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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Read it for school and hated it.
I struggle with Hemingway's novels. I have only read two of them, and have started others only to get sidetracked/restless while reading them. I think maybe his style is better suited to short stories. I love the Nick Adams stories, this collection has them all. There is the classic required reading: "Indian Camp," "The Killers," and "The End of Something," etc., but also stories like "Three Shots," which I believe was originally part of "Indian Camp," but is great as a super brief, separate story.
Favourite Stories:
- The Three-Day Blow
- Summer People
- The Last Good Country
- Now I Lay Me
- The Three-Day Blow
- Summer People
- The Last Good Country
- Now I Lay Me
I loved this collection of Hemingway short stories:
1. Three Shots: Nick gets afraid while camping and calls his father and uncle in from fishing
2. Indian Camp: Nick's father helps an Indian woman through childbirth and delivers the baby
3. The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife: Nick's faher is called out for attempting to steal wood from the river
4. Ten Indians: Nick gets made fun of by some boys for having an Indian girlfriend. Nick's father says he caught her fooling around with another boy. Nick is upset about it.
5. The Indians Moved Away: The Indians are lazy and not hard working. After the last one living in the area dies, Nick's grandpa cannot rent his cabin to white people anymore
6. The Light of the World: Nick and his friend Tom get in a spat with a bartender, then head down to the station where they talk with 3 fat whores and some white men.
7. The Battler: Nick meets a battler at the station who offers him some food, then accuses him of being a mooch and tries to punch him. The battler's negro friend knocks him out and apologizes to Nick that the battler gets too crazy sometimes. He offers him a sandwich and tells him to be on his way before the battler wakes up.
8. The Killers: 2 men come into the restaurant where Nick is eating and hold it up. They threaten the manager and cook unless they can tell him where a man names Ole Andersen is at. They say they want to kill him. Andersen is at home, and Nick goes there to warn him about the killers. Andersen appears apathetic.
9. The Last Good Country: This was the longest story and my favorite. 2 wardens catch Nick shooting and killing out of season and threaten to take him away, so he and his little sister escape to the woods. The story is unfinished.
10. Crossing the Mississippi: A short vingette on how Nick feels when he crosses the Mississippi River for the first time.
11. Night Before Landing: Nick is on a ship going off to war. He and another solider share a bottle of wine in a lifeboat and talk about life and women.
12. "Nick sat against the wall...": A paragraph that describes a battle scence where Nick and another soldier are wounded and waiting for medics to come. The other soldier will not make it.
13. Now I Lay Me: Nick has been wounded in battle and is in a hospital, but he is unable to sleep. He ponders many deep life questions and has a conversation with his hospital mate.
14. A Way You'll Never Be: Nick is suffering from PTSD and bike's across a battle field to try to deliver supplies to another batallion.
15. In Another Country: Nick is in a hospital with 4 other wounded soldiers trying to use therapy machines to regain use of their wounded limbs.
16. Big Two-Hearted River: Nick comes back to Michigan on a fishing trip after serving in the war.
17. The End of Something: Nick and Marjorie, the girl he is dating, spend a day fishing and row out to a beach. Nick breaks up with her there saying the relationship is "no longer fun."
18. The Three-Day Blow: Nick and his friend Bill spend a rainy day at Bill's cabin drinking whiskey. They discuss nick breaking up iwth Marjorie.
19. Summer People: Nick is at a swimming hole with a group of friends. We see that Odgar and Kate are dating, but Odgar is kind of a loser and Nick really wants Kate. Nick and Kate meet up late at night in the woods and have sex.
20. Wedding Day: Two of Nick's friends are drinking whiskey while they assist Nick in getting dressed on his wedding day. The story ends there.
21. On Writing: A deleted ending to Big Two-Hearted River Nick is talking about the fish he has just caught and is looking for more.
22. An Alpine Idyll: Nick and his friend witness a funeral at the end of a day of skiing.
23. Cross-Counry Snow: Nick and his uncle George are skiing.
24. Fathers and Sons: Nick is driving home with his son after a hunting trip in his home town.
1. Three Shots: Nick gets afraid while camping and calls his father and uncle in from fishing
2. Indian Camp: Nick's father helps an Indian woman through childbirth and delivers the baby
3. The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife: Nick's faher is called out for attempting to steal wood from the river
4. Ten Indians: Nick gets made fun of by some boys for having an Indian girlfriend. Nick's father says he caught her fooling around with another boy. Nick is upset about it.
5. The Indians Moved Away: The Indians are lazy and not hard working. After the last one living in the area dies, Nick's grandpa cannot rent his cabin to white people anymore
6. The Light of the World: Nick and his friend Tom get in a spat with a bartender, then head down to the station where they talk with 3 fat whores and some white men.
7. The Battler: Nick meets a battler at the station who offers him some food, then accuses him of being a mooch and tries to punch him. The battler's negro friend knocks him out and apologizes to Nick that the battler gets too crazy sometimes. He offers him a sandwich and tells him to be on his way before the battler wakes up.
8. The Killers: 2 men come into the restaurant where Nick is eating and hold it up. They threaten the manager and cook unless they can tell him where a man names Ole Andersen is at. They say they want to kill him. Andersen is at home, and Nick goes there to warn him about the killers. Andersen appears apathetic.
9. The Last Good Country: This was the longest story and my favorite. 2 wardens catch Nick shooting and killing out of season and threaten to take him away, so he and his little sister escape to the woods. The story is unfinished.
10. Crossing the Mississippi: A short vingette on how Nick feels when he crosses the Mississippi River for the first time.
11. Night Before Landing: Nick is on a ship going off to war. He and another solider share a bottle of wine in a lifeboat and talk about life and women.
12. "Nick sat against the wall...": A paragraph that describes a battle scence where Nick and another soldier are wounded and waiting for medics to come. The other soldier will not make it.
13. Now I Lay Me: Nick has been wounded in battle and is in a hospital, but he is unable to sleep. He ponders many deep life questions and has a conversation with his hospital mate.
14. A Way You'll Never Be: Nick is suffering from PTSD and bike's across a battle field to try to deliver supplies to another batallion.
15. In Another Country: Nick is in a hospital with 4 other wounded soldiers trying to use therapy machines to regain use of their wounded limbs.
16. Big Two-Hearted River: Nick comes back to Michigan on a fishing trip after serving in the war.
17. The End of Something: Nick and Marjorie, the girl he is dating, spend a day fishing and row out to a beach. Nick breaks up with her there saying the relationship is "no longer fun."
18. The Three-Day Blow: Nick and his friend Bill spend a rainy day at Bill's cabin drinking whiskey. They discuss nick breaking up iwth Marjorie.
19. Summer People: Nick is at a swimming hole with a group of friends. We see that Odgar and Kate are dating, but Odgar is kind of a loser and Nick really wants Kate. Nick and Kate meet up late at night in the woods and have sex.
20. Wedding Day: Two of Nick's friends are drinking whiskey while they assist Nick in getting dressed on his wedding day. The story ends there.
21. On Writing: A deleted ending to Big Two-Hearted River Nick is talking about the fish he has just caught and is looking for more.
22. An Alpine Idyll: Nick and his friend witness a funeral at the end of a day of skiing.
23. Cross-Counry Snow: Nick and his uncle George are skiing.
24. Fathers and Sons: Nick is driving home with his son after a hunting trip in his home town.
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Vorrei vivere l’entusiasmo dei laghi e dei torrenti freddi, delle zone d’ombra dove le trote stanno contro corrente, gli strappi alla lenza che travolgono mentre l’acqua arriva alle ginocchia, e la memoria l’amore verso la propria natura che da lontano ti riporta sempre a casa.
“Avevo diversi modi per tenere occupata la mente mentre stavo sdraiato senza dormire. Pensavo a un torrente pieno di trote lungo il quale avevo pescato quando ero ragazzo; e la pesca lungo tutto il torrente si svolgeva nella mia mente con tutti i particolari.”
“Avevo diversi modi per tenere occupata la mente mentre stavo sdraiato senza dormire. Pensavo a un torrente pieno di trote lungo il quale avevo pescato quando ero ragazzo; e la pesca lungo tutto il torrente si svolgeva nella mia mente con tutti i particolari.”
The is the book that was picked for this yeear's Great Michigan Read project. I'm not so sure how great it is, but if you like Hemingway's succint prose and you long for woodsy adventures, give it a try.
Hemingway shares his life experiences through Nick Adams leaving the audience personally connected to his coming of age collection of short stories. Although Hemingway reveals towards the end of the collection of short stories that not all scenes are one-hundred percent true, he indirectly models for the audience that what matters is how well someone can convince the audience of the validity of an account. Capturing vivid pictures of growing amongst Indian tribes, fishing, close friendships with peers, relationships with women, living on the run, and living through World War I, Hemingway convinces us not only of Nick’s lived account but of the emotions associated with it. The Nick Adams stories contain solemn and reverent depictions of nature, themes of war, bravery and cowardice, mental health (not particularly common during this time period), coming of age, and more. Reading Nick share vulnerability in descriptions of his experiences as a 19 year old volunteer in the Italian army during World War I leaves readers with profound one liners such as “… I knew my soul would only go out of me if it were dark.” Not only was Nick vulnerable but Hemingway’s line leaves room for the imagination as readers picture a soul ascending from a body as soon as the lights go out and the ideas surrounding a young man afraid to close his eyes in the dark after experiencing wartime horrors.
