The Old Man and the Sea question

Hemingway is most definitely not overrated. However, there is a huge contingent of people who seem to not get his work and few downright hates him. Perhaps it's an acquired taste but I have loved everything I have read from Hemingway (not many, just three novels so far).
often I have found that it helps to go over his text multiple times for proper understanding. His writing is so plain and simple that I have often rushed ahead through large sections of the text and only realized the weight and beauty and implications of that section on second reading (the chapter where the Italian army is retreating in 'A Farewell to Arms' is a good example of this).
Having said all these, if you do not like a particular writer, no matter how celebrated he might be, move on to someone else. There are enough good books out there to keep one occupied without wasting time on something one doesn't enjoy (I gave up on Joyce because of that).

Mixed feelings on Hemingway. Didn't like The Sun Also Rises, really enjoyed A Farewell to Arms and was pretty neutral on The Old Man and the Sea. I've also read some of his short stories and was relatively neutral on those as well.

Monica,

Across the River and Into the Trees is probably the least appealing Hemingway book published during his lifetime. You've read some (or all) the short stories, and they're the best place to start. I think his other best books are The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, and A Moveable Feast. Try those, and I think your opinion will change.

As Henry Miller said, Hemingway is a macho baffoon bolstered up by the American press. I completely agree. I recently started re-reading one of his books, just to see of I was being too tough on him. He was just as bad, or worse, than I thought. How anyone can read him and say he is a world class writer, I just do not understand. If he was not from the US, no one in the US would bother with him.

A Moveable Feast
I just started reading this, and to tell the truth, I doubt I will finish it. It feels like he is just
writing to hear his own voice. I think he was a legend in his own mind.

Monica wrote: "So I've read The Old Man and the Sea and Across the River, Into the Trees and though I haven't hated these books, I don't see how this man is considered one of the best writers ever.
I understand ..."

Monica wrote: "So I've read The Old Man and the Sea and Across the River, Into the Trees and though I haven't hated these books, I don't see how this man is considered one of the best writers ever.
I understand ..."

Personally, those are two of my least favorite books by Hemmingway. The three I'd recommend reading are Farewell to Arms, The Sun Also Rises, and my personal favorite, For Whom the Bell Tolls. But like any reader, People have their favorite writers and style.

You don't understand him.

I love all of Hemingway except for a farewell to arms which I didn't like. Across the river and through the trees which is good, but not great. The Garden of Eden and Islands in the stream are excellent as are his other works.
But, he isn't for everyone. If you don't like him don't worry. It's always good to try new things, but read what you love not what others love.

Thanks for the post Monica. I wondered the same. The thought that his narration's simplicity is the reason behind his greatness did cross my mind (honestly) and I arrogantly thought, "The representation of the true meaning of life in a simple way is his strength, how did people understand it and praise it?" Reading the replies gave me a better idea.

You've read one of his worst novels and a novella that is beautifully written but not among his most engaging stories on a human level. I suggest you read The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, and For Whom the Bell Tolls, in that order. If you come to appreciate Hemingway after that (and I hope you do), you should read Islands in the Stream, which is my favorite Hemingway novel, though it was published posthumously and he never considered it finished.

If you want to understand why Hemingway is a great writer without reading all these books, read this brief craft analysis: http://bit.ly/ITjfmK

How fascinating to hear everybody's favorites. I'll throw in my two cents. To me, Hemingway's best was a good as it gets, but there was a lot, in my opinion, that fell well short of that. I am surprised to see the popularity of "Moveable Feast." "Old Man and the Sea" and "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and "Farewell to Arms" are my favorites. I really like the short story: "The Big Two-Hearted River."

Dashiell Hammett and Ernest Hemingway wrote at the same time. Their prose styles are virtually identical except Hammett's writing featured more distinct plots.

Those two also started writing as the Bauhaus movement began in architecture, i.e. form follows function, no frills architecture. What was happening in architecture was happening in prose.

It's a matter of what kids you're playing with. Hemingway was in Europe with the literary people. Hammett was selling pulp fiction to Middle America in the drug stores.

