The Short Stories Volume III

Hemingway has a powerful and commanding style. His stories often do not have a classical beginning, middle, and end. However, they are always quite moving.

Acclaimed film actor Stacy Keach gives thoughtful and sonorous reading to the words of Ernest Hemingway in this the third volume of Hemingway's stories from Simon and Schuster Audio. For many listeners Keach, who has read the two earlier collections, has become the voice of the unforgettable author who seemed to be as large in life as he was in literature. The very timbre of Keach's voice can evoke the 1920s, the years that Hemingway chronicled so indelibly. While many favorites are included in this collection, one is especially probing considering our world today - "A Clean, Well-lighted Place." First appearing in 1933, this is a brief, poignant account of an hour or so in a Spanish café. Two waiters, one older, one younger, serve a much older man who has become inebriated. The waiters discuss the older man's life, and seque into deeper opinions of the value of existence. "After The Storm" is set in one of the author's favorite locations, the Florida Keys. It is the story of a sponge fisherman and the booty he almost commands. Well chosen for their variety and reflections of Hemingway's style and ethos, the many tales included in this collection are well worth listening to again and again - especially when read by the estimable Keach. - Gail Cooke