In our Time - Ernest Hemingway

( One of the books I started reading this year was "The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway", which I haven't been able to finish. It includes all his published short story collection, plus those which appeared in magazines, journals, compilations etc. After six short stories which have been taken from compilations, the full set of "In our Time" starts off the collection, from story seven onward. This review focuses on short story seven through story 21 - fifteen in all. )

Across these vignettes we see Nick Adams, possibly Hemingway's alter ego as he goes through life from a boy to adolescence and then to the Army as a Youth. It cannot be looked upon as a novel as we see close ups of separate incidents, usually unconnected with the previous ones.

Indian Camp: Most of what we see here could be identified as vignettes. For one thing most of the short stories have episodes on the life of Nick Adams. In this particular one, it is a vignette of an experience of Nick when he still a young boy, accompanying his father  to an Indian camp, to carry out a Cesarean operation under the most basic of conditions. Possibly the condition and the fate of the  infant's father  portrays the limitation of persistence rather than his sensitivity.

The Doctor and Doctor's Wife: The Doctor is Nick's dad. The story is based on the same setting as the former, but in a context where an Indian half cast and the Doctor don't see eye to eye. The argument between the two serve as the central incident of the vignette, although his wife's reaction and attitude gives the story its title.

The End of Something: Ten years has passed and the town that Nick lived in issn't a lumbering  town no more.This vignette centers on the break up of Nick and his girl friend. The attraction is in the natural setting and the unattached signature style of Hemingway.

The Three-Day Blow: A Vignette in which Nick has a drink with his pal Bill, on the aftermath of his break-up with Marge. They discuss many things - Football teams, their respective dads and of course Marge. Bill compliments Nick for breaking up without getting married, although Nick has doubts about his actions. The story is written in such a manner where the prevailing weather, the surrounding solitude and the two boys proving to each other about their maturity compose a mental picture in the reader's mind, with a crackling fire to the bargain.

The Battler: In the next story we find Nick kicked off a train, stumbling upon a former fighter by the name of Adolph Francis, sitting at a fire in the woods. The story then takes an interesting twist with a 'negro' by the name of Bugs joining in, and the conversation between the three. The fighter's clearly insane and Nick needs to Bugs' help to leave the camp.

A Very Short Story: As the name implies, the tale is presented in a summarised form. We are not told who is recuperating in Padua. But the reader is wont to believe that it is Nick, after a bout in the army during the first world war, since the girl sends a letter to Chicago upon him leaving for the States.

Soldier's Home: The soldier in question is one  Harold and this is the first story which doesn't involve Nick. The story involves Harold's attempt to get acclimatized in his hometown of Kansas, after the war, and the difficulties he has - with the local crowd, and his own family. Post-war trauma as well as the difficulties in hitching up with girls, with the local scene changing during his time away.

The Revolutionist: A very short vignette, where a one page account of a Magyan comrade is revealed. I cannot but help feeling that one of the driving needs at the time would've been for Hemingway to include his experiences in world war I,  the various incidents which stuck in his mind, and put them down in writing. Vignettes are possibly the best way to include them in a fictional form.

Mr. and Mrs. Elliot: The story of Hubert Elliot, a poet and  a post-graduate student in law at Harvard, and how he came to be married. Hubert has held very puritanical views about marriage, and was surprised himself on how he came to be married. The story is one which overall reflects the unhappiness of that marriage.

Cat in the Rain: A short story which by itself looks a little aimless, but presents the whims of a young girl and a wife at that.
"'Anyway, I want a cat,' she said, 'I want a cat. I want a cat now. If I can’t have long hair or any
fun, I can have a cat.'
The restlessness of the girl, how she keeps badgering on her husband, and how the whole world is at her service are some of the points being subtly hinted here.

Out of Season: A tale of where a tourist couple is saddled with a drunken guide, with the husband trying to help out the guide out of sympathy than any other reason, managing the wife who is not pleased with  how things stand. As such it is a vignette and could've easily fitted to a longer narration with ease.

Cross-Country Snow: We  come across Nick again, as he goes skiing with two of his friends  Mike and George, in Germany.  Nick;s wife or girl Helen is expecting their child, yet the boyish attitudes reveal that he would rather hang out with his friends rather than hold bigger responsibilities.

My Old Man: A tale written in Hemingway's nonchalant abstract way, yet one which reads a son's admiration of his dad - for the way he lived his life, the ups and the downs as a Jockey, until the last time when he went down.

Big Two-Hearted River (parts  I and II) - This is a short story in two parts in which we have only the protagonist, Nick Adams, alone in a war scorched field. With his camping equipment, he walks miles along a river until he reaches an unaffected area. Yet he fishes using the grass hoppers, who had turned black due to the scorched lands - in essence signifying how the after-effects of war are used for the current era, I felt. The story goes to minute details about how Nick fishes for trout.

All in all, most of the stories use the Iceberg theory that Hemingway was known for - where he goes to minute detail about "a tree", allowing the reader to form out the "woods" of her own. Besides the deployment of that theory, the use of the character Nick Adams is to present his alter-ego as already mentioned. First published in 1925, it may have caused quite a stir upon a first reading, although critics have embraced his style.

It was Hemingway's first official short story collection, and it was a very good place to start - and the coming years will probably see me reading the rest of his work.