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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
I did not love all of the stories in this collection but The Last Good Country left me wanting more.
Probably would be fantastic for a young man feeling lost. Best moments were the rushing prose and abandonment of grammar when describing intense emotions, juxtaposed against the simple descriptions of everyday life. Made the trout fishing life seem appealing, so that's a feat.
I got a little sick of the prose- really didn’t feel like these stories were meant to be collected together.
Initially, I disliked the stories about Nick Adams' boyhood. While I recognize they were written during a different time in our country's history, the blatant racism against Native Americans and Blacks was quite distasteful. However, the majority of the stories occur during Nick's adult years and I especially enjoyed the stories about WWI and his European travels. Although discrimination rears its ugly head when he gets back to America.
I liked it enough to finish it, but it left me feeling confused at times. This book has stories that weren't necessarily finished, but I felt like they contributed to the other stories. However, I still feel like there was something missing.
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
It's been a while since I'd read any Hemingway, and although I've read a few of his stories here and there through the years (esp. The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories), I'd never read this collection. It was a nice reminder of what I appreciate about his writing, including the settings of the stories and the allusiveness (or perhaps that should be efficiency) of description. I'm glad that the previously unpublished Nick Adams stories were collected in this volume along with the published (and sometimes well-known) ones, and I appreciate that the stories are arranged in an arc so that this volume can almost be read as a novel rather than a story collection. Given his writing skill, Hemingway's moral compass is another matter, but that's true for many great writers.
relaxing
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
An easy read as these are short stories and not chapters. More of a 3rd person stream of consciousness writing in a style not seen much recently.
I only read a couple of stories from this for class, but from what I read, it definitely was not one of my favorites. There were some that were pretty decent stories, but most were just slow or some that I didn’t found interesting. 7/10
I liked it enough to finish it, but it left me feeling confused at times. This book has stories that weren't necessarily finished, but I felt like they contributed to the other stories. However, I still feel like there was something missing.