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The idea of my reviewing this collection of stories, which are classic and experimental and incalculably influential, is a bit silly.

Nothing I can possibly say will be new, or illuminating, so I won't even try, on that score. What I'll say is wow - some of these stories still hold up beautifully today, still hold an immense power.

This is the author's first collection, published in 1925, and came before his novels, and before his fame, so there is no overtly masculine posturing here. What I felt was a post war wounding, and the "iceberg theory" that is used to describe his writing. So much under the surface, much unsaid, and in a style that rejects the 19th century writers that came before him.

I read 'Indian Camp' through twice, and was brought to tears both times. I dare you to get through it dry-eyed. 'A Very Short Story' sounds like something that happened countless times to young people at the end of the war, with a decidedly unromantic return to reality. 'Big Two-Hearted River' - a vision of a soldier returned home, finding healing in nature (but none of that actually stated, buried deep under the almost plot-less images).

Certain stories feel wholly relevant, while others seem dated. This is something to see, though, it's a big part of what brought literature to where it is today.

(Besides the one about the soldier who begs Christ to help him survive, and who makes desperate promises, I could have done without the little vignettes between each story, I have to admit. Particularly the ones involving bulls and matadors. As soon as bullfighting is a thing on the page, I fall asleep. Why so much bullfighting, Ernest Hemingway? WHY?)