05-11-2020, 08:29 PM
This was a re-read. I read this about 30 years ago and really enjoyed it. This time I didn't, and gave it up about half way through. Hemingway seems unlikeable; he tends to put down all of the people he introduces us to. Also the books is very melancholy, which I either didn't notice before or maybe found romantic or something. Now it just feels like an old drunk - this was his last book, left a bit unfinished when he died - looking back at a better time of his life. And the dialog is unnatural, very stilted and it just rings false. Or maybe he just can't render the French well into English? On the other hand, some of his descriptions are very good and read well. If you like his short stories you might like it; it's all short pieces which (like my experience of his stories) don't really go anywhere.
the hands that guide me are invisible