Posted by Dinah on August 18, 2002, at 4:17:00
In reply to Re: I remember now..., posted by Dinah on August 17, 2002, at 17:05:56
On second thought, perhaps it wasn't rude speculation as much as it was an explanation of the feeling which I couldn't identify in my above post.
> I don't know if I'm explaining it at all well, but it's what really irritates me about Hemingway. I can be amused at his stories, and he is an excellent raconteur, but he leaves me feeling....
>
> Oh I don't know. Maybe if I finish the story it will come to me.It did come to me, in that persistent question about Hemingway's other skills. I felt led on during the whole book. Lots of warm-up, but no follow-through. His character sketches showed enough insight that I kept hoping for more, but was constantly disappointed. No doubt how not only Brett and Jake, but every darn character in the story felt. And it's true that Jake was impotent.
So I would almost believe that Hemingway was an absolutely wonderful writer to be able to cause me to feel the same frustration and disappointment that all his characters felt. Except that my recollection of my prior experience with Hemingway left the same feeling. That he promised more than he delivered, and ended up merely being clever, and as you said, a slick stylist. So unless all his books have the same theme, I don't think it likely that he intentionally caused me to feel that way.
Oddly enough, the only place in the book I didn't feel that way was in the part about the aging bullfighter who came out of retirement. While reading that part, I felt something for that fighter. And the description of the bullfighters' styles also had all the passion that the rest of the book lacked.
poster:Dinah
thread:548
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/books/20020616/msgs/614.html