NICK ADAMS STORIES

Rating:
Summary: Bully!
Review: I enjoyed the Nick Adams stories and have to give it a five star review. If you enjoy Hemingways writing then this is a must, one story "Big Two Hearted River" (which also has a very strong micro brew named after it and very cool art work on the label,I'd like to have the artwork not the label) when Nick went fishing and set his pack down and he looks back at the indentation his back had made reminds me...Better stop reading and buy the book I feel a spell coming on...It reminds me of an old army issue sleeping bag that we somehow ended up and there was no end to the tales of its wonders and virtues, but you dare not wash the thing or it would undermine the insulating qualities of the goose down insulation. Being a minor asthmatic I was quite harty despite being pitiful and week, I took this sleeping bag on a week long boy scouting camp out with my big buddy Big John. You see Big John drove to the meetings and I was 4 years his junior but he tolerated my company and I got to hang with the older kids. John was fifteen and had no license but this was the country so we didn't worry about such nonsense. Well by the second day I could hardly breath, I reckon my wheezing could have been heard for miles, so they called me to the scout masters office and asked me if I was sick and I said yes and they gave a knowing condescending smile to one another and drove me home. I was in bed with bronchitis for a week and finally recovered.The scout masters thought I was homesick,hence the condescending smirks. Later many years later I had allergy tests and mold and mildew really aggravate me, so if one puts 2 and 2 together they come up with the idea that sleeping in a filthy 30 year old sleeping bag might cause one with allergies some problems. Fortunately our dog Myrtle ( a beagle) gave birth on the sleeping bag and so it was then covered with afterbirth. I figured the thing was gone for good, we dared not wash it,I hated that bag and would want to wretch at the site of the pile of khaki green... I think my brother still has the thing still uses it believing in its amazing powers, heck the thing nearly kilt me and that's powerful in itself so I guess maybe it does have amazing powers, I know I will not tempt fate again. I quit scouts shortly after this since Big John quit and I was not about to have my mom drive me to those stupid meetings.Buy the Nick Adams stories, they have to be better than what you just suffered through.Perhaps you have to much time on your hands.

From BIg Two Hearted RIver:
Nick drank the coffee, the coffee according to Hopkins. The coffee was bitter Nick laughed. It made a good ending to the story. His mind was starting to work. He knew he could choke it because he was tired enough. He spilled the coffee out of the pot and shook the grounds loose into the fire. He lit a cigarette and went inside the tent. He took off his shoes and trousers, sitting on the blankets, rolled the shoes up inside the trousers for a pillow and got in between the blankets.

Out through the front of the tent he watched the glow of the fire when the night wind blew. It was a quiet night The swamp was perfectly quiet. Nick stretched under the blanket comfortably. A mosquito hummed close to his ear. Nick sat up and lit a match. The mosquito was on the canvas, over his head Nick moved the match quickly up to it. The mosquito made a satisfactory hiss in the flame. The match went out. Nick lay down again under the blanket. He turned on his side and shut his eyes. He was sleepy. He felt sleep coming. He curled up under the blanket and went to sleep.

In retrospect I suppose Nick was right in using blankets instead of a moldy old sleeping bag. One can learn from others experience.

Rating:
Summary: a gem
Review: Here they are, all of them, in order. The Nick Adams short stories were originally published in several books. They were not offered in the chronological sequence of Nick's life. This book puts them in order. It adds 8 additional pieces that were left in manuscript form when Hemingway died. Placed together in one book, and in this order, the stories form an attractive narrative. In many ways Nick's life paralleled Hemingway's. Nick was an action man, and damaged. He saw the world through knowing eyes. These stories can be read and savored one at a time, each forming a complete part of a larger whole.

Rating:
Summary: a gem
Review: Here they are, all of them, in order. The Nick Adams short stories were originally published in several books. They were not offered in the chronological sequence of Nick's life. This book puts them in order. It adds 8 additional pieces that were left in manuscript form when Hemingway died. Placed together in one book, and in this order, the stories form an attractive narrative. In many ways Nick's life paralleled Hemingway's. Nick was an action man, and damaged. He saw the world through knowing eyes. These stories can be read and savored one at a time, each forming a complete part of a larger whole.

Rating:
Summary: The Ongoing Debate
Review: I find it admirable that the publisher chose to include Nick Adams drafts that Hemingway worked on, set aside, and did not publish during his life. While incomplete as stories, they give insight into the creative process. Insofar as the stories Hemingway did publish, some are quite good: "Ten Indians", a story of adolescent love, rejection, and the resiliency of the teenage mind; "The Battler", a wonderful portrayal of mental illness among drifters and hobos; and "Fathers and Sons", a death meditation.

Other stories, such as the famous "Big Two Hearted River" and "The Killers" are just not very good. What is the significance of "Big Two Hearted River" consisting of two parts? Beats the hell of me. And the entire story is about nothing but the rituals of fishing and camping, which Hemingway describes to the point of fetishization. There is something at the very end about the swamp being a "tragic" place to fish, but that there will be another time to confront it. Don't be so obscure, Hem. What are you talking about? We'll never know because the story is devoid as to what's on Nick's mind (See footnote below). And then "The Killers" is implausible: contract killers are not ingenue who intentionally leave evidence trails and toss out incriminating statements; and witnesses do call the cops.

