I chose this book because the year 1925 was given for our Read the Year challenge. A whole century ago. I had read a few books from that year already, so the choice was not exactly limited but there wasn't a single book on my wishlist that would fit the challenge. So, I went for an author that I like and that I wanted to read more from.
Had I chosen it if I'd been aware that this is a collection of short stories? Probably not. Granted, they were linked with each other, somehow. But it still wasn't enough to really grip me.
However, this was his first publication and we can see a lot of topics that will come up in his later work. Having read some of those helped.
So, not my favourite of his books.
Book Description:
"A strikingly original collection of short stories and accompanying vignettes that marked Ernest Hemingway’s American debut.
When In Our Time was first published in 1925, it was widely praised for its simple and precise use of language to convey a wide range of complex emotions, and earned Hemingway a place among the most promising American writers of that period. In Our Time contains several early Hemingway classics, including the famous Nick Adams stories 'Indian Camp' and 'The Three Day Blow', and introduces readers to the hallmarks of the Hemingway a lean, tough prose, enlivened by an ear for the colloquial and an eye for the realistic. His writing suggests, through the simplest of statements, a sense of moral value and a clarity of vision.
Now recognized as one of the most important short story collections of twentieth-century literature, In Our Time provides key insights into Hemingway’s later works."
Ernest Hemingway received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954 "for his mastery of the art of narrative, most recently demonstrated in 'The Old Man and the Sea' and for the influence that he has exerted on contemporary style".
I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.
Find all my Read The Year books here.
I have always loved Top Gear and espcially Richard Hammond, "The Hamster" (see his book On the Edge). The adventures the guys had in their show, they were always hilarious albeit very scary.
Here, Richard Hammond has written about his race to the North Pole with a dog-driven sled against his friends in a car - with a lot of preparation beforehand (Polar Special, also known as the Polar Challenge). And about his trip through Africa in a car that he bought right there and kept later on because he had named it (Ollie) and you cannot sell a car with a name. LOL.
And there are other stories in the book, how he rescued some friends who were stuck in their house in the flood in Gloucestershire. And how he met Eviel Knievel, a guy I never was interested in and am even less after reading about him, even though he was one of the author's heroes.
In any case, this was a very interesting book with lots of funny scenes, almost like watching Top Gear. And it was an easy yet still worthy book to read.
From the back cover:
"The wry, honest and often hilarious chronicles of a very brave and clever TV presenter, Arctic Explorer and general drawer of the Short Straw.
As one third of the BBC's Top Gear team, Richard Hammond's year since his near-fatal accident has been full of stunts and drama. From a race to the North Pole (with skis and dog-sled) to a journey through Botswana in a car named Oliver, and a seventeen-mile run through floods to his Gloucestershire home, in order to get to his daughter's birthday party, the year has been eventful, to say the least . . .
With his boundless optimism in the face of certain failure, Richard Hammond has become one of our funniest writers about a life (and a job) which constantly present a challenge."
Several people recommended William Boyd to me lately. And I had found one of his books in a used book sale. So, I decided to tackle this.
This is a collection of short stories about teenagers, young people, students, boarding school, murderers, all about people completely dissatisfied with their lives.
Short stories have never been my favourite and this book certainly didn't convice me otherwise. Please, if you have read his short stories and his novels and think the novels are so much better, tell me, otherwise this would be the last I have read of his stories.
From the back cover:
"Adolescent sex in a Scottish boys' public school ... Oddballs on the seedy side of America ... Murder in a quiet Devon cottage ... Comical, ironical or lacerating - wit is the keynote of these stories, which include two early adventures from the career of Morgan Leafy, glorious anti-hero of William Boyd's prize-winning novel 'A Good Man in Africa'.
Wiliam Boyd, winner of the Whitbread and Somerset Maugham Awards, introduces unlikely heroes desperate to redeem their unsatisfying lives.
From California poolsides to the battlegrounds of Vietnam, here is a world populated by weary souls who turn to fantasy as their sole escape from life's inequities. Stranded in an African hotel during a coup, an oafish Englishman impresses a young stewardess with stories of an enchanted life completely at odds with his sordid existence in 'The Coup'" In the title story, an arrogant, sadistic American pilot in Vietnam underestimaets the power of revenge when he relentlessly persecutes a member of his maintenance crew. With droll humor and rare compassion, Boyd's enthralling stories remind us of his stature as one of contemporary fiction's finest storytellers."
