Hemingway's Short Stories: Reflections on Teaching, Reading, and Understanding ed. by Frederic J. Svoboda (review)

A recent addition to the Teaching Hemingway series, Hemingway's Short Stories: Reflections on Teaching, Reading, and Understanding, edited by Frederic Svoboda, is a highly useful volume for high school and college instructors who often introduce students to Hemingway through one of his famous short stories. As Mark P. Ott mentions in his Foreword, the essays included here "revise our understanding not only of Hemingway but also how to refresh his work for students" (x). Building on the work of Paul Smith and Joseph J. Waldmeir, to whom the book is dedicated, Svoboda enlists leading literary critics to analyze thirteen Hemingway stories, several of which are frequently anthologized such as "Indian Camp"; "Big Two-Hearted River"; or "Hills Like White Elephants," and some that readers may not know as well, such as "Cross Country Snow" or "A Simple Enquiry." Essays model a variety of teaching practices and thematic focuses to enable close reading for high school, college, and technical school students. As Svoboda remarks, close reading is useful "for literary study in general—or even for any college course requiring attention to details" (xi).

After Svoboda's introduction, Peter L. Hays begins the volume with the first short story from In Our Time, "First Things: Teaching 'Indian Camp.'" Focusing his approach to the story with undergraduate and graduate students, Hays takes readers through the main events in the story, posing questions aimed at eliciting the class's perceptions of the Native Americans, Dr. Adams, Nick (his young son), and Uncle George. Hays highlights often overlooked details of light imagery, the contrast in landscape at the beginning and end of the story, varying interpretations of Dr. Adams' comments, and the Native American husband's motive for his suicide. This first essay bodes well for the "hands on" advice for instructors in this collection.

Several more essays focus on In Our Time selections, showcasing a variety of teaching techniques. Janice Byrne's essay "Hemingway's 'The End of Something' for High School Sophomores" features pre-reading activities about Hemingway's experiences in World War I, as a way of preparing them for Nick's break-up with Marjorie. Byrne follows the biographical detail with a two-minute writing activity about Nick and then Marjorie for individual students or small groups. Another option, according to Byrne, is to ask small groups to consider the thematic images in the text, such as the past, love, or alienation. She also finds the setting of the demolished sawmill at the beginning of the story ripe for discussion. Byrne ends her essay with a number of post-discussion activities. Another take on how World War I affects a character is Judith Siegel Henn's essay "The Education of Harold Krebs, or Approaching Ernest Hemingway's 'Soldier's Home' with Engineering Students in Israel." Seeking information about her students' understanding of Hemingway in general and in their ease of understanding the story, Henn asks student to complete pre-reading questionnaires which she includes in the essay. Once students have read the story, Henn identifies dilemmas or problem areas in the story, such as the meaning of the photos at the beginning or Krebs' "disgust with duplicity," and asks small groups to analyze those areas before reporting to the class. Quoting from student papers, Henn marvels at how well the story invites "reading between the lines." Frederic Svoboda's contribution, "The Things That Nick Adams Carried to the 'Big Two-Hearted River,'" with an acknowledged link to Tim O'Brien's story and novel, demonstrates the realism of Nick Adams's fishing journey by physically demonstrating to his Michigan students that a 65-pound backpack can indeed account for every item mentioned in the story.

Paired essays in the collection include two on "The Battler," also from In Our Time. These essays discuss the tricky issue of race in the story, focusing on the character of Bugs, the African-American "caretaker" of the white...