I don’t like Hemingway. A lot of his work, especially The Sun Also Rises is just the rambling of a self important expat, which tracks considering that is a good autobiographical description of the man himself. I have read A LOT of hemingway over the years and I’ve only ever liked one short story.
A lot of people assume that women don’t like Hemingway for two reasons: (1) the way he writes women and (2) his lack of purple prose (i.e. he writes like a man)
He does write women atrociously, but so do a lot of the classical authors and good authors in general, so whatever. Doesn’t bother me but makes me roll my eyes (the women are almost always vapid cheaters etc. As for his writing style, I find it to be a chore to get through because of the repetition, short sentences, and dry writing. I don’t mind dry writing or lacking of purple prose, some of my favorite authors have a more dry or male sounding style, but he rubs me the wrong way.
Also for the record, women can still relate to the struggles of the guy in OMATS, that’s not chiefly the issue I think most people have with him.
A Clean, Well Lighted Place is the only piece of writing I’ve ever genuinely loved from him.