Es tracta d'un assaig sobre la tauromàquia pensat originalment per explicar tot aquest món als americans. De fet el llibre no va ser traduït al castellà fins fa pocs anys tot i que és original del 1932. Hemingway es mostra irònic davant algunes situacions però sovint adopta un punt de vista objectiu, reflexionant tal com ho faria una persona sense prejudicis de cap mena que mostrés curiositat. La manera com descriu "la tragèdia" en si, desprèn una gran passió per les corridas que no pot ni vol amagar. El seu coneixement profund sobre tot allò que envolta el món dels toros, desde les diferents castes fins als diferents tipus de toreros -amb tocs biogràfics i estils de lídia- passant per la criança, la selecció o la venta, són increïbles. L'estil, ple d' humor, ironia, rigor i dramatisme, fa que la lectura sigui del tot amena. Sovint inclou diàlegs amb un personatge inventat -una senyora- que li fa preguntes mes aviat banals que li serveixen per introduir anecdotes o fins hi tot una narració que sembla no venir al cas. Per mi ha estat una sorpresa que un llibre sobre el món dels toros m'hagi agradat tant.

Chapter 20:
"If I could have made this enough of a book it would have had everything in it. (...) It should make clear the change in the country as you come down out of the mountains and into Valencia in the dusk on the train holding a rooster for a woman who was bringing it to her sister; (...) No. It is not enough of a book, but still there were a few things to be said. There were a few practical things to be said."

კორიდა ჩემთვის საინტერესო თემა არ არის, მაგრამ ერნესტმა იმდენი შეძლო, რომ ერთი ამოსუნთქვით წამაკითხა წიგნი ხარებსა და მათთან მებრძოლ ესპანელებზე. ესეც მხატვრული ლიტერატურის მსგავსად დიდებულად გამოუვიდა და იმიტომ...

I am not certain where Death in the Afternoon ranks today in the Hemingway canon. It was his first non-fiction piece apart from his journalistic production and, at the time of its publication in 1932, it was not particularly well received. Many found the topic of Spanish bullfighting overly parochial if not repugnant. And there was criticism of Hemingway’s strong judgmental tendencies that covered a gambit of writers and bullfighters. Kenneth Lynn, one of Hemingway’s biographers, wrote in his 1987 Hemingway: “While the side remarks he makes about the art of writing are indispensable to any reader interested in modern literature, his tauromachian erudition is a bore, his tough-guy posturing an embarrassment, and his cutting comments about fellow writers by and large unamusing.”

Those are severe remarks about the book as late as 1987 from a serious student of Hemingway. But for my part, I am not a serious student of his life and works. I’m just a reader. And Death in the Afternoon was for me largely enjoyable.

I must admit to some familiarity with bullfighting. While certainly not an aficionado, I have seen and reflected on a corrida or two during my several extended stays in Spain. I found much of Hemingway’s discourse instructive and entertaining and certainly accessible to even someone unfamiliar with the art.

[As a note, Hemingway defines an aficionado: “The aficionado, or lover of the bullfight, may be said, broadly, then, to be one who has this sense of tragedy and ritual of the fight so that the minor aspects are not important except as they relate to the whole. Either you have this or you have not, just as, without implying any comparisons, you have or have not an ear for music.”]

The fiesta nacional is an aspect of Spain woven into its fabric. That is not to say that it is significantly definitional. The sport of soccer is certainly far more popular today than the art of bullfighting and is probably the true fiesta nacional. But bullfighting does have its adherents and it has worked its way into the language and culture. There are moments when matadors dominate the public consciousness. During the 1960’s, for example, Manuel Benítez Pérez (El Cordobés) was much discussed. And today, figures like Francisco Rivera Ordóñez and his brother, Cayetano Rivera Ordóñez, are capturing journalistic ink and female hearts.

What is the value of Death in the Afternoon? Hemingway’s work on bullfighting was unique at the time of its publication: there was nothing as complete and entertaining in English to describe one thread of the Spanish fabric. As far as I know, nothing in English has replaced it. There are several works in Spanish but only Hemingway for an English speaking audience. And it is not only the text that remains informative but the extensive photos and the equally extensive glossary.

For me the study is more than a mere treatise on bullfighting, however. Weaving through the tome is a reflection on death, a theme that Hemingway himself will pick up with growing intensity in his future writings. But he begins it here. One focal point is his “Natural History of the Dead”, a diversion that he inserts in Chapter 12 beginning on page 133. Yet bullfighting itself is an ongoing dance with death and the reader soon sees its linkage with the confrontations between bull and man, hence the book’s title.

