This is my first Hemingway book and I have to say …. I’m impressed. I really enjoyed this style of writing. I can see how this wouldn’t be for everyone though. The style of writing, to me, is the type where the conversation seems to pull the story along. It might have gotten a bit bogged down with the description of the bull fighting, I struggled there.
    I struggled, but also enjoyed the bull fighting. I have never been to a bull fight, so it was interesting how gruesome it is. I hope they don’t do that now-a-days. Yet, I was very interested in the historical context of it all. 

But dang, this book just CAPTURES this time period. It really makes you feel (without forcing emotion down the reader’s throat) what it was like to live during this time with someone with means. To travel, for months on end, drinking oneself into a stupor and then do it all again the next day. Wow. I know I’d never be able to keep up (ha). 
     I fell into a rhythm reading the back and forth. The formal, yet informal, way everyone spoke to each other. The rules to society for this group of friends. The way the group moved, invited others into a circle and pushed others out. I felt bad for some, rooted for others …
     It really was a treat to read through this specific snapshot of these times for Hemingway. Feels like getting the ‘behind the scenes’ of a snapshot.