--- Jack Bludis <
buildsnburns@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hemingway made us interested in a man in
someone
> else's
> revolution in FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS, but by
then,
> I
> think, his writing style was stretched and
he
> over-described. By THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA and
A
> MOVABLE
> FEAST, he is parodying the style that made
him
> famous,
> padding OLD MAN and telling not much of a story
in
> FEAST
> ... Yes, OLD MAN is a great story, but 30,000
words
> worth?
> I don't think so.
*************************************
I think you're being a little hard on Papa here. First, while
I recognize that FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS takes great liberty
with history and reality regarding the Spanish Civil War, the
story is very compelling and the language is as good as an
American writer can get. The use of events in Hemingway's own
life which drove the writer just as they drove the
revolutionary in the book, I thought were especially moving.
THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA is a beautifully written exploration
of what people will do to succeed at their profession. It
probably owes a great deal to Steinbeck's THE PEARL, but
nonetheless looks at the problem from a different angle. I
think the writing is beautiful. And to your last point, A
MOVABLE FEAST is not a story at all, it's a memoir of a man
becoming a writer in a city where most of the people he knew
were becoming writers or painters. It's a great portrait of
people struggling to create; chooseing alies and dealing with
professional jealousy, their own, and jealousy aimed at them.
It is still probably my favorite of Hemingway's books because
of its candor. I've read it four or five times as opposed to
most of his other work which I've only read twice so far.
Hemingway's novels are not perfect. Not all of them work. He
was probably the most innovative short story writer of his
era. The only one I can think of as innovative from a
completely different direction is Jayne Loader.
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