It is in this book also where Hemingway defines aspects of writing—both that of others and his own: “erectile writing” (p. 53); mysticism in writing (p. 54); .his “iceberg theory” of writing (p. 192); the connections between writing and painting (p.203). If nothing else, Hemingway holds back no punches whether “unamusing” or not.

As much as I loved Hemingway, I couldn’t finish this. Hemingway encourages his readers to go to a bullfight around a third of the way into the book so they could understand all that he was describing. I went to YouTube. It has been haunting me all day. I tried to continue reading the book after I saw what bullfighting consists of, and of course Hemingway was able to make it rich, meaningful, and beautiful. But that’s just it, I didn’t want it to be those things. It isn’t. Bullfighting is so cruel, excessive, unnecessary. I know it is meaningful for a lot of people, even the men who get gored or lose their lives in the bullring, but I don't think it is beautiful for the bulls who are tortured and lose theirs.

Like anything by Hemingway, it’s very well written, but holy cow do I now know more about bullfighting than I ever could have desired! This book should have been an article.

¿Ensayo novelado o novela ensayada? En esta obra Hemingway despliega todo su conocimiento del mundo del toro para explicar de forma estructurada las diferentes suertes de que consta la fiesta nacional.

Entrevela de cuando en cuando diálogos imaginarios con una señora que hace preguntas al autor con respecto al mundo de los toreros, a la vez que va desgranando los diferentes elementos que entran en juego en la preparación de los toreros, la elección de los toros por parte de los ayundates, para acabar en la corrida de toros, sus fases y como los diferentes toreros de los años 30 las realizaban.

Mención aparte merece el último capitulo del libro en el que describe de forma rápida, y casi sin querer, muchos matices, momentos, gentes y situaciones que a su parecer definen a nuestro país, del cual él era ferviente admirador. Solo por ese último capitulo merece la pena llegar al final de esta interesante obra.

Fascinert av hans fascinasjon

La descrizione minuziosa, maniacale e spesso straziante della “fiesta” nasconde (come un buon lavoro di ‘cappa’ e ‘muleta’ nasconde la vista al toro) un meraviglioso inno d’amore alla Spagna.
Mi è piaciuto molto.

What can I say, it's 300 pages of Hemingway wanking himself off about bullfighting.

You really need to have watched a bullfight if you are going to read this. If you haven't, this book will help you decide whether you want to watch one or not. A book that was definitely not meant to be a classic, I believe Hemingway wrote this simply because the sport consumed so much of him and he had so much to say about all of it that he finally decided to put it all in a book and get done with the conversation altogether.

This book, had it come out in today's era, would be denounced not so much for the bloody nature of the sport it expounds upon, but for the enormously arrogant amount of 'mansplaining' contained within its pages. The book explores many facets of the sport of bullfighting and any person who has been obsessed with competitive sport of any kind will find passages that ring true to the emotion that is roused in him/her when engaged by his favorite sport.

Hemingway's descriptions of the footwork of the matador and his emphasis (if you know Hemingway then you know that he is emphatic about everything he writes) on the importance of holding the torso still and upright, reminded me of myself talking about the finer points of my cricketing superheroes.

In this book it is revealed that there is more to bullfighting than the matador. There are the picadors and the banderillos and the doctors and the critics and the ring-servants all of whom contribute to the experience of the bullfight. Audience too. Of course, the Matador is the main draw but the rest of it is just as important. You will never be allowed to distinguish and make one more important than the other. Every one is important (although the matador more so). You see how it is? You will always say that cricket is a batsman's game, but hey, the next second you will find yourself saying that it is also the bowlers and the fielders and the coaches and the trainers and commentators who contribute to the experience and man, how could you forget the crowds at Lord's, or elsewhere in Australia or India. You see how it is? Replace bullfighting with any other sport that you love and relate to and this book will ring true.

Hemingway writes in the beginning that bullfighting is different from the other sports which are popular in the West in that they are merely 'games' since they don't deal with the possibility of death. But isn't that how every person feels about his favourite sport. This book is not so much about the bulls vs balls as it is a rant about why people love the sport they love the way they do. And perhaps it will also teach people why it is important to not deprive kids (even the bald old ones) of their love for sport.

Get your copy today! Because even as you navigate through Old Hem's lengthy discourse about this, that, why, what, how and every other thing about bullfighting, the man also drops a few deadly lines about life and his greatest obsession above all- the written word.

(I changed my rating from 3 to 5 stars in course of writing this review because never has writing a review excited me so much in a long long time

A brutal subject our modern ethos would neither condone nor want to face and discuss, drilled into for it’s essence and to find the beauty and art in the repeated gory tragedies of the bull fight. On top we have a thinly vailed long love letter to Spain and its people.

In all, this was a delicious exquisite paella which brought joy with every bite. The last chapter is a classic in writing.

Loved it.