I feel that Hemmingway has a very interesting style of writing, yet it's the message underlying his style of writing that bothers me deeply. I feel Hemmingway had such a bleak, fatalistic perspective about life...to live hard, play hard, and die hard and as quickly as possible. There is no sense of hope or self-preservation in his writing.

As a Plath and Sexton fan, I do appreciate sadness and melancholia in writing, and do not mind when the writer expresses a sense of discontent with life, ennui or depression... yet with Hemmingway, the consistent and monotonous lack of flair to his writing truly grates at my nerves. Hemmingway's writing is as bleak as his soul. I feel beneath the writing we see a man with an outlook on life that was sheerly pessimistic to the darkest degree.

I often question why he wrote. I'm not too certain that Hemmingway had much to offer. It's a very bold comment I'm giving, yet I don't feel it's inappropriate to give. I feel that Hemmingway's writing fails essentially with his message. Because their is none. Hemmingway almost seems to present the idea that life is not worth one difficult breath. Each story seems to scream that not only Hemmingway but the rest of the universe would be better off dead, and it's not in a way that's relatable to me. We all like to search for these feelings throughout our lives when we read at one point...writers who have also felt that life is at times, very difficult. Yet Hemmingway seemed to feel that because God, and women, and his children, and I would go so far as to say his colleagues or even his friends too, did not cater to his innate will, life was pointless. I simply cannot align to that, and I would hope many people do not align to this viewpoint also.

Another issue I have with Hemmingway in this book of short stories is the one dimensional features of his female characters. I cannot seem to find a single female character as relatable or worthwhile in the sense that every woman in an Hemmingway story is simply a copy of the other: she's out to destroy, control or infuriate the male protagonist even if he's sexually attracted to her or in love. I find this quite annoying and not because I hold a feminist POV, either. I feel it simply shows, once more, how deeply self-centered Hemmingway was in the worst manner. Hemmingway's dogma was his greatest failure in life.

I wonder why he did not realize sooner that after years and years of producing bleak, monotonous drivel that society would eventually look on in sadness and annoyance as he drowned in his own dull tantrums....

This collection is probably the best way to become acquainted with the style and mastery that is Ernest Hemingway. I think any aspiring writer should read him, even if he doesn't write in their preferred genre. His economical word use, and the way he often uses dialogue to carry a story are still examples that many modern writers could profit from.

The one drawback to these stories is that the modern reader could find them rather inaccessible due to the time and settings they portray. Few Americans are familiar with the Spanish Civil War, or some of the accepted views on life from that era. And while Hemingway is unapologetically masculine in style and content, he was actually rather progressive on a lot of issues of his time.

His stories to much more than just engage the reader...they leave the reader thinking about the undercurrents going on beneath the surface of the characters' actions. Hemingway's characters are often like that, actors that define themselves to the reader through their words and actions...leaving it to the reader to ponder their motivations. At other times the character ponders his own motivation but leaves the reader guessing as to the characters real nature itself.

First 5-7 blew me away but oh my fckin days did the back end drag

Good comprehensive collection of his short stories.

i read this last semester. i like hemingway and most of the stories were very good human experience type. although some were a bit too freaky for me i just couldn’t get past that

I was a bit wary when I began. Times have changed -- and obviously, Hemingway has not. But I enjoyed every evening spent with these short stories. Nearly all were very good; a few were excellent. "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" blew me away. I had read "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" so many times that the end was not a surprise; and if the end isn't a surprise, the story simply falls. These are, need it be said, stories about men. Women have little place in them; and the relation between married couples is invariably misunderstanding and exploitation. But I wonder if anyone can describe the thrill of sport as well as Hemingway -- both that of a matador and that of a skier. Simply breathtaking. I was terribly disappointed in Big Two-Hearted River, which I remembered from high school -- it seemed arch in its forced simplicity. But others were, as I wrote good company before going to bed. They made me read more slowly, enjoy the effects of silence -- although Hemingway is quite adept at describing scenery. "The Gambler, the Nun, and the Radio" is actually funny (humor is not Hemingway's forte), and "The Wine of Wyoming" and several others do what he does best -- interspersing a foreign language and sensibility into the American heartland. Warmly recommended. He also--I was pleased to note--breaks grammatical rules when he wants. That was a surprise.

مجموعه‌ای از داستان‌های کوتاه همینگوی به انتخاب و ترجمه احمد گلشیری.

