The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: The Finca Vigia Edition

Ernest Hemingway was the writer I idolized the most when I was going to school and reading the great writers. It was Hemingway and Faulkner at the top, and nobody else quite ascended to their lofty perch. Hemingway developed a style of writing stripped of excessive descriptions combined with the deft, almost unnoticed repetition of key words. His contribution to literature as a stylist is incalculable. He taught twentieth-century authors how to write dialog, and his influence on famous writers around the globe outshines perhaps that of anyone else. This simple yet power-packed method of writing has aged well over the years, and the stories don't seem dated at all to modern readers. Although he wrote several highly regarded novels, many believe Hemingway's terse, no-frills writing style was best suited for short stories, and the evidence in this volume is hard to argue with. I'll highlight a few of his most famous stories: The Snows of Kilimanjaro Harry, a failed writer, ruminates on his wasted literary talent while on safari in Africa. His leg has become infected and he awaits a plane to take him away for medical treatment before his health becomes critical. After he reminisces about many things in his life he could have written about but didn't, the plane finally arrives to pick him up, and what a ride it is! This is an example of what Hemingway called the "wow" ending, and this just may be the best that was ever written. I can't imagine anyone interested in literature not having read this story. The Short, Happy Life of Francis McComber Did she or didn't she? McComber and his wife are on safari in Africa, led by a veteran guide who knows how to hunt and how to accommodate tourists looking for a bit of adventure. Like Snows, the ending is shrouded in mystery as the reader is left wondering why things ended the way they did, and who's to blame. The Killers Hemingway often wrote according to the principles of his famous "iceberg theory": "There is seven-eighths of it underwater for every part that shows," he said. "Anything you know you can eliminate and it only strengthens your iceberg." This iceberg method of writing is showcased in "The Killers," of which Hemingway said he left out more than just about any other story he wrote. On one level, the story is about a boxer who got on the wrong side of the mob in 1930s Chicago; on another, it refers to Hemingway's literary battle with his mentor, Sherwood Anderson. The scholarly critics are still scratching their heads over this masterpiece. Big Two-Hearted River Nick Adams, back home from the war, fishes and eats in a ritualistic manner that suggests he has suffered some sort of psychological trauma that he needs to overcome. But was the problem induced by the barbarism of war or by earlier family-related ordeals? This is one of a handful of the best short story collections out there. Don't miss it.

Hemingway is one of the finest writers this country has every produced. In these politically correct times, he was fallen into disfavor, and that is a crying shame. His terse, lean lines are so easy to mock today, but what people forget is that he created that style, molded it and trimmed it down from the long-winded, more European style of writing that was so popular before his advent. As a short story writer, he is the master. Not a wasted word, and every word carved in its perfect place. When a Hemingway character plunges their arm into a cold stream, the reader can feel the ice cold numbing the fingers. His short story, "The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber" turned me onto reading as a teenager. So much came from him, and so much still comes from him. Raymond Carver, James Ellroy, Elmore Leonard and many others all walk a clear path that he cut through thick brush.

Hemingway's short stories were always a bit more finely crafted than his novels. The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway allows the reader to examine and even partake in the development of Hemingway as a writer; from his early Nick Adams stories, a few of which went on to become The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell To Arms, To Have And Have Not; to the mature Hemingway who wrote about his experiences as a reporter during the Spanish Civil War and later in Europe between the wars. This work contains some of the finest shorts of American literature. (Read The Short Happy Life Of Francis Macomber; The Snows of Kilimanjaro; A Clean Well Lighted Place; Big Two-Hearted River (parts I & II); Hills Like White Elephants--too many good ones to mention them all.) There are some poor stories as well but even these are well constructed. In short, the definitive volume of Hemingway--better than any single novel or other collection. A must have.... (I'm holding mine in my hand as I type with the other--) Little known fact: The Finca Vigia Edition contains an editorial change in the story A Clean Well Lighted Place--a moved line of dialogue--which was made by a silly editor after Hemingway's death and which renders the text incorrect with respect to his orignal published manuscript. In fact there are no correct versions of this short story presently in print. The accurate version, though, may be found in the Library of Congress.