I am interested in reading a book by Ernest Hemingway. I believe i read Old Man and the Sea in highschool. So i ask the Cafe Society Dopers’, what book should i read and why?
thanks.
For Whom the Bell Tolls - if you weren’t feeling lonely and depressed enough by the emotional and existential quagmire that is induced by the holiday season, this will certainly take you down a notch or two. But not necessarily in a bad way. You’ll go down in a Steinbeck Of Mice and Men kind of way. Not as powerful though. Try to finish it on a gloomy and bleak day, if at all possible.
Avoid The Sun Also Rises like the plague, unless you want to encounter the same themes that Tolls dealt with in a less engaging story and supported by a bunch of whiny rich drunks who like bull fights and fishing.
The stories you’ll find in the collection In Our Time are underappreciated, I think. Hemingway didn’t intend to publish them together, IIRC, but I think it works well, and the vignettes are refreshingly different.
Farewell to Arms is a very fine novel.
For Whom the Bell Tolls is my favorite, but I LOVE The Sun Also Rises Too. I guess I don’t mind rich drunks to much, and I really like fishing and bullfighting. Not sure of your gender, but “Sun”, in my opinion is more of a “guy’s story”. I’m not sure if females relate well to the protagonist’s dilemma. Sun is also an easier read. You can probably get through it in a day or two. (In my editions, Bell is 471 pages and Sun is 222) I also feel that Bell is better if you have some historical knowledge of the setting. No such knowledge is required to relate to sport loving rich drunks.
To Have and Have Not is a good Caribbean adventure story, and the characters are heavily influenced by some of Papa’s drinking buddies down at Sloppy Joes’ Bar (the building is now Captain Tony’s Bar, I think. Sloppy Joes is across the street now) from his days in Key West.
I love Hemingway, but strangely, The Old Man and the Sea might be my least favorite. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still great.
Why do you recommend this book?
A Farewell to Arms made Hemingway’s reputation. Sun Also Rises was a notorious book, helping Hemingway to get noticed through its thinly-veiled caricatures of different real-life people living as expats in Paris. AFtA was his next novel and far more ambitious in scope - an anti-war commentary, with a further refinement of what became referred to as his “hard-boiled” style. Both a political statement and an exploration of the infamous Hemingway Code for what it means to be a man. Arguably his finest novel by some degree.
However, I would recommend The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories - Hemingway will ultimately be judged a better short story writer than novelist.
- The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber
- The Snows of Kilimanjaro
- The Hills Like Elephants
- A Clean Well Lighted Place
- The Killers
These are the short, sharp works that can handle the clipped, lean prose that Heminway perfected. Hemingway is as much about mood as direct story and arc, and short stories aren’t expected to sustain a full arc - just have the inference of character - enough to frame a specific emotional event.
I’ve invested time as an adult to read his work extensively. I have owned first editions of many of Hemingway’s book (still have both Farewell and Fifth Column).
Hope this helps.
This one’s my favorite Hemingway. WordMan covered it nicely.
I came it to recommend Hemingway’s short stories too. In addition to the ones listed above (all classic “must read” Hemingway) also check out:
The Capitol of the World
Big Two Hearted River parts I & II
The Undefeated
In Another Country
After the Storm
Fathers and Son
These are personal favorites of mine that aren’t all “must reads” but IMHO make good follow up reads to the short stories already posted. (I wouldn’t, for example , recommend Big Two Hearted River as a FIRST Hemingway story, but maybe a good third or fourth story)
As far as novels go, I personally love The Sun Also Rises, I don’t think Hemingway ever really recaptured that easy style in his writing. Later efforts read like literature, The Sun Also Rises reads more like life.
I have heard enough dissenting opinions (man people HATE that book) however to know that it is not necessarily the best place to start. A Farewell to Arms is probably the best starting place, as I think the characters and themes in that book are his most accessible while still being a good representation of his style.
Lastly, after you have read a few things, find A Movable Feast. Hemingway led and interesting life and knew interesting people. Read about it/them here.
My recommendation is to start with the short stories.