What I notice about all of the stories is that Hemingway mostly focuses on external things, and that little or nothing of the characters' inner lives is revealed. Because details of hunting, fishing and camping are interesting to a point only, ultimately, I lose interest. Hemingway's style is also annoying: he was too much the reporter and not enough the poet. Because he never sings, very little description is unique or memorable.

We must remember that these stories were written and published in the 1920s and 1930s. At that time Art Deco - simple, unadorned, streamlined - was popluar. Perhaps Hemingway, like many great artists, subconsciously intuited the zeitgeist, or spirit of the time, and reflected that in his writing. Hemingway's style and substance now seem dated. But at one time, like Art Deco, they were revolutionary. Perhaps that explains Hemingway's once extraordinary popularity which seems incomprehensible now.

FOOTNOTE: I have since discovered that such obscurity was intentional and evidently first applied during the writing of this story. Hemingway describes this literary device in "Hunger Was A Good Discipline", which appears on page 75 in A MOVEABLE FEAST, as his ". . . new theory that you could omit anthing if you knew you omitted and the omitted part would strengthen the story and make people feel something more than they understood. . . . And as long as they don't understand it you are ahead."

Rating:
Summary: Ernest Hemingway-The Nick Adams Stories" Indian Camp "
Review: Nick adams is a young boy who grows from a child to an adolescent to an adult.In his stories he expresses his virtual characterustics, thoughts and emotions through experiences and struggles that he shares with his father and his uncle. In the story "Indian Camp " Nick accompanies his father to a camp where a young Indian women is giving birth to a child. Nick must watch and try to understand what happens to the women as she goes through the painful process of child labor and also an oproration without an aneothetic.While Nick watches he is confused but is persistant in showing his father that he is aware and understands the situation at hand. As the story progresses, other obstacles occur that leave questions unanswered for Nick.Although he does not quite understand, he is willing to make it look as if he does so that his father will look at him as an adult rather than a boy. The concept of the story itself is a cover masking the emotionsof Nick and his father and how he works at gaining his fathers acceptance on various levels. The story is a compelling one that lets you in on the insight of human behavior and the hidden meanings within.

Rating:
Summary: grin and bear it
Review: The Nick Adams Short Stories offer an in-depth detailed look at a young boys life. The book takes us through his early childhood years and progress through all of his stages of manhood. The Author Ernest Hemingway writes a story that is very easy reading. The stories in this novel are individual, however at the same time they all tie in together at the end. The book can either be read one story at a time or in any chronological order. I believe any reader can easily understand this book, and for someone who would like to get interested in Hemingway's works reading this book would be a good starting point and will probably turn you on to some of his more famous writings.

Rating:
Summary: A Peach
Review: The Nick Adams Short Stories offer an in-depth detailed look at a young boys life. The book takes us through his early childhood years and progress through all of his stages of manhood. The Author Ernest Hemingway writes a story that is very easy reading. The stories in this novel are individual, however at the same time they all tie in together at the end. The book can either be read one story at a time or in any chronological order. I believe any reader can easily understand this book, and for someone who would like to get interested in Hemingway's works reading this book would be a good starting point and will probably turn you on to some of his more famous writings.

Rating:
Summary: A book for Everyone
Review: The Nick Adams Stories was an exellent book. I think that it fits any person no matter what thier interests are. If you are not a big reader, the book offers a wide variety of short stories that seem so simple but have so much more to them. The stories challeng male maculinity and seem like a guys book, but there is more to it than that. The book also allows women to relate to how men often act. The book helps us see how people act in the most usual situations. One example of this is our constant competition with our peers over the opposite sex. I really enjoyed this book. I really liked watching Nick Adams grow from a boy into a man. I recommend this book to anyone. It is Hemingway at his best.

Rating:
Summary: There's a Nick Adams inside all of us
Review: This is a wonderful set of stories that everyone can thoroughly enjoy, mainly because it deals with themes that are familiar to us all. The independent stories deal with Nick Adams during several stages through his life, during which he must come to terms with outside influences as well as his own inner demons. Many of the stories show Nick trying to understand his place in the world, showing how he copes with many of the same issues that we all must deal with. Manhood is a prominant theme throughout many of these stories, showing how Nick and many other men deal with their emotions and handle different relationships. It is apparent that this is a somewhat autobiographical account of Hemingway's life, which may help you understand the trials and tribulations that Hemingway was forced to go through. The stories themselves are very entertaining, sometimes humorous, sometimes sad, but always based in reality.

Rating:
Summary: The novel Hemingway never wrote
Review: Though Hemingway did not, strictly speaking, write this book, he did writeevery word in it: except of course for the preface. The stories about Nick Adamsoriginally appeared in the Hemingway collections, In Our Time, Men Without Women, and Winner Take Nothing, all published before Papa was 40. Here they have been assembled in "chronological" order, i.e. in an order based upon Nick's apparent age in the stories, and have been "supplemented" with 8 pieces of Nick Adams material which Hemingway never published. The best of these "new" pieces is "Summer People," a moving and evocative story involving young lust. The most fascinating piece, for those interested in Hemingway the writer, as writer, and in his opinions on other writers, is the piece "On Writing." Perhaps the most provocative "might have been" is the unfinished novella, "The Last Good Country," in which Nick runs away from home to avoid arrest by game wardens, and is accompanied by his younger sister, "Littless." This assemblage does not, to be sure, create a Nick Adams novel, but it does allow the stories to build and accumulate, and to create thereby, perhaps, the semblance of a life. And yes, of course I had to use the information in the preface to assemble this review. I'm not a Hemingway scholar, you know.