Generally, I would say that I do not like most fiction that is not considered a classic or of the quality sci-fi variety. However, I appreciate Ernest Hemingway a great deal. For this reason, I have just read The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway. If you like him, I recommend this collection.#

I will highlight my favourite stories, and possibly a few of their parts.#

The Short Happy Life Of Francis Macomber#

The first story in the collection and possibly my favourite of all his stories. Surprise ending, brilliant dialogue, and truthful thoughts on the lives of men.#

The Snows of Kilimanjaro#

Such a sad story about a broken and meaningless life.#

The Undefeated#

This is a my favourite story regarding bull-fighting.#

Ten Indians#

The most succinct account of young love I've read.#

A Natural History of the Dead#

This is a story of about battlefield deaths and contains this strange tidbit:#

We agreed too that the picking up of the fragments had been an extraordinary business; it being amazing that the human body should be blown into pieces which exploded along no anatomical lines, but rather divided as capriciously as the fragmentation in the burst of a high explosive shell. [p. 337]

The Good Lion#

I think I laughed the hardest at this story. This story is about an African lion who "only ate pasta and scampi because he was so good." He has wings and is an outsider.#

"Don't kill me," the good lion said. "My father is a noble lion and always has been respected and everything is true as I said."

Just then the wicked lioness sprang at him. But he rose into the air on his wings and circled the group of wicked lions once, with them all roaring and looking at him. He looked down and thoughts, "What savages these lions are."

He circled them once more to make them roar more loudly. Then he swooped low so he could look at the eyes of the wicked lioness who rose on her hind legs to try and catch him. But she missed him with her claws. "Adios," he said, for he spoke beautiful Spanish, being a lion of culture. "Au revoir," he called to them in his exemplary French.

They all roared and growled in Africa lion dialect. [p. 483]