For Whom The Bell Tolls v. Of Mice and Men

Read both.

Steinbeck's "Of Mice And Men" is the shorter of the two, actually considered a "novella" (a short novel), and a classic one at that.

Hemingway's "For Whom The Bell Tolls" is his longest and most fully realized novel.

What?? You can only read one???

I read three Hemingway novels in my youth (19 to 23 years old): The Sun Also Rises, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and A Farewell to Arms. I was on a Hemingway binge and read them back-to-back in a few months. I think I was about 21 years old, but do not remember for sure. I remember that I was out of high school, enlisted in the air force, and not yet married. That is why I can identify the age frame. I do not remember what order I read them in.

Those three books convinced me of two things. The first was that Hemingway was probably the greatest American writer in history. He can make the reader feel exactly like the protagonist and feel every moment of the story. The second was that Hemingway was morbidly depressed and it made perfect sense that he blew his head off with a shotgun while on a drinking binge (just another day?) in Key West.

I put these two things together and decided that I did not want to buy a shotgun or read another Hemingway novel.

Steinbeck's stories are polar opposite in their themes. Often the endings are as tragic as those in Hemingway's novels. But Steinbeck's endings, even though tragic, always contain a ray of hope for man and mankind. That ray of hope may be unrealistic, but it keeps me from drinking and keeping a loaded shotgun within arms reach.

Live long and prosper.


The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank.