Hemingway's Short Stories

The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway

Hemingway, 1924 - ~1957

This was at least my third time time reading this physical copy of Hemingway's Complete Short Stories. The book physically is hanging in there, but a lot has been asked of it. The pages are torn, the spine is held together with duct-tape, every third page shows the crease of dog-ears gone by. You Don't Get This with An E-Reader ! It's a much-loved volume. Simultaneously I read most of A Farewell to Arms, but it finally proved to be a little too much wartime Hemingway for me, and I didn't finish Farewell.

Hemingway is easily among my favorite authors. He's often characterized as brutishly macho, and while he may be macho he's anything but a brute as an author. I always picture Hemingway holding each character gently in cupped hands. He seems to nurture and care for each character, giving each one the spark of a true portrayal of a person with actual history and drives. Even when bad things happen to his characters, or when they do bad things, the character itself is being treated with gentle care by the author.

This time through I did skip a couple of the early stories which I know pretty well, because they're sad. I skipped The Snows of Kilamanjaro and The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber. They're wonderful stories but I didn't need them this time around.