This pic is snuck from the fabulous blog: fuckyeahhemingway.tumblr.com where it was submitted by somebody called jwock.

I’ve loved a lot of Hemingway’s work but I’d particularly recommend the book I just read:  Islands in the Stream. It’s broken into three set-pieces and kicks off with a violent clobbering of a yachtie. A frank conversation afterward reveals how the assailant feels about it, as well as our main character. Without that discussion, I probably wouldn’t have liked either character much. Afterward I was on board: hooked.

If you want to know how women used to be, read Austen. If you want to know men, Hemingway is your man. He is philosophical, practical, and full of knowledge about fishing and boating, bullfighting and war, as well as what it means to be an artist and a drinker. Also, his commentary on relationships and how they develop and break down is superb.

Hemingway’s writing glides. Some authors make me pause a few times a page to note down a word I don’t know; the only word I had to look up in Islands was “potentate”. It means somebody with authority or power.

Despite Hemingway’s well-known health issues, his writing never lost either of those attributes.