I’ve read a lot of Hemingway but I’ve always stayed away from In Our Time since I’m generally, not a short story fan. Hemingway’s voice, however, does lend itself to exploration through smaller vignettes even though For Whom the Bell Tolls, his longest book, is my true favorite.

I really can’t believe that this was his first published work. I mean, it is truly so, well, him. The most impressive or, really comforting, thing for me about the stories included in In Our Time was the similarity to the themes found in his later, more fleshed out work. The snippets of story about friendship, family, romance and life on the land and sea are the things that have always driven my Hemingway reading.

It is such a different style than my own preferred, flowery, ramblings that I’ve always been surprised that I do enjoy reading his books. With the same measure of difference, though, Hemingway’s prose received amazing acclaim from Fitzgerald who is as verbose as the day is long.

Of course, much of the stilted, simplicity that is attributed to Hemingway’s writing is not really warranted after a few pages of writing. He does dip into a little bit of a lyrical style once he gets rolling in most of his works. Of course, he’s not Fitzgerald but very few people actually are.

For readers who haven’t read much of Papa’s work, or were scared off by some monstrosity of a literature ogre in middle school who traumatized them with a seven week slogging through of The Old Man in the Sea, this is a good one to pick up. Again, it gives the reader just a little taste of what Hemingway offers in his later works while still getting into deeper moments between friends on those moonlit nights, drinking down on the dock.