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What is your response to Ernest Hemingway's style? Do you Like it? Explain your answer.

Actually, at the risk of waffling, I'd have to say my response to Hemingway's style varies. When it works, it works extremely well. I'd use "Hills Like White Elephants" as an example here. His stripped down style causes everything in the story to matter. Every pause, every detail in the landscape, every word choice by the characters, reveals hidden depths. In those cases, it works very well indeed.

Other times, I find him irritating. It's like he's reaching for a posture and not quite making it. This happens most when he seems to be reaching for a great statement on the nature of life, like in "A Clean Well-Lighted Place." That explosion of "nada" at the end seems like self-indulgence.

I have come to admire the artistry in much of Hemingway's writing, especially the early stories and novels. It took me a while to appreciate his style because of its lack of imagery and figurative language, but after I had read more of Hemingway, I found it engaging. I read recently in an enotes study guide that Hemingway likened a story to an iceberg--most of it is below the surface. To appreciate his work, then, it becomes necessary to read between the lines and below the surface--to understand his characters through the prism of our own human experience. His style requires that the reader infers a great deal.

One of my favorite Hemingway stories is "Big Two-Hearted River." Nick Adams Goes Camping is really Nick Adams Struggles Minute by Minute To Hold Himself Together After Experiencing War. It's all there, just below the surface, for the insightful reader.