Happy 110th birthday to Ernest Hemingway!! He seems to get kind of a raw deal these days when people talk about modern authors - maybe because of the macho thing, or maybe his style has just become too cliche to take seriously. In any case, I love his books and I had the pleasure of teaching The Old Man and the Sea to my 11th grade class this last school year. Say what you will about Hemingway's simple writing style, but after going through nearly 200 years of people like Hawthorn and Melville, my students were so happy to get to something that they could understand!! At the end of the year, they nearly all listed that book as the best one that we read, and I still enjoyed it after having read it many times.
Speaking of "Papa", I also just finished a book called The Shack by William Young. I really enjoyed it - has anyone else read it? Any thoughts?
5 comments:
OK, so how was The Shack? We just talked about it, so you know I couldn't get through it, I didn't even make it to the shack, but I'm curious to hear what you thought of it.
That's cool that your students really liked The Old Man and the Sea. Never read that one either! Jeez, I sound illiterate here! But honestly, too machismo for me...I'll stick to Austen and pretty stories, thank you very much.
Amy
Happy birthday to Papa. I've only read "Farewell to Arms," "Old Man and the Sea," and "Hills Like White Elephants," but enjoyed them all, so should probably read more.
He's easy to read, and the cliche and machismo never seemed to bother me. I like how existential he was. And unlike most other existential writers, he actually did off himself, which for me somehow colors everything he wrote, retroactively.
Hi love. I'm down with Papa Hemingway. 'The Sun Also Rises' is my favorite. I'm still partial to the shirt Eli bought me many many moons ago with a picture of Hemingway floating belly-up in a river, reading a book, with the quote, "No man in an island," written beneath it.
As for 'The Shack', I doubt you'll be able to convert me on that one. From the little bit that I read, I don't think I could get past the writing, or the conceit of the story, for that matter. But I will be interested to see what it is that you liked about it.
Okay, dude. I was curious, so I picked up The Shack. I'm about a third of the way through it. Wow. Right now all I can say is it's a helluva satire, though unfortunately it is not. We can discuss more when I finish. Wow.
Ha! When you finish, we might need a phone call!!
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