Simply stated... if you want to know about bullfighting in Spain...this is the book!
Hemingway provides the reader with a 'text book' on bullfighting along with his own personal thoughts and observations on same.
Hemingway takes you into the ring, explains the process completely, discusses the bulls and the matadors of the time and the 'art' of the bullfight along with what may be considered the plusses and minus.
Included are many pictures, some quite graphic, of the action as well as a glossary of bullfighting terms that goes on for eighty pages.
Its all here!

Don’t think I would like Spain, way too hot

Fascinatingly morbid yet uniquely engrossing, except when it became redundantly boring. All I can figure is that Hemingway really wanted to be a bullfighter, though I am not sure "Bull Fighter" is the correct term for this activity, "Ritualistic and Methodical Bull Torturer and Slaughterer" seems more appropriate from what I read in this book.

The book does give a very in depth look at Spanish bullfighting in the 1920's and 1930's. The bull fighters of this time are all analyzed by Hemingway, as well as their techniques. My old, hardcover, 1932 copy even contained over 120 pages of black and white photos with descriptions, of the animals, the bullfighters, and the action, including goring and death. A huge glossary of terms at the back of the book also shows Hemingway's unique interpretation of not only the language and terminology of bull fighting, but of Spanish slang. (And by Hemingway's defining of the word Maricon I now see that he was a bit homophobic.)

The book also includes Hemingway telling of the reactions of many people he attended the bull fights with, identifying them only by sex, initials, and age, telling who enjoyed it, who hated it, and why. At the very end of the book, Hemingway also included a short biography of an American bull fighter, Sidney Franklin, who I now have found wrote his own book about his experiences being a bull fighter.

In the end, I am coming away with a curious wondering as to why Hemingway wrote this non-fiction book. All I can figure is that he was really fascinated by the activity, by the fighters, by the culture. He appears to have attended numerous fights. Maybe he wished to be a bull fighter himself, and since he couldn't be one, critiquing and analyzing them, and giving his own interpretation of them made him feel important.

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.

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.

This is one of those books where you may go in and not get what you're expecting. It turns out that this feels like an *avant-garde* travel book from the 1930s. Sure, it describes bullfighting, and the big names of the time, and the recent development of the sport; but more than that, it becomes a exposition on the nature of artistry (for bullfighting is an art) and of writing itself. You will see the chapters twist toward a vignette--a memory of the War, a memory of his time in Spain--quickly and unexpectedly, as if the narration were suddenly thrown aside by the skillful sweep of a matador (or, more likely, by the bull). In this sense the memoir aspect anticipates A Moveable Feast.

More than anything, read it for Hemingway's pearls of wisdom, and for seeing him at his finest in the ring.

A treatise on bullfighting, Hemingway showcases his expertise, love, and passion for the sport by detailing every aspect. Not an overall stimulating book, but a deeply knowledgeable novel from a man extraordinarily passionate about the sport, and country, he loves.

“Find what gave you emotion; what the action was that gave you excitement. Then write it down making it clear so that the reader can see it too. Prose is architecture, not interior decoration, and the Baroque is over.”

“The cynical ones are the best companions. But the best of all are the cynical ones when they are still devout; or after; when having been devout, then cynical, they become devout again by cynicism.”

A sprazzi meriterebbe la lode questo illustre saggio sulla corrida, moderna tragedia per la catarsi di un popolo. Peccato per il linguaggio spesso troppo pedagogico e ripetitivo, sicuramente sincero ma che non riesce a nascondere la mancanza di struttura e la costruzione "ad accumulo", in tempi diversi. E poi brutte frecciate ad alcuni monumenti letterari, proprio fuori luogo. Resta, comunque, il più brillante testo di tauromachia della modernità, preciso, ricco di aneddoti, in grado di ritrarre tori, personaggi, veronicas con una vivacità di colori ineguagliata. Ho amato molto le sue pagine. In appendice, le foto eccezionali di Joselito e compagnia facilitano la comprensione dell'universo-corrida.

I’ll review this more once I get my computer back. Parts of the book annoyed me (the stylized dialogue with the old lady at the end of the chapters seemed forced and weird, but produced some of the best lines and observations in the book) and parts left me breathless. I am unashamed and unabashed in my love for Hemingway. I love his curiosity, his passion, his style. He doesn’t always kill clean, but he doesn’t cheat and always gives the reader a good, dramatic show.

Even though I'm not a fan of bull fighting, this is a really interesting view into the world of someone who is. You get all the ins and outs of what makes a good or bad bullfight, the history and the culture behind it. What shines through is the obvious passion Hemingway had for bullfighting and Spain in general, and I think it's always fascinating and interesting to take a moment to put aside one's point of view and step into someone else's.

Certain sections do drag, there are thorough descriptions of dozens of bullfighters, with their history, style and skill recounded, sometimes repeated. It's clear that this was very much intended as a contemporary guide to bullfighting, which fighters to follow, which to avoid, and where to see one. Much of this is lost on the modern reader.

There are, however, many interesting tangents, the author is clearly aware that too much uninterrupted time spent talking about bullfighting and nothing else would become tiresome. One particularly moving section discussing Heminways experiences of the First World War stood out and helped to explain the attitude behind a love of bullfighting. In an era where human life was so cheap, spending too much time worrying about animals could smack of hypocrisy.

4.5 stars...

Amazing prose, beautifuly written book...

Before death in the afternoon I knew nothing about bullfighting and all the tradition and honor that lays behind such an ancient spanish tradition.

With Death in the Afternoon, Hemingway shows his point at defending this whole violent world of matadores, picadores, banderilleros and toros de lidia and I respect him for that.

In my opinion, the book is enjoyable not for the topic but for the arguments of this great author...