascinating, I can't recollect any author who could write a masterpiece with just an old man, a fish and the Sea. For three days, Santiago struggles against the greatest fish of his long career. After eighty-four successive days without catching a fish, Santiago promises his former assistant, Manolin, that he will go “far out” into the ocean. The marlin takes the bait, but Santiago is unable to reel him in, which leads to a three-day struggle between the fisherman and the fish. The honor in struggle, defeat, and death; the pride which is the source of greatness and determination....ohhh lemme stop I am getting carried away;)) This post was edited by Veena.K at April 22, 2018 7:25 PM MDT
      February 23, 2017 7:00 PM MST
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  • Veena.K!
    What a delightful rendering...I prolly read it around 1960, and you brought it all cascading back into mind...
      February 23, 2017 8:07 PM MST
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  • 7683
    Hi VirginiaL, The Old Man and the Sea was a prescribed text for us during my post graduation in English Literature,   I loved it and made Papa read it, it then became his favorite novel;))
      February 23, 2017 8:24 PM MST
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  • Hemingway is on my to-read list but I have still yet to read anything by him! I have The Sun Also Rises, so I will be starting with that. 
      February 23, 2017 10:26 PM MST
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  • Oh Nevan...yes, THE SUN ALSO RISES was my second book of Hemingway.
    Strange...that was perhaps 1962, and I still recall the name of the female love interest, it was Lady Brett Ashley!

    I always thought I did not care too much for Hemingway, but I am learning on the Q that he does stay with you...
    Please, if you read it anytime soon, let me/us know what you think...
      February 23, 2017 11:13 PM MST
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  • 2515
    I just want to tell you about my trip to Key West and to visit Hemingway's house. It is a most unusual experience to see the room where he typed his stories. He had a black manual typewriter on a desk. There are shelves of books he kept and his furniture. You feel close to the author. You feel the words of "The Old Man in the Sea". You breathe the sea breeze hear the wind blow the palm trees around his house. It is a large two-story house. There are photos of him and his family everywhere. The prettiest part was his yard where the large pool is. It was his Heaven, his and his 2nd wife's. Then I bought many of his books at the bookstore they had there. I felt such a sadness afterwards, remembering he committed suicide. Later I found out, in his documentary, "Papa", that Hemingway really felt he had a good life and was finished when he decided to end it. 
      February 23, 2017 11:50 PM MST
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