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adam_mcphee 's review for:
In Our Time
by Ernest Hemingway
Some good stories here and some not so good ones. The Nick Adams ones especially I can never tell, except for The Killers that one rules, are they naïve or is there something there? But really the point of these stories, even when they were first published, was to see him work on his technique while we wait for him to produce something more substantial. And considering he went to on to pen three of the best novels of the twentieth century, it's worth checking out his preparations.
He's already very good at describing anything he's actually experienced (skiing, fishing, cooking camp food, disappointing women, propping up a newspaper on a breakfast table). He's not good at the invention part of writing, in fact he's downright cruel about it at times (he was mean to Agnes von Kurowsky, vicious to Chard Powers Smith and his wife Olive, bullied his own father, he himself did not catch 'gonorrhea from a sales girl while riding in a taxicab through Lincoln Park'). And he's struggling between being an upstanding Oak Park boy who mustn't write about some things, a soldier who's seen some things, and the worldly writer who is obligated to write about these things. He's working on the iceberg technique stuff, which is a good way to split the difference of his dilemmas, but sometimes he leaves a little too much out, at least from my perspective decades on.
On the Quai at Smyrna — not really a story but strong imagery, very reminiscent of stuff coming out of Gaza right now, but about Greek refugees after the Greco-Turkish War. Women clinging to dead babies until they’re separated. Horrible stuff. Must’ve been mindblowing back in the day when the newsreels were so tame.
Indian Camp — I go back and forth on this one every time I read it. It feels very simplistic, almost childish. But there is something going on. It’s about the genocide of the Indigenous peoples of North America, and about recognizing mortality. Or so I’ve read. But it always just feels kind’ve simplistic. And Hemingway did kill himself, in the end. I don’t know.
The Doctor and the Doctor’s Wife — kind of bullying towards his own father, and of course Hemingway ended up the same way
The End of Something — I like the ruins of the mill as a symbol of the end of the relationship, with her seeing it as a castle because she doesn’t know it's over.
Three-Day Blow — Nice story about getting drunk with your boys. Always starts out fun but then ends with one of you getting morose.
The Battler — Nick meets a hobo and his Black manservant on the road. My favourite Nick Adams story of this lot, but obviously The Killer is the best.
A Very Short Story —Hem’s romance with a nurse
Soldier’s Home — Maybe the most vulnerable this Hemingway gets
The Revolutionist — Very cool obviously but would’ve liked more
Mr and Mrs Elliot — Very rude to 'the Elliots,' who he actually named in the orignial version.
Cat in the Rain — Touching
Out of Season — Hemingway working his own nervousness to good effect
Cross-Country Snow — a fun enough story with a sad enough ending to make it feel like it was worthwhile
My Old Man — probably the best story that isn't based on his own experiences and that's more than a vignette (that is, it's a story of invention, though I think he based a lot of it on a story making the rounds in the tabloids)
Big Two-Hearted River parts one and two: that cooking stuff was so good it made me hungry even after I'd just eaten but I need more than just camping. Yes the grasshopper stuff was cool and I get that it's about recovering from the war but Hemingway isn't good enough of a landscape writer to sustain my interest
The Vignettes — the war stuff was cool but the matador stuff? Come on, man. That's just cruelty. The political stuff might be interesting if there was more of it, but feels out of place in snippets.
He's already very good at describing anything he's actually experienced (skiing, fishing, cooking camp food, disappointing women, propping up a newspaper on a breakfast table). He's not good at the invention part of writing, in fact he's downright cruel about it at times (he was mean to Agnes von Kurowsky, vicious to Chard Powers Smith and his wife Olive, bullied his own father, he himself did not catch 'gonorrhea from a sales girl while riding in a taxicab through Lincoln Park'). And he's struggling between being an upstanding Oak Park boy who mustn't write about some things, a soldier who's seen some things, and the worldly writer who is obligated to write about these things. He's working on the iceberg technique stuff, which is a good way to split the difference of his dilemmas, but sometimes he leaves a little too much out, at least from my perspective decades on.
On the Quai at Smyrna — not really a story but strong imagery, very reminiscent of stuff coming out of Gaza right now, but about Greek refugees after the Greco-Turkish War. Women clinging to dead babies until they’re separated. Horrible stuff. Must’ve been mindblowing back in the day when the newsreels were so tame.
Indian Camp — I go back and forth on this one every time I read it. It feels very simplistic, almost childish. But there is something going on. It’s about the genocide of the Indigenous peoples of North America, and about recognizing mortality. Or so I’ve read. But it always just feels kind’ve simplistic. And Hemingway did kill himself, in the end. I don’t know.
The Doctor and the Doctor’s Wife — kind of bullying towards his own father, and of course Hemingway ended up the same way
The End of Something — I like the ruins of the mill as a symbol of the end of the relationship, with her seeing it as a castle because she doesn’t know it's over.
Three-Day Blow — Nice story about getting drunk with your boys. Always starts out fun but then ends with one of you getting morose.
The Battler — Nick meets a hobo and his Black manservant on the road. My favourite Nick Adams story of this lot, but obviously The Killer is the best.
A Very Short Story —Hem’s romance with a nurse
Soldier’s Home — Maybe the most vulnerable this Hemingway gets
The Revolutionist — Very cool obviously but would’ve liked more
Mr and Mrs Elliot — Very rude to 'the Elliots,' who he actually named in the orignial version.
Cat in the Rain — Touching
Out of Season — Hemingway working his own nervousness to good effect
Cross-Country Snow — a fun enough story with a sad enough ending to make it feel like it was worthwhile
My Old Man — probably the best story that isn't based on his own experiences and that's more than a vignette (that is, it's a story of invention, though I think he based a lot of it on a story making the rounds in the tabloids)
Big Two-Hearted River parts one and two: that cooking stuff was so good it made me hungry even after I'd just eaten but I need more than just camping. Yes the grasshopper stuff was cool and I get that it's about recovering from the war but Hemingway isn't good enough of a landscape writer to sustain my interest
The Vignettes — the war stuff was cool but the matador stuff? Come on, man. That's just cruelty. The political stuff might be interesting if there was more of it, but feels out of place in snippets.