Ernest Hemingway

A collection of 14 short stories reveals Hemingway's impressions of life and mankind

Men Without Women

This John is quite an interesting fellow. 

I really enjoyed the dialogue in this last story; I wouldn’t say I agreed with all that was said, but I appreciate the dialogue between two men in quiet times.

Kay so Queso

He was going back to America and he was very certain about marriage and knew it would fix up very everything.

Live the full life of the mind, exhilarated by new ideas, intoxicated by the Romance of the unusual. He laid down the booklet.

‘My heart's broken,' he thought. ‘If I feel this way my heart must be broken.’

This was a solid read, a very good collection of short stories.

I wouldn’t say I loved it, but the stories consistently had good messages to takeaway and a clear theme of connection. It was good to read while traveling because I could pick it up and drop it off at short intervals without losing the plot, but it was also difficult to read because I couldn’t get into it for a couple hours due to the lack of connected plot.

Anyway, a very decent read. I wouldn’t really recommend it to most people, but if you’re looking for a solid read and some perspective from Hemingway, it’s good. The description on the back of the book about it being about “masculine toughness unsoftened by the woman’s hand” helped make sense of it for me, but I still wouldn’t recommend it to most people in general.

This was a solid read, a very good collection of short stories.

I wouldn’t say I loved it, but the stories consistently had good messages to takeaway and a clear theme of connection. It was good to read while traveling because I could pick it up and drop it off at short intervals without losing the plot, but it was also difficult to read because I couldn’t get into it for a couple hours due to the lack of connected plot.

Anyway, a very decent read. I wouldn’t really recommend it to most people, but if you’re looking for a solid read and some perspective from Hemingway, it’s good. The description on the back of the book about it being about “masculine toughness unsoftened by the woman’s hand” helped make sense of it for me, but I still wouldn’t recommend it to most people in general.

Stories about 1920s boy stuff like bullfighting boxing and war. It’s weird but I actually got a lot out of these. He’s just got a way of showing you shit and a lot of that shit is honestly really sad

Margo Koss

A second collection of short stories that once again establish Hemingway as a novelist of exceptional power. Hemingway's men are bullfighters and boxers, hired hands and hard drinkers, gangsters and gunmen. Each of their stories deals with masculine toughness, unsoftened by woman's hand. Incisive, hard edged, pared down to the bare minimum, they are classic Hemingway territory.

Maxime van der Wal

This was my first introduction to Hemingway’s writing, so it took some time to get used to his masculine characters (or, misogynistic as we’d interpret it now). It also didn’t help that the first story,  The Undefeated  was my least favourite story of the bunch, but after that it got so much better. I finally got to read and analyse classics like  Hills Like White Elephants, A Simple Enquiry  and  The Killers. 

What I like about Hemingway’s short stories is the simplicity on the surface. At first I didn’t understand what message he was trying to convey, but once you’re able to look past the subtleties, Hemingway’s talent shows through. Literature in its most interesting form is when it leaves you with more questions than answers, and Hemingway excels at doing exactly that. I think I’ll come to appreciate these short stories when I read them more often and that prospect excites me.

Men Without Women

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