Wednesday, March 7, 2018

101 Books, Number 19


Favorite Books Throughout My Life


19: A Farewell to Arms, 1929, by Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)

This was the first by Hemingway
That I had ever read at all.
A college frosh—back in the day—
I fell for Papa’s waterfall

Of words. A book suggested for
The frosh beginning their careers,
It drew me in—it was no chore
For me and others of my peers.

Okay, I cried there at the end—
My first “book cry”—but not the last.
There was no way I could pretend:
Oh, yes, my tears were leaking fast.

I read much more of Hemingway—
I saw his homes, stood by his grave.
I loved his stories—war and play—
And men who sometimes … misbehave.

I later taught some stories, too*—
And liked to see each student’s face
When Hemingway—in ways so true—
Showed them the injured human race.

*“The Killers,” “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” “Hills like White Elephants,” “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” and others.

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