My New Year's Resolution, this year, was to reread Hemingway. I can honestly say I haven't picked up one of his novels in a good ten years. I started with A Movable Feast, my favorite. The book that made me fall in love with Paris, without ever going there. I still laugh out loud at his description of the trip he took with F. Scott Fitzgerald to pick up a car.
However, I have discovered that the older I get the more depressing Hemingway gets. How can this be? When I first read him as a teenager, I thought he was romantic and truthful. I got how he wasn't big on happy endings, after all, I was told, life held few. I really didn't notice the hopelessness, until now.
Can I still learn from him? Yes, he wrote his male characters very well, although, he was no stranger to misogamy. You have to remember the times he lived in. I love his writing style and anyone can learn from his succinctness. Now, if I can just get through A Farewell to Arms without obtaining a prescription for Prozac.
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