Hemingway

I should be packing right now, but I got sidetracked by some old issues of The New York Review of Books. I’m afraid I’ve sort of squandered that expensive subscription. Great publication that I have too often saved for later. Later often became never. The 22 June 2017 issue devotes several pages to Fintan O’Toole’s thoughts on Hemingway and four new books about the literary legend.
I enjoyed reading Fintan O’Toole’s piece, a quick look at a complicated individual. Aren’t we all. I especially appreciated two excerpts from The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms. I’m a fan of Hemingway’s writing, and I think he led a fascinating life, but I’m sure he wasn’t always that fun to be around. Perhaps even miserable to be around.

Undressing, I looked at myself in the mirror of the big armoire beside the bed. That was a typically French way to furnish a room. Practical, too, I suppose. Of all the ways to be wounded. I suppose it was funny. I put on my pajamas and got into bed. – The Sun Also Rises

So far they had shot every one they had questioned. The questioners had that beautiful detachment and devotion to stern justice of men dealing in death without being in any danger of it. – A Farewell to Arms