نکته‌ی خوب این کتاب، زندگی‌نامه کاملیه که گلشیری اول کتاب اورده. حدود ۱۰۰ صفحه فقط زندگی‌نامه کامل و با جزئیات همینگوی رو داریم که وقتی خوندمش خیلی هیجان‌زده شدم. و چیزهایی هم برام روشن شد. وقتی خوندم که چه زندگی پرهیجان و پرماجرایی داشته، که چقدر از این ور به اون ور رفته، فهمیدم که نثرش، سبک نوشتنش از کجا اومده. دیدم که چقدر چیز دیده و اون چیزها تبدیل شدن به این داستان‌ها.
طبیعت رو توی داستان‌هاش خیلی دوست دارم. و چون توصیف‌کننده خوبی هم هست، با خوندن داستان‌ها فضاها سریع توی ذهنم شکل می گرفتن و می‌رفتم توی جنگل یا آفریقا یا رودخونه.
داستان‌ها هم همه جذاب بودن. نمی‌دونم بقیه داستان‌های همینگوی هم همینقدر خوبن یا این مجموعه چون از بین خوب‌ها انتخاب شده این‌طوریه.

تنها داستانی که کمتر باهاش حال کردم،«قمارباز، راهبه، رادیو» بود. باقی داستان‌ها به نظرم همه جذاب بودن.

داستان‌هایی که حول آدم‌ها یا طبیعت می‌گذشت رو بیشتر از دو داستانی که درباره مسابقات مشت‌زنی و گاوبازی بود دوست داشتم.
این دو داستان بیشتر شبیه گزارش‌هایی بودن از مسابقات. اما بقیه داستان‌هاش مایه‌ها و موضوعاتی جذاب‌تر و موقعیت‌هایی دراما-دار-تر داشتند و مساله‌های مشترک بیشتری باهاشون حس می‌کردم.

کمی خاطره:
دقیقا چهارسال پیش بود که این کتاب رو شروع کردم. گذاشته بودمش توی ماشین، بغل در، که هروقت تو ماشین منتظرم یه داستان بخونم. یکی دو یا سه تا داستان خوندم و بعد دیگه کتاب دست‌نخورده باقی‌موند. تا این که امسال شد و شروع کردم به خوندنش. اول زندگی‌نامه رو خوندم و بسیار به هیجان اومدم و مشتاق شدم که بقیه داستان‌ها رو بخونم. تا این که اصلا نفهمیدم چطوری تموم شد. کتابی که بخاطر حجمش شاید کمتر می‌رفتم سمت‌اش و همیشه می‌گفتم بعدا خواهم خوند.

ترجمه:
ترجمه خوبی داشت. من به ندرت حس می‌کردم که متوجه نشدم جایی رو، و متن اصلی رو چک می‌کردم و اکثرا مشکلی از نظر ترجمه نداشت. از لحاظ سانسور هم داستان‌هایی رو که فکر می‌کردم ممکنه سانسور کرده باشن رو از روی متن اصلی می‌خوندم و جالب اینجا بود که اصلا سانسور نداشت. در نتیجه تا جایی که من بررسی کردم سانسور نداشت، و در کل ۵۰۰ صفحه یک غلط توی ترجمه پیدا کردم که معنی رو کمی عوض می‌کرد و احتمالا از زیر دست مترجم در رفته بود.

در نهایت:
این کتاب رو خیلی پیشنهاد می‌کنم به علاقه‌مندها به داستان کوتاه. داستان‌هاش از موقعیت‌های ظریف ساخته شدن، موقعیت‌هایی خیلی درونی و واکنش‌های خیلی انسانی و ناخودآگاه، که در نهایت منجر به «مساله» می‌شن. مثلا، مردی که موقع شکار شیر یهو می‌ترسه و فرار می‌کنه و زنش این رو می‌بینه و این روی رابطه‌شون تاثیر می‌ذاره.
یا موقعیت‌های خیلی ساکت‌ترِ دیگه، مثل داستان معروف «یک گوشه پاک پرنور» که یه پیرمردی توی یه کافه‌ست و کل داستان در هاله‌ای از سکوت و نورِ آباژورمانند می‌گذره.

The master at work. Hemingway wrote powerful novellas and short stories. His full-blown novels aren’t too shabby, either!

نخستین خوانش سال ۹۰

This collection is a master class for writers.
The lessons include:
Silence and Subtext: "The End of Something."
Character: "The Battler."
Dialogue: "The Snows of Kilimanjaro."
Setting: "Big Two-Hearted River."
Perfect word selection: everything. :)

C

Hem. writes wonderfully, wouldn't it be pretty to read so? And so I did and pretty fast too. How can these stories so rife w/racial epithets (Italians, Jews, Mexicans, African-Americans, Asians, etc.) pass those eliding censors of P.C. etiquette today? And even for its time F__you's & cock sucker! Atta boy Hem., tell it to us slant ol' sod! Now I know where Jim Harrison got his hankering for onion sandwiches. He even took a poke at Fitzgerald calling him a smoothie. Of course Zelda has him at odds saying about him 'a fairy with hair on his chest' & 'phony as a rubber check' haha!

It's Hemingway. What can I say?