I read all of Hemingway when I was a teenager. I couldn't stand to read most of it again. He may well have been a great fisherman, but he was a lousy writer. Just my opinion.
I've just read the stuff that was assigned in high school or college...Old Man and the Sea, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Sun Also Rises, plus Islands in the Stream, which wasn't assigned, but which I read for fun at age 20.
I'm 58 now, and reread Islands in the Stream a couple years ago...enjoyed it as much as I had as a youth. OTOH, I don't have the heart to reread those other titles.
Islands in the Stream was always my favorite Hemingway story because it covers things that have been a part of my own life, namely fishing, drinking and working in Bimini and the Bahamas. I have to say that Papa catches the feeling of that better than anyone else I've ever read. I can't think of anyone else who comes close even.
I decided to read Across the River and Into the Trees this year...that one wasn't great - self absorbed, too.
But I do think that Hemingway was one of the all time great writers. And characters.
He was a tedious writer, a pedantic bore hacking away at both novelty and description, but an icon of celebrity itself, a beautiful vacuum.
I agree with you.
I am an avid ready and always have been. My tastes are varied...but i could NEVER get through one of hemmingways books. BORING! long winded and pretentious.
but, to each their own:) I happen to live right by walloon lake which some know was his families vacation spot when he was growing up and was referred to in "farewell to arms".