The power he puts into those is amazing. The novels are great, but the short stories - I don’t know how to say it, but they’re so… powerful (I told you I didn’t know how to say it).
I echo what NAF1138 said in his post and I so concur with what Wordman suggested. Images from The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber and The Snows of Kilamonjaro and The Killers haunt me to this day, and I read them decades ago.
In a different way, the images of Fathers and Sons and *Big Two-Hearted River *have stayed with me also.
I don’t know how old you are, but I would suggest you revisit The Old Man and the Sea. One of the two great sins of the American education system in my mind is that they force students to read that wonderful novella before they can appareciate it, thus leaving a bad taste in the mouth of American youth for a wonderful book and author. (the other great sin is forcing students to read The Pearl - I feel this way because The Pearl is a terrible book).
I also agree that The Sun Also Rises is a wonderful book, but wait until you know Hemingway before reading it. You should know the man a little before you read that one.
By the way, I hated The Fifth Column, loved To Have and Have Not. Yeah, that might be a good place to start. Well, depending on what you’re looking for in a read.
I think Snows of Kilimanjaro is a good place to dip one’s feet into Hemingway. It’s a range of very nice short stories from which you can work your way out into his longer works.
I’ll also say: the short stories. That’s where Hemingway was at his best, and where he developed his signature, influential prose style. The Complete Stories of Ernest Hemingway all fit in one volume.
If you do read The Sun Also Rises and ever go to Paris, the cafe where he wrote most of it is still there – close to where he used to live. It is also close to where Gertrude Stein lived with Alice B. Toklas. It is my favorite. A little of the book is set in that cafe also. It is the Closerie de las Lilas in Montpasnasse.
I would read one of his other novels first though. And I would be sure to read his account of his life in Paris – A Moveable Feast. Warning, it may make you want to spend all of your days writing in cafes, eating potato salad and drinking beer.
There is also a beautifully written set of biographies about Hemingway by Michael Reynolds.
His home in Key West is open to the public. Unfortunately, the home he had in Cuba is quickly falling into disrepair.
(Someone is coming with the hook.) Sorry, I loved teaching American litera…
Two very, very readable biographies about Hemingway are Hemingway: A life story by Carlos Baker and *Papa Hemingway *by A.E. Hotchner.
The Hotchner book has been knocked for promoting the myth of Hemingway and being superficial. Personally, I don’t care. It is a wonderful read. Both books should be available in almost any used bookstore.
I’m putting in another vote for the short stories. When I taught Old Testament, I made the students read half a dozen Hemmingway short stories first, then start in on Genesis. They all thought I was nuts, but most of them got it. Hemmingway based his style on the Old Testament - lots of nouns and verbs, very few adjectives, almost no adverbs, a minimum of explanation. Reading Hemmingway, you almost automatically fill in, get drawn in, see the character in what isn’t said. Reading the Old Testament, the Reverence Screen ™ kicks in, but coming to it after Hemmingway let them see it with fresh eyes.
The novels aren’t as good, I think. Wordman (seconded by others) is right that his style is better suited to the shorter works. I also didn’t particularly like the protagonists of most of the novels. (Hemmingway Code Hero = jerk) But they are well worth reading.
I don’t mean to take issue, but his style was based on his journalism background, not religion. I have read numerous statements by him where he credits his newspaper writing days for his style. Others who knew him said the same (that his style was based on his training in journalism - all three of the biographies mentioned so far in this thread mention it).
And news style of writing (no adverbs and few adjectives and mostly verbs) didn’t come from the Old Testament either. It came from filing stories by telegraph.
I hold the Old Testament in high regard, but to credit it for Hemingway’s style is in error. There is too much evidence to the contrary. However that the old hell raiser assisted you in teaching Old Testament literature is excellent.
I stand corrected about the source of Hemmingway’s style. I’m by no means an expert, and if all the reputable biographies attribute it to journalism, then journalism it was. (I never even thought that Hemmingway was a religiously observant person. I hope I didn’t give that impression.) But yes, it was an excellent way to get students who “know” what the Old Testament says to really read it.