“Men Without Women”– Book Review

Ernest Hemingway is a puzzle that continuously needs to be solved over and over again.  In a sense, reading him can be like reading Shakespeare in the sense that it desperately needs to be annotated in order to understand what’s going on at any given moment in the story.  Whatever he is writing about often needs to be unlocked by how he is writing it – i.e., the narrative descriptions and the comparisons, analogies or euphemisms.  As a writer, Hemingway struck the perfect balance between merely observing life (human nature) and being an active participant in it (war, boxing, bullfighting). 

If you are an admirer of Hemingway, then rest assured that “Men Without Women” touches on all of these topics – human nature, war, boxing and bullfighting.  Originally published in 1927, this is a collection of fourteen of Hemingway’s short stories.  The title, however, might be a bit misleading because some of the stories are actually focused on the complexity of relationships between men and women – which is, arguably, the author’s métier.  Most notably is “Hills Like White Elephants”, which, at its essence, is about abortion. 

This particular short story is what motivated me to read this book because of my personal history with “Hills Like White Elephants”.  My first reading of this story was back in 1977, the Spring Semester of my Freshman year in college.  Given the fact that I was attending a Catholic University at the time, one might imagine how eye-opening it was for me to discover that such a classic short story was about this particular topic; at the tender age of 18, it was quite a bit for this teenager to wrap his head around, particularly in such a religious environment. 

What is a so-called “white elephant”?  One definition is that it is something that is not desired by its owner or a possession maintained at much expense.  It may be suggested that for those who do not seek parenthood that children, in general, are both unwanted and expensive – a difficult thing to refute.  The fact that Hemingway could write about it so artfully without actually mentioning the word abortion was never actually used speaks to the author’s skill and subtlety.  Also, keep in mind that this was written decades before Roe v. Wade, so the procedure could only be done legally in Europe. 

Another reason why this particular story so remarkable is how well Hemingway writes about the complexity of the relationship between men and women.  In “Hills Like White Elephants”, one gets the sense that the woman is going through with this simply to please her man because she doesn’t want to lose him – and yet it seems as though this relationship is nearing its end.  He knows that she truly wanted this baby and is now even trying to convince himself that this procedure was a mutual agreement between them, whereas it was really coming at his insistence.

While there are other good stories in this collection, it’s rather haphazard; there’s filler in between the worthwhile pieces.  What makes it worth the read, however, is not only the better stories but also the historical context; it features Hemingway at his early stages in life, working and practicing in order to become the legend that he was.  To see him make a misstep or two along the way almost humanizes him.  For all his success, there were considerable artistic imperfections.  Not even Babe Ruth hit a homerun every time he came up to bat.       

Men Without Women: Ernest Hemingway: 9780684825861: Books ISBN: 0684825864 ISBN-13: 9780684825861