Ernest Hemingway's Across the River and Into the Trees

[Vladimir_Kyrilytch]

Ernest Hemingway wrote many very highly regarded works of literary fiction. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature shortly after The Old Man and the Sea was published. Many of you have heard of him. Some of you have read him. I bet none of you have read this.

Critics hated it. They found it lacking.

Hemingway himself said "all my prior works were simple algebra and geometry compared to this. This is calculus. If the critics can't understand it, to hell with them."

Those are bold words coming from the author of To Have and Have Not. Bolder still from the author of For Whom the Bell Tolls.

Any thoughts on Across the River? The title of the book is a Stonewall Jackson quote.

[Vladimir_Kyrilytch]

So many historical references in the mere first 12 pages. Liver Eating Johnston is one. The internet tells me wild tales about that guy. He really did eat the livers of Crow Indians in retribution for unspeakable acts they committed against his wife and home.

That's just one reference. And just from the initial chapters. This is a hell of a book.

[BigRedChief]

I think I've read every book of his. This one was meh for him. My favorite is "For whom the bell tolls" is my favorite book not just of his bit all authors.

[Vladimir_Kyrilytch]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

I think I've read every book of his. This one was meh for him. My favorite is "For whom the bell tolls" is my favorite book not just of his bit all authors.

Welcome to the CP book club Big Red Chief. It's an exclusive club. It consists of you and me.

How can you possibly rank For Whom the Bell Tolls over To Have and Have Not? I loved them both, don't get me wrong. But in the former, we had to get through all the love scenes of Robert Jordan and Maria. Maria was an awful character. She had no personality other than "I love Robert Jordan". Her only ambition in life was to have sex with Robert Jordan, and to make him all his meals, serve him his whiskey whenever he beckons for it, and nothing further. And she was a victim of unspeakable abuses, full on gang rape, like a month before she meets him. A woman that went through that type of trauma wouldnt jump into the first sleeping robe of an American soldier that comes by. But thats what happens in For Whom. It impaired the book to me some. The war stuff was amazing though. The whole bridge scene was INTENSE.

But Maria is why I put To Have and Have Not at the top of Hemingway's list of works. There was a bit of love making in it but it didnt drag the story to a halt like Robert Jordan and Maria whispering sweet nothings into each other's ears for chapters at a time. No critics rank To Have and Have Not as EH's best and it baffles me cause I do!

[scho63]

I'm trying to remember if I ever read a single Hemingway novel. I'm embarrassed that I don't think I have.

I thought I read Old Man and the Sea for English class but I'll be damned if I know for sure.

[Megatron96]

My favorite was always "The Old Man and the Sea," but I'm a fisherman, so I was always biased. Also "The Sun Also Rises" and "A Farewell to Arms," were always favs of mine. Just finished "A Moveable Feast" for the fifth time a few months ago. I'll have to look and see if i ever read "Across the River and Into the Trees"

[Megatron96]

Originally Posted by scho63

I'm trying to remember if I ever read a single Hemingway novel. I'm embarrassed that I don't think I have.

I thought I read Old Man and the Sea for English class but I'll be damned if I know for sure.

Try "A Moveable Feast." Good read and not a long one either.

[Vladimir_Kyrilytch]

Originally Posted by scho63

I'm trying to remember if I ever read a single Hemingway novel. I'm embarrassed that I don't think I have.

I thought I read Old Man and the Sea for English class but I'll be damned if I know for sure.

You know what's funny is that I thought I had read Old Man and the Sea and I remembered specific parts of it. So when I decided to read it again, I thought it couldn't be that great cause I don't remember DISliking it, but I don't remember it blowing my mind either.

So I read it again. Turns out I had never read it at all! And it was even better than I misremembered! The story I really read in an English class so long ago was actually "The Open Boat" by Stephen Crane. Crane was big time but he died young (28 years old, TB). His prose was on Faulkner's level though. He would have gone down as the best of all time had he lived longer.

So your homework, Scho, is to read both the Old Man and the Sea and The Open Boat and report back about which one you liked better. They are both quick reads. They are both well worth it.

[Vladimir_Kyrilytch]

Originally Posted by Megatron96

My favorite was always "The Old Man and the Sea," but I'm a fisherman, so I was always biased. Also "The Sun Also Rises" and "A Farewell to Arms," were always favs of mine. Just finished "A Moveable Feast" for the fifth time a few months ago. I'll have to look and see if i ever read "Across the River and Into the Trees"

You read another of his stories 5 times without reading Across the River?

Across the River was what Hemingway himself considered his masterpiece! I'm only a few chapters in but I'm digging it greatly Mr Megatron. I doubt you wouldnt like it.

I'm gonna have to read this moveable dinner story now.

[Megatron96]

Originally Posted by Vladimir_Kyrilytch

You read another of his stories 5 times without reading Across the River?

Across the River was what Hemingway himself considered his masterpiece! I'm only a few chapters in but I'm digging it greatly Mr Megatron. I doubt you wouldnt like it.

I'm gonna have to read this moveable dinner story now.

It's really a set of short stories. Kind of a fictionalized accounting of his time in Paris.

Probably I just never got around to reading Across the River. I've always kind of flipped back and forth between him and Faulkner, went down a Camus road, etc.

[Vladimir_Kyrilytch]

Originally Posted by Megatron96

It's really a set of short stories. Kind of a fictionalized accounting of his time in Paris.

Probably I just never got around to reading Across the River. I've always kind of flipped back and forth between him and Faulkner, went down a Camus road, etc.

Faulkner?!?! You are speaking my language now. In the Snopes trilogy, there is a character named VK Ratliff. You only find out later on what the VK really meant. He was actually a Russian, and VK were initials for a Russian name. Now look at my own user name!

William Faulkner. Did you know he added the U himself? His real name was Falkner. His great grandfather was Colonel Falkner, the real guy Faulkner based his John Sartoris on. Confederate cavalryman.

Hemingway and Faulkner didn't get along, which is interesting. "Hemingway never used a word that would cause a reader to get a dictionary to see if he used it right." "Poor Faulkner, does he really think big emotions come from big words?"

[Vladimir_Kyrilytch]

Originally Posted by Megatron96

My favorite was always "The Old Man and the Sea," but I'm a fisherman, so I was always biased. Also "The Sun Also Rises" and "A Farewell to Arms," were always favs of mine. Just finished "A Moveable Feast" for the fifth time a few months ago. I'll have to look and see if i ever read "Across the River and Into the Trees"

Big news Megatron, pertaining to your post I quote here above. There I was, reading Across the River and Into the Trees, minding my own business, making my slow progress cause I look up all the historical references. I came across the following passage which you'll find interesting:

'The Canal was grey as steel now in the quick, failing, winter light and the Colonel said, 'Arnaldo, open the windows'.

'There is much wind, my Colonel, and the room is badly heated due to the lack of electric power.'

'Due to the lack of rainfall', the Colonel said. 'Open the windows. All of them.'

'As you wish, my Colonel'

The waiter opened the windows and the north wind came into the room.

'Please call the desk and ask them to ring this number.' The waiter made the call while the Colonel was in the bathroom.

'The Contessa is not at home, my Colonel', he said. 'They believe you might find her at Harry's'

'You find everything on Earth at Harry's'.

'Yes, my Colonel. Except, possibly, happiness.'

'I'll damned well find happiness, too,' the Colonel assured him. 'Happiness, as you know, is a movable feast.'

'I'm aware of that,' the waiter said.

Will you look at that! A reference to that movable feast of yours, and in a novel published 14 years before the book of the same name that you regard so highly.

Had to share that with you my good friend!