Hemingway: Men without Women

[AlexanderZPain]

So far, I've read the first two stories in Ernest Hemingway's short story collection, "Men without Women," and I'm really enjoying it. Here is my spoiler-free take on what I've read so far.

The first story, "The Undefeated," is a story about a bullfighter who is past his prime but wants to get back in the ring and prove that he still has what it takes to be a matador. In this book, Hemingway uses a few technical bullfighting terms like "Picador" without explicitly explaining them. I retrospect, I should have looked them up on Wikipedia immediately so that I could pick up on them early and keep on reading. While most folks would definitely see bullfighting a brutal and archaic sport, the underlying theme could be applied to plenty of modern athletes. I was reminded of veteran NFL quarterbacks who hang on as long as they can in the game and gradually lose their star power due to age.

The second story, "In Another Country," is about wounded World War I soldiers in an Italian rehabilitation hospital. One of the characters is an American volunteer soldier. The story deals with themes of manhood and loss. I enjoyed this one very much and the ending had a bit of a twist.

Has anyone else read these stories? What did you think?

 

[eclair]

^ In Another Country, how he managed to imbue so much into a story so short is pretty amazing.

 

[Cosimah2o]

In another country - I remember the mention to the Italian grammar made me smile

So far, I've read the first two stories in Ernest Hemingway's short story collection, "Men without Women"

I have another collection about Hemingway, mine has 49 short stories and some titles are in your « Men without women collect. ». I enjoyed reading « An Alpine Idyll » , « A Canary for One », and others stories not included in your collection as « The Snows of Kilimanjaro » , « Indian Camp » , « Cross-Country Snow » , « Big two-hearted River » , « Homage to Switzerland »

 

[AlexanderZPain]

I just finished reading the third short story in "Men without Women." It's called "Hills Like White Elephants" and it takes Hemingway's approach to leaving things unsaid to the extreme. It's about a conversation between a couple (a man and a woman) waiting for a train. My take was that the topic was abortion. The man wants the girl to get one and she is not so sure.