My Favorite Writer: Ernest Hemingway

THE GREAT ERNEST HEMINGWAY

Ernest Hemingway is my all time favorite writer. Still it took me about eight years after I first purchased his paper back collections of work -- in the late '80s -- to read him. Hemingway -- in my opinion -- keeps it real. Not that I was happy about that truth telling in "Up In Michigan" I enjoyed it in my very pissed off way.

HOW I FELT READING HIS WORK

I was truly believing he was speaking about himself — except for the ending — in "The Snows Of Kilimanjaro". I felt like a voyeur.

In "The Capitol Of The World" I wished Paco could have kept his illusions ... a little longer, and his sisters' their escapes from their harsh realities — whenever they were not working — forever.

WHEN I DECIDED TO BECOME A WRITER

In my very early twenties, when I had first informed my Father I wanted to be a writer he was supportive, but pragmatic. I wanted to just write. He suggested I study writing and for that I would need a job doing something I may not want to, but it would pay for the cost of my writing supplies. He also told me that I should visualize myself as a writer ....

NOT SEEING MYSELF AS I WANTED

For all the years I have practiced the advice my Father gave me about .... visualizing my future as a writer, I truly did not see myself as a writer .... I thought I did, but I did not.

See, I always was in a rush to learn the writing craft so I could get published by a certain age, or before I died. I was scared I would leave this earth as an unpublished writer. For me that meant I would have been a failure in life. Of course that made me a very sad woman within .... I just did not know that then.

THE REVELATION CAME IN A STORY

Then, one day, I read, "The Short Happy Life Of Francis Macomber". Suddenly, at the ending of the story, I closed my eyes. I took a few moments to really see me not famous, and doing talk shows, but working daily in my room, and at my desk ....

I saw my future as a writer, and then I asked myself, What if you die now? It was strange. I felt serene. Oh, I did not want to die, but I was not freaked out about completing my work, because I then understood if I were to die that moment I would be a happy woman, because I saw my future, and it looked good. All of my future days had me working towards my goal of becoming a writer. How could I be unhappy about that?

Now whenever I think of Hemingway a smile comes on my face, because of good old Francis Macomber.

STORIES THAT STAND THE TEST OF TIME

I was not really too interested in reading the short story, "Hills Like White Elephants", because I kept thinking about the word, pretentious. That word was used in an episode of the TV show, Frasier where the two brothers — Miles and Frasier — were discussing how pretentious the story, "Hill Like White Elephants" was.

I was confused once I actually began reading it, because I understood what was happening, and was embarrassed by my realization as if I were there. Still, like an ease dropper I thought, OMG. Are they talking about .... Then I thought, This is pretentious? What's up with Frasier's writers? What's up with that cast? How could those ... educated people not know what the hell this is about? None of them ever dated a woman? I mean really.

FEELING LIKE AN EAVESDROPPER

I actually felt like a gossipy woman needing to tell all I knew about what I thought I had heard as if the story was true.

Written in 1927, and published in 1928 ... the story's realities are mostly the same today ....

I do not want to anyone, who has not read this masterpiece, the story.

If you had read it before, please write your understanding — of the story — in the comments area. Thanks.