The Importance of Reading Ernest discussion

I am including an email I sent to someone that asked me what they should read of Hemingway's first... this is someone that has not been exposed and is seemingly reluctant to plunge in....I thought it was a pretty good
little commentary of where to begin....so here goes.....

Message from Gary


subject: bringing Ernest into your life


message: The first Ernest Hemingway I read was OLD MAN & THE SEA. I loved it. People either love it or hate it. I have reread it numerous times during my life. Not cause it's short.....but because I think it's a great story. No.....not much happens, like wild sex, or blowing up buildings,and shit, but I have always felt Ernest really nailed it with the pyschological struggles of the old man,and his fish....

However, I would suggest you get a paper copy of THE COMPLETE SHORT STORIES OF ERNEST HEMINGWAY. They say it's not complete, but close enough. I have a dog earred copy, that I have read, and read and read.
Oddly enough many of his short stories are odd,and about odd characters, at least in my opinion.

I have been a leader of a bookclub for the past 10 years. We have had men in the group come and go, leaving due to job transfers. Anyway....I am the only guy left with 7 women, one of which is my lovely wife. (She hated OLD MAN AND THE SEA, BTW. *BITCH*. Did I say that outloud? LOL!) We have read two of Ernest's books,and some of "the girls" didn't like either one, but seriously they led to great discussions!!!! We did OLD MAN,and also FAREWELL TO ARMS. I had a cake made with Ernest's picture on it,and my dad had a typewriter that is a one of many models Ernest typed on. I decorated in honor of Ernest. We sang happy birthday, because we did FAREWELL in July for Ernest's birthday.

Anyway....back to the short stories......last Christmas I read a short story of Ernest's at our Christmas bookclub party. GOD REST YOU MERRY, GENTLEMEN. We sang the Christmas Carol first,and then I read it. No one knew I was going to read a Hemingway story at Christmas. I heard the groans, but a bookclub leader cannot be scorned,and I continued..... I am great at doing outloud readings dramatically, if I say so myself. While I read the story aloud, you could hear a pin drop. Since then I have heard comments about that story from bookclub members ever since,and they are reading some of his other stories now on their own. Bingo! Mission accomplished.......

The story is set in Kansas City, where Ernest worked as a reporter,and two of his sons were born there. That is a whopper of a story....believe me. it is a story you don't forget. I have to reread others to remember what they are about but not that one. Feel the same about Francis McComber (I think I misspelled, that, no, I know I did, but anyway....)

The first longer novel of Ernest's I read was FAREWELL. I was taking a class,and living in a dorm room for a week,and no tv. I was so enthralled with the book, I didn't leave my room in the evenings reading. Love it, love it, love it. Like THE SUN ALSO RISES a lot,and A MOVEABLE FEAST makes me weep to want to go to Paris. I have been to Europe but not France, yet.

I can recommend other short stories, but if you get a copy of THE COMPLETE, you can skip around, like I have done. There are so many wonderful ones.


I guess you can tell I am an Ernest fan..... I've been to his home in Key West.Twice in one week. I've walked the rooms of Grand Central Station , where he walked his beat, interviewed people and wrote articles for the Kansas City Star. I am dying to go to his birthplace in Oak Park, IL,and love to see Ketchum , Idaho,and leave a bottle of Jack Daniels on his grave. Yep....guilty as charged.....

Start with the short stories,and branch out from there.


I could talk more and more about this subject, but I will spare you the gore,and the nashing of teeth for now....any other authors you'd like for me to drone on about?? I have several I have a passion for. This year , in particular, Charles Dickens. 200th anniversary of his birth. I can steer you to a blog on here about doing A CHRISTMAS CAROL themed Christmas party for another bookclub party, if you'd like.....did I mention my obsession with EDGAR ALLAN POE? I did a POE reading last Halloween at a winery with about 30 in attendance......



I will end this now in "Ernest."


"In those days the distances were all very different, the dirt blew off the hills that now have been cut down,and Kansas City was very much like Constantinople. You may not believe this. No one believes this; but it is true. On this afternoon it was snowing...."


gary


P.S. After you have read some Hemingway,and F. Scott Fitzgerald you must see Woody Allen's movie, MIDNIGHT IN PARIS. Woody nails Hemingway and the way the actor talked, as if he was Hemingway writing in his speech. I just sat there watching the movie amazed how well the actor was cast playing Hemingway,and the way he spoke like he was writing.....what a movie.

Unfortunately, Paris isn't Hemingway's Paris any more...it's Pari Hilton's Paris, and I loved reading A Moveable Feast and The Paris Wife back-to-back. Like being a judge and hearing two sides of the same relationship.

As for his stories, there is a purity in "A Clean Well-Lighted Place" that makes me shiver a little.