A few weeks ago I started a new book, or rather, a set of stories. I bought a set of Hemingway short stories and I've been so looking forward to reading it! The book starts with The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber, which is totally unlike what I expected from Hemingway. The story itself begins with people having lunch and talking about hunting. Seems fairly innocent and high class right? Well, Hemingway does a fabulous job of slowly adding details instead of writing paragraphs of exposition. Eventually, it's obvious that the story takes place in Africa. Francis Macomber is a young hunter who is on a safari with his wife Margot and a more seasoned hunter named Wilson.
While the story itself is about hunting and their adventures in Africa, there's also a sense of drama. About a quarter way through we learn about how Francis tried unsuccessfully to kill a lion, the first time he's ever tried it. Wilson in forgiving, saying that once the lion bleeds out they'll be able to properly kill it. His wife, however is incredibly displeased. She's convinced that Francis is a coward and tries to spite him as much as she can, namely it is implied Margot spends a night with Wilson.
What I love about Hemingway is that he doesn't hold the reader's hand. He doesn't take up pages with exposition or specific details. Hemingway's writing is detailed, but concise. I love the way he describes the exotic animals and landscapes as well. Through his descriptions he made it clear that the men didn't quite belong in the savannah.
As a whole I really enjoyed this story and I think I could learn some important tools by reading more of the stories. I'm not moving on to The Capitol of the World, which has probably my favorite opening phrase: "Madrid is full of boys named Paco..."
I have not read any of Hemmingway’s works but from the way you describe his style, it seems as though I might like it. I really dislike books that take like 4 paragraphs to describe a coffee cup or take pages just to describe a setting. I prefer books where there is vivid imagery that is conveyed in a short amount of space. On another note, it sounds like Hemingway writes in a similar style to George Saunders. Rather than starting off from the beginning of their stories or providing a lot of exposition, it seems like they both just throw you into the action which is something that I like so maybe I’ll have to check out Hemingway’s writing. You said “The book starts with The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber, which is totally unlike what I expected from Hemingway”. What exactly did you find unexpected about that story choice? Does Hemingway usually write more somber types of pieces so it was weird to be a “Happy Life” or was it for some other reason? On that note, I also kind of wonder what sort of general themes that Hemingway has in his short stories. I know he wrote some novels about war and things like that but I supposed his short stories seem to be maybe a little more light hearted. I’m also very interested as to where the line “Madrid is full of boys named Paco” leads to. There are just so many directions a story could take after that.
ReplyDelete