Men Without Women

Men Without Women
Author: Ernest Hemingway 1928 130 pp
My rating: 3.5*
Started March 2 2009, Finished March 3 2009.

Almost every one of the stories in this slim volume packs a punch, sometimes literally. The same potency at double the length would have put this book in the four star category. The salient feature of most of these pieces is that they are compelling tales, generating a sense of tension and expectation that makes the reader want to know what is going to happen. They also provide some insight into the macho component of human behavior. The book lives up to its title with only one of fourteen stories containing a significant female character; the male characters for their part tend to be inexpressive to an almost self-parodying degree. The stories that will last the longest with me are “The Undefeated”, a chronicle of an aging bullfighter with echoes of The Old Man and The Sea, “Fifty Grand” an account of a prizefighter giving his all for one last big pay day, and the haunting “Now I Lay Me” about a convalescing soldier whose wound resulted from a shelling while he slept, who now is afraid of sleep and keeps himself awake by visualizing the fishing holes of his youth.

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He knew all about bulls. He did not have to think about them. He just did the right thing. His eyes noted things and his body performed the necessary measures without thought If he though about it, he would be gone (26)

It was bright and cold and the air came cold through the open windshield. (55)