What do You think about The Nick Adams Stories (1972)?
The Nick Adams Stories is one of the collections of Hemingway’s short stories published after his death. Organized by Phillip Young in 1972, it includes a total of 24 works presumably arranged in chronological order in regard to Nick Adam’s life rather than in regard to the actual date when Hemingway published the stories themselves. Young notes in his preface:Arranged in chronological sequence, the events of Nick’s life make up a meaningful narrative in which a memorable character grows from child to adolescent to soldier, veteran, writer, and parent—a sequence closely paralleling the events of Hemingway’s own life. In this arrangement Nick Adams, who for a long time was not widely recognized as a consistent character at all, emerges clearly as the first in a long line of Hemingway’s fictional selves.Of the 24 stories included in the volume, 16 had been published previously by Hemingway: 8, in In Our Time in 1924; 5, in Men Without Women in 1927; 3, in Winner Take Nothing in 1933. The remaining 8 were unpublished manuscripts and/or manuscript fragments that Hemingway had left among his papers.The stories are uneven in quality. Some are among the best of Hemingway’s fiction including, for example, “Indian Camp”, “The Battler”, “Big Two Hearted River” “Three-Day Blow” and “Fathers and Sons”. Others, generally those that Hemingway had not published and/or had not actually finished such as "The Last Good Company”, tend to be substandard.Although Young intended the order of the stories to follow Nick Adams fictional life, I am not certain that the arrangement is accurate. In particular, the stories included in the second section titled “On His Own” seem out of sequence:Young’s OrderTen IndiansThe Indians Moved AwayThe Light of the WorldThe BattlerThe KillersThe Last Good CompanyCrossing MississippiApparent OrderTen IndiansThe Last Good CompanyThe BattlerThe Indians Moved AwayThe Light of the WorldThe KillersCrossing MississippiStill, even ordered as they are, the collection does provide a more coherent sense of the struggles and challenges of one of Hemingway’s major fictional characters. With the stories in one volume, it is also easier to see the linkages between Hemingway’s life and that of Nick Adams. The stories flow clearly from northern Michigan and Nick’s youth; to Europe and Nick’s involvement in the war including his injuries sustained in battle; Nick’s return to Michigan and his recovery from the emotional strains of the war; his marriage and his return to Europe; his final reflections back in Michigan, with his son. In broad outlines, Nick’s life trajectory reflects part of Hemingway’s, a similarity that have led many to suggest that Nick Adams is one of Hemingway’s alter egos, although Nick does not follow Hemingway much after the early 1930s. Nick, except for World War One and a brief return to Europe, stays in Michigan.
—Jay
To be honest, this book was poorly written, aand I would have expected more from such a famous author. The bridging from chapter to chapter was absent, and I often found myself confused. I don't think it has any redeeming qualities, so I stopped reading on about page 270. Worse still, it had so many swear words in every sentence (a VERY colorful vocabulary), that it could give you a heart attack. For a time we had to read it out loud, and we had to beep out words more than talk! I do not recommend it to anyone.
—Clare
It can be unsettling, unnerving to revisit an author embraced during one's teenage years. Reader reaction can have less to do with literature than with memory and passion. I read all of Hemingway when I was in high school, and I had quite a crush on him. He became the first version of my Jungian "animus." Now, four decades later, I reread these stories and am stunned by the powerful feelings they generate - adolescent yearning, glorious self-confidence, a naive sense of ownership of all that is significant - yes, the world does revolve around me and why not? look at how marvelous it is to be young and alive. But emotion aside, the older reader in me was pleased to find well-crafted passages and true-to-the-ear dialog. A rewarding book.--from "The Last Good Country" pg. 84"Mr. John liked Nick Adams because he said he had original sin. Nick did not understand this but he was proud."'You're going to have things to repent, boy,' Mr. John had told Nick. 'That's one of the best things there is. You can always decide whether to repent them or not. But the thing is to have them.'" -- on insomnia after a war wound, from "Now I Lay Me" pg.126 & 130"I myself did not want to sleep because I had been living for a long time with the knowledge that if I ever shut my eyes in the dark and let myself go, my soul would go out of my body. I had been that way for a long time, ever since I had been blown up at night and felt it go out of me and go off and then come back. I tried never to think about it, but it had started to go since, in the nights, just at the moment of going off to sleep, and I could only stop it by a very great effort. So while now I am fairly sure that it would not really have gone out, yet then, that summer, I was unwilling to make the experiment....."If I could have a light to sleep I was not afraid to sleep, because I knew my soul would only go out of me if it were dark. So, of course, many nights I was where I could have a light and then I slept because I was nearly always tired and often very sleepy. And I am sure many times, too, that I slept without knowing it - but I never slept knowing it..."-- the opening of "In Another Country" pg. 149"In the fall the war was always there, but we did not go to it any more. It was cold in the fall in Milan and the dark came very early. Then the electric lights came on, and it was pleasant along the streets looking in the windows. There was much game hanging outside the shops, and the snow powdered in the fur of the foxes and wind blew their tails. The deer hung stiff and heavy and empty, and small birds blew in the wind and the wind turned their feathers. It was a cold fall and the wind came down from the mountains."
—Mary Overton
