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I’m slowly making my way through a reread of the Hemingway canon. I read many of these stories in college, but I’ve never read all of them straight through like this. This time, I read just one story a night, letting it sink in, and then ruminating over it in my journal the next morning.
These stories are, of course, pure Hemingway: short, punchy sentences; deep emotions tucked just below the surface; a palpable disdain for characters who aren’t manly enough, especially those who relinquish their masculinity to a woman’s charms. Such persistent misogyny felt wearisome by the end of forty-nine stories.
My favorites from the collection: The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Cat In the Rain, Fifty Grand, Hills Like White Elephants, A Clean, Well-Lighted Place, and Fathers and Sons.
I’m sure there are stories here that would have alarmed readers when published, but the world has moved on since the first half of the 20th Century. I wonder how a modern-day Hemingway would shock readers today. I’m pretty sure Papa would have found a way.