I've never understood why English teachers choose Old Man and the Sea for the representative Hemingway work.US education is a leftist monolith? Whatever The Party says they must teach, they must teach?
After the obligatory reading of this in school, I remember our teacher making similar criticisms as Yardley does in his review. She brought us up short, as we were all seeing Caulfield in a sentimental way, immediately identifying with him. She would have none of it.
Of course- this was several decades ago, when teachers were allowed, even expected, to make moral and value judgements.
An aside- my 7th-grade geography teacher explained in a clear and never-forgotten way how social security would eventually dry up- and that we should begin saving early and often:)