Hemingway published three Short story Collections, and this is the third one. In previous years I've read the first two ( In our Time, and Men Without Women), and my aim is to read "The Complete short Stories of Ernest Hemingway", which is a collection of 70 stories. This book has two sections - the first forty nine stories ( which has his 3 short story collections, plus a six more), plus those published in books and magazines subsequent to this 49, along with seven unpublished ones.
After the Storm: In a way, our narrator, the looter of wrecked cruise ships is a winner, since he's the first to discover the wreck, and he guesses that many are the treasures for the taking, if only he can get into the ship, which has been sunk and stuck in the quick sand. He risks his life a couple of times to gain access, but fails. When he returns, better equipped, he finds that someone after him has taken all there is to take. He may have been a winner in discovering the recent wreck, but he gets nothing for his troubles and risks. Life is that way, the author seems to suggest.
A Clean Well-Lighted Place is just that, in how it paints a picture in the reader's mind. A waiter, who understands that for some, there is no better place, than a well lighted clean place to slowly drink away the night; while those who do not wish it have someone waiting at home for them. A classical Hemingway story, where the bare feel of the environment, a lonely old man who says just a few words, but who's better represented across the dialogue between the two waiters, creates a sense of compassion for those who needs a clean well-lighted place, away from the darkness, for whom it is synonymous with loneliness.
The Light of the World : This story is considered a Nick Adams story, with the narrator thought of as Nick. Nick is with his friend Tommy, and they while away their time, first at a bar, and then at a station. While they are not welcome at the bar, a person who is hinted as being with a certain sexual tendency shows some interest in the young boys. The station also finds some prostitutes who speak of a now dead boxer - with two of them arguing as to who actually knew him, among the two of them. The overall tone of the story is one of recalling better times ( the prostitutes - they are clearly obese now), or trying to win a favour ( the gay cook), while the two boys while away their time in an aimless way.
God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen: Here, two doctors discuss a strange case, and the bungling of at least one of them, in the company of our narrator, Horace. The doctors dialogue is an interesting one, as it touches incompetence, subtle antisemitism, as well as misgivings of a youth burdened with the idea of sin. Although Hemingway's iceberg theory is practiced here as elsewhere in this book, the dialogues shed more light than in other instances.
The Sea Change: Adopting his "iceberg" stance in his little tales, we find Hemingway telling us a little story about a breakup, with the girl having been unfaithful with another girl. The boy, so close to forgiving her and making up, talks to himself, instills a stance of a discipline artificially, and lets the girl go.
A Way You'll Never Be: In this Nick Adams, shell-shocked and traumatized, visits his friend, the Italian Captain Paravicini's encampment. Nick is troubled by certain images, and has a tendency to rant, and talk at length on unrelated subjects. While his friend Paravicini is both sympathetic and concerned about what his walking about could trigger, we the readers feel for Nick, the free spirited boy whom we first met as a teenager (if that), two collections ago. By now the war has made a mess of him!
The Mother of a Queen: One thing that needs to be noted when reading fiction which is almost 90 years old ( some of these stories must be over a 100), is how people then looked at "the other" who is different to you. In this story, the queen is a gay bullfighter, who doesn't keep his end of the bargain with money. The narrator who appears to be his manager concludes the story disparagingly.
"There's a queen for you. You can't touch them. Nothing, nothing can touch them. They spend money on themselves or for vanity, but they never pay.... What kind of blood is it that makes a man like that ?One Reader Writes is a letter to a doctor, seeking advice on whether it'll be safe for her to return to her husband, who is undergoing medication for a STD upon returning from war. The woman clearly is lost between her father's pressure to leave him, and her love for her husband. The woman is hinted as being marginally ignorant, and the letter carries a genuine concerned tone, and hence its attraction.
Homage to Switzerland is a fantastic story in three episodes, all taking place inside a station cafe. Its attraction lies in the warmth of the cafe which comes across the pages, as well as the attitudes of three guests, two of whom try who try lead on the waitress, while one is going through a painful separation himself. The third character discovers a life long fan of the National Geographical magazine, and a cozy conversation takes place. As the title suggest, the three scenes suggest the cosy comfort of the station cafe, the hospitality, the cold outside contrasted. While the story doesn't ever attempt to say it, it is clear with the use of his tip of the iceberg way of writing, that it is a lovely place to be, and he cherishes his memories there.
A Day's Wait, is a story of innocence as a young boy works himself to a state thinking that his death is imminent, all through mixing up of two scales used for measuring temperature.
A Natural History of the Dead: This short story begins by presenting the view points of the Scottish traveler Mungo Park, as well of Bishop Stanley that no branch of Natural history could be studied without an increasing of faith, hope, and love. Well, Hemingway mockingly, but maintaining a stoic like stance, detail us some war related deaths which leave us with some heavy dents on whatever faith we had, and quite hopeless of this world being anything wonderful.
Wine of Wyoming attempts to do a comparison of life as seen by a traditional French couple, now in Wyoming, and the American way of life. The very Catholic French couple are abundant in hospitality and they find it hard embrace the more liberal ways of the Americans, the whiskey consuming, the drinking by the girls etc. A large part of the dialogue take place in French, and the fact that I was using the kindle helped me look up the translations.
The Gambler, the nun, and the Radio is story based in a hospital, in which a Mexican is being treated for a shooting accident, and Frazer ( a writer), convalesces. The nun in question is so excitable, that it is clear that she does her utmost to conceal her womanliness in prayer. The radio is all that the convalescing writer has to resort to. The story which stretches on at the pace of slow days in a hospital takes on a philosophical bent, when the gambler raises that the point that the opium can be different things for different people.
Revolution, Mr. Frazer thought, is no opium. Revolution is a catharsis; an ecstasy which can only be prolonged by tyranny. The opiums are for before and for after. He was thinking well, a little too well.
Nick Adams is now 38 years old. I was glad to note that he's made a good recovery from the time we found him in "A Way you'll never be". Nick drives with his son by his side, reminisces about what he loved about his dad, and what he didn't. He recalls the times he spent with his native Indian friends, the hunting and fishing days. It is easily one of the best stories in this collection, as it illuminates a great deal about the relationships between Fathers and Sons.
All in all this collection too carries the short story characteristics of Hemingway, its little said - much implied tone, plenty of war time/ war related stories, and the charm that it brings to the reader. Not to be missed by a lover of short stories, for sure.
Rating: ****1/2
No comments:
Post a Comment