Ten Indians by Ernest Hemingway, 1927
The magic trick:
Stark writing style that never editorializes
Strange story. As I read it, I felt like, wow, this is really below-average Hemingway. But in the days since, I’ve found it sticking with me. Something about it lingers.
Certainly, Hemingway’s famous stark writing style serves the story well here. Things happen. People do things. People feel certain ways about those things. But we never get any editorializing from the narrator. We are never directed to slant our opinions about those things one way or the other.
That sure is a powerful way to write, even when the content is fairly slight.
And that’s quite a trick on Hemingway’s part.
The selection:
“He has too, Pa,” Frank said. “Prudence Mitchell’s his girl.”
“She’s not.”
“He goes to see her every day.”
“I don’t.” Nick, sitting between the two boys in the dark, felt hollow and happy inside himself to be teased about Prudence Mitchell. “She ain’t my girl,” he said.
“Listen to him,” said Carl. “I see them together every day.”
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