Hemingway in Bimini back in the 30's, congratulating Helen Lerner (Husband, on left, owned Lerner Shops, women's clothing) on her fish.
Posted on 01/08/2007 5:47:50 PM PST by Sam Cree
ping
I read all of Hemingway when I was a teenager. I couldn't stand to read most of it again. He may well have been a great fisherman, but he was a lousy writer. Just my opinion.
Never considered him to be "tarnished". He led a helluva life and wrote some of the best, most insightful fiction in modern history.
I've just read the stuff that was assigned in high school or college...Old Man and the Sea, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Sun Also Rises, plus Islands in the Stream, which wasn't assigned, but which I read for fun at age 20.
I'm 58 now, and reread Islands in the Stream a couple years ago...enjoyed it as much as I had as a youth. OTOH, I don't have the heart to reread those other titles.
Islands in the Stream was always my favorite Hemingway story because it covers things that have been a part of my own life, namely fishing, drinking and working in Bimini and the Bahamas. I have to say that Papa catches the feeling of that better than anyone else I've ever read. I can't think of anyone else who comes close even.
I decided to read Across the River and Into the Trees this year...that one wasn't great - self absorbed, too.
But I do think that Hemingway was one of the all time great writers. And characters.
I never thought of him as tarnished either, though he certainly had his faults. Great writer and, IMO, philosopher. I've always enjoyed his stuff.
His earlier work was better than the later stuff. Across the River and Into the Trees is almost a parody of his earlier novels.
I quit reading fiction many years ago, not because I do not enjoy it, but there is way too much history that is even more intersting and reading time is too scarce these days.
But for my money, The Sun also Rises, To Have and Have Not and For Whom the Bell Tolls rank as gems with several others closely behind.
Hemingway in Bimini back in the 30's, congratulating Helen Lerner (Husband, on left, owned Lerner Shops, women's clothing) on her fish.
Except that the Old Man and the Sea was written late and very good, IMO.
And I, of course, agree. Thanks for the ping to the interesting read.
Like him or hate him, you can't say that Hemingway didn't lead a great big life.
Hemingway practicing with his antishark weapon in Bimini Harbor. Looks like fun.
For Whom the Bell Tolls is my favorite. Prose-wise, I like how Hemingway captured the formal Spanish translated back into stilted English, and style-wise, I think the way each character captures an "aspect" of why men (and women) fight wars is the essence of layered fiction.
I do not know which is more interesting the author or his writing....really interesting article thank you for the post.
"Like him or hate him, you can't say that Hemingway didn't lead a great big life."
"Despite Hemingway’s amply documented myth-making about his private life..."
"All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that it all happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you: the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was. If you can get so that you can give that to people, then you are a writer."
I think the guy accomplished exactly that when he got things right.
Some of his short stories are stellar as well.
Some of the Hemingway myth busters were guilty of myth making, if I recall.
Yeah, I liked the Nick Adams stories, very nice stuff.
Anybody who just does what they want to do will never lack critics.
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