Quote:
Originally Posted by herr_oberst
The Old Man and the Sea. I've read it 20 times. My god, what a great book.
(Hemingway once entered a short story contest with:
Baby shoes for sale, never worn.)
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'A Very Short Story' is an actual short story about an affair he supposedly had while recuperating in Italy before going to Michigan. Allegedly, your anecdote is an adaptaion of a classified ad that read, "Wedding Dress, never worn." and is used to describe Hemingway's literary technique called 'iceberg writing' wherein only the slightest literary image is presented to the reader suggesting a profound story lies beneath it. I am not aware of such a contest (interesting!). One must be willing to do a lot of work reading Hemingway to get the most from him. Nevertheless, a casual reading of much of his work stands alone as minimalist descriptive prose.
Two Hearted River is such a story. It is devoted to very detailed description of apparently mundane and ritualistic solitude while fly-fishing. The reality, it is suggested, was that Hemingway was actually suppressing one of his profound depressive episodes by focusing on 'going through the motions' after the unsuccessful affair in Milan, Italy noted above.
There is a ton of interesting tidbits about Hemingway with, in my opinion, a lot if it being romantic musings by literary types who tend to…to…romanticize. Speaking of romance, one thing is for sure though; grandaughters Mariel and Margaux Hemingway are babes! Crazy, but still. Babes nevertheless.