Re: the Jerry & Ernie show

Emily Friedman (bananafish_9@yahoo.com)
Wed, 17 Feb 1999 09:43:18 -0800 (PST) 

> Absolutely.  "The Battler" is another extraordinary example of a story
> that happens almost totally beneath the surface of the narrative.
> Nearly all the Nick Adams stories carry very well -- hmmm, an
> interesting consideration when you think of how EH wrote an ongoing
> series of stories about a character who grows from childhood to
> fatherhood, written over the course of many years.  Scribner's did the
> world a service, for once, by collecting them as "The Nick Adams
> Stories," which show us certain characters grow as the writer grows in
> experience and skill.
> 
> I certainly think Salinger looked to Hemingway's short fiction as a
> model.  Compare "Pretty Mouth" and EH's "Hills Like White Elephants,"
> where so much turmoil is beneath the dialogue.
> 
> It just occurred to me that my very first post to this list
(tremblingly
> submitted!) was a comparison between "Big Two-Hearted River" and the
> Sgt. X of "Esme," and their shatteredness.  Here we are back to very
> rich and fertile soil.
> 
> Genuinely, if you're a young reader and you loved Catcher and you're
> looking for something else that has a character with whom you might 
> empathize (in a way you may not yet empathize with Franny & Zooey,
> depending on your age and your perspective), have a look at
Hemingway's
> Nick Adams stories, available at better book stores and libraries all
> over.  Especially "Indian Camp," "The Battler," "The Doctor and the
> Doctor's Wife," and the extravagantly beautiful "Big Two-Hearted 
> River."
> 
> The early stories show Nick as a young boy, growing through
adolescence
> and into a confused adulthood.  They end with him a father himself,
> reflecting on his own father -- "Fathers and Sons" is a story that
> always knots my stomach.  (And while I was a son, I am not a father --
> so even I, child-resistant, empathize.)
> 
> Anyhow, Will, good choice, "Indian Camp"!  Plenty of concrete
details, 
> and an ironic ending so genuine, it's hard to believe it when you read
> it, if you know about Hemingway's life and death.
> 
> --tim
> 
I really like Hemingway's Nick Adams stories because the setting of
the stories is in Northern Michigan, which is where I have spent my
summers for the past 16 years. Hemingway captures the beauty of
Northern Michigan very well. 
-Liz Friedman
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