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In Our Time, much like Hemingway's Farewell to Arms, is a meditation on suffering. Between the short stories, half page vignettes illustrate tableaus of violence and death taken from fleeing refugees, the bull rings of Spain, and the collapsing monarchies of Europe.

My favorite linked sections of this book followed Nick Adams, in part because his story is full of intriguing holes, and in part because much that concerns him here is so banal and slow in contrast to the vignettes. One gets the sense that Nick is holding a great well of experience inside him, that trout fishing in a river is a great relief from the anxiety of his memories.

Interesting too, on the topic of death and violence, was the means by which the author met his own end. Particularly when the following passage from "Indian Camp" speaks to it directly.

Why did he kill himself, Daddy?"
"I don't know, Nick. He couldn't stand things, I guess."
"Do many men kill themselves, Daddy?"
"Not very many, Nick."
"Do many women?"
"Hardly ever."
"Don't they ever?"
"Oh, yes. They do sometimes."
"Daddy?"
"Yes."
"Where did Uncle George go?"
"He'll turn up all right."
"Is dying hard, Daddy?"
"No, I think it's pretty easy, Nick. It all depends."

They were seated in the boat, Nick in the stern, his father rowing. The sun was coming up over the hills. A bass jumped, making a circle in the water. Nick trailed his hand in the water. It felt warm in the sharp chill of the morning.

In the early morning on the lake sitting in the stern of the boat with his father rowing, he felt quite sure that he would never die.