Hemingway gets too much credit for the "form follows function" prose of his generation; he just played with more influential kids.

With that said, I like Hemingway's novels and the stories they tell, but I think his significance is overstated.

Overrated

A Movable Feast is Hemingway's best work in my opinion. A farewell to arms is another good work. What is fascinating about Hemingway's works is his personality which is obvious in all his books. You either love him or hate him. As a teenager I adored him, I still appreciate his work, I read a movable feast twice and would read it again

Across the River and Into the Trees is his weakest book, and that's well known. Everything else he wrote is masterful. I love almost all his short stories. Among his novels, my favorites are "Farewell to Arms," "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and "Islands in the Stream." Even half-baked books published posthumously like "Garden of Eden" are great! As for non-fiction, you can't beat "Green Hills of Africa." As a writer, I've learned more from--and taken greater inspiration from--Hemingway than any other writer.

Whether you are fatalistic or macho begs the question. Hemingway was both and regardless if you go through life harboring or wallowing in such attitudes, my experience Reading Hemingway makes me feel the way so many people do. That therein lies his greatness for me in that he inculcates his feelings into my psyche, ones that are threadlike at best without his stimulus.

It's all about the "iceberg methodology" that Hemingway used. Because he was a man's man people glance over the sensitivities and existentialism within his work because he was so subtle about his characters.

He was the master of the dying art of defining a character through their actions rather than through a ton of introspective waffle. Too often these days protagonists spend loads of time thinking about themselves and their problems. Hemingway achieved the same by driving characters through with actions that indicated their goals and motivations and in turn explained the internal conflicts.

He was able to create complex characters with whom we could empathise and associate with, without having to listen to them whine on about their troubles rather than doing something about them.

What you don't appreciate is that Hemingway is considered stylistically innovative by people who have never read newspapers. Well, that's not entirely fair; there are people who see some of his other stuff as stylistically innovative because they've never heard 4-year-olds talk, so there's that, too.

He is overrated. A legend has grown around him, and people buy the legend and become uncritical of the obvious shortcomings of his writing.
If I pay to see a movie I expect the shots to be in focus, no continuity errors, the soundtrack to be synchronised with the visuals, the cameraman not to have St Vitus Dance, etc. If I pay to hear music I expect it to be played in time and in tune. I expect, in other words, a certain degree of technical proficiency in the medium.
Hemingway's work, for me, contains too many redundant words, dialogue tags, unrelated phrases joined by ands, improbably long monologues, unconvincing dialogue, and so on. His work lacks wit and polish. I have trouble, therefore, with the actual words, which prevent me from appreciating what he says with them.
Perhaps his stories probe primal themes- but to me, the writing makes the writer, not the subject matter. Imagine two photographs of the same scene from a war zone, say, a scene of intense drama and poignancy. Both photos are taken from the same point of view, one by a skilled photographer and one by me, mine being slightly out of focus, shaky, blurred where my thumb is partly obscuring the lens, overexposed, etc. Both pictures have the identical powerful theme and subject, but which would deserve the more praise?
It seems to me that if I were the photographic equivalent of Hemingway people would be finding reasons to describe my camera shake as some primal rejection of the established norms of photography. My errant thumb would be symbolic of the thumbs-up given to war by government. My inability to focus would be justified by an iceberg theory that allowed the viewer to imagine their own details to replace those I had rendered indistinct. The white blobs on the image, caused by the dandruff-strewn lens of my carelessly-handled camera, would be... well, you get the picture.

Could this b the new and improved version of EH or a phonie looking for something.
I think it's the new ghost of eh looking to help out in anyway he can
https://youtu.be/vcy5mzwmhlY
just saying.....they don't call him smokin joe for nothing

Yes, he is overrated.

To the OP, Monica, you read his worst two books. He is a much better short story writer than novelist. He doesn't understand novel structure or novel features. Parts of his novels are good - and if they could have been written as short stories, they would be better.

He wrote a very good memoir, A Moveable Feast.

Overrated

I think you should read "A farewell to arms" and then think again if he is or is not overrated