Hi,

I am curious to know what women who have read Ernest Hemingways books think of his style, writing, etc. as his books are very masculine oriented and typically on the topics of men and their struggles. I recently started reading The Old Man And The Sea and as I was reading it, the thought occurred to me that I really couldn’t imagine a woman relating to what was being said on the page.

So I’m curious, female readers who have read his books…do you relate to much of what its saying? What do you think of his books?

Sorry if this sounds naive/obtuse, that is not my intention.

  • CommonGrackle@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    This. The struggles of the old man and the sea are universal. Aging, fragility, longing for youth, losing strength, struggling to provide for yourself, determination, failure. Those are just the themes I related to off the top of my head. The idea that women cannot relate to those concepts is indeed obtuse, regardless of OP’s intentions behind the post. No, I do not love the way he portrays women, but characters with rich internal lives and parallels between their inner and outer struggles are indeed something women relate to. It feels necessary to point out that women are not pieces of a unified mind and some will relate to characters that others will not, and some will like a writing style that others don’t. We are just people. Individuals.