Hemingway:good and bad!
Pros:
Wide scope
Cons:
Inconsistent
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
Is Ernest Hemingway a legend? Yes, an easy and definitive answer. Does he deserve to be? That is where the debate begins.
Loyalists adore the writer. His style, based on the "iceberg" theory, allows his work to be simultaneously simple and complex. The uninitiated find easily comprehensible stories of war, game hunting, and love. Connoisseurs develop an understanding of symbolism and deep-seated meanings that invigorates the ever- aware reader in his search for subtlety and hidden truths.
Critics respect Hemingway as a literary giant, not for his work, but for his contribution to literature. Hemingway developed a school and theory of writing that has transcended his lifetime and effected every modern writer. His critics do not deny his influence, but argue that his actual writings do not deserve the praise awarded. Claims range from inconsistency and an overriding, destructive machismo to redundancy and repressed homosexual underpinnings.
The Complete Short Stories of Hemingway can be considered a perfect case study. In it, he proves everyone correct. Certain stories such as Big Two-Hearted River display his greatness, his mastery of symbolism. Others such as Francis Macomber utilize the idea of the semi-tragic, a feeling of both melancholy and triumph pervasive in so much of his work. Still others demonstrate his grand insight, as in The Gambler, the Nun, and the Radio where he profoundly states "Revolution is no opium. Revolution is a catharsis; an ecstasy which can only be prolonged by tyranny. The opiums are for before and after." Yet for all the flashes of brilliance, the splashes of genius, for the pervasiveness of his dominant style, the unique approach to life and literature, The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway is anything, but complete. The greatness does not remain constant, it does not permeate every story, much of the time, Hemingway is an ordinary writer, sadly mirroring the myriad of modern writers that have made poor attempts to assimilate his concepts.
The Complete Short Stories more than has its moments, it displays Hemingway's talent and does much to secure the praise he so often receives. Hemingway was great, just not greatest, but without his failing, his apparent humanity, he could not have been the writer he was. Mediocrity and failings surrounding an endearing and enduring majesty all under a veneer of invincibility and grandeur, very Hemingway, very American.
