The Torrents of Spring by Ernest Hemingway (1926)

The individual comic adventures of two men in rural Michigan.

Book Review: The Torrents of Spring (title stolen from Turgenev) was the first long work by Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) to be published (The Sun Also Rises was published later the same year). Apparently written in 10 days, it may have been intended as a contract breaker, though having it published after the contract was broken indicates that it meant more to Hemingway than simply its use as a negotiating tool. The novella was also meant to be comic, a satire, a parody of contemporary writers, particularly mentor and influence, Sherwood Anderson. His wife and Gertrude Stein thought it mean-spirited, but all artists must at some point break free of their influences to establish their own style and vision. William Faulkner said (in a different context), "In writing, you must kill all your darlings." All writers must figuratively kill their mentors, kill their heroes, at some point they have to abandon the authors that inspired, the models, the writers that they read over and over again, to become themselves, their own person. While The Torrents of Spring may have served that purpose for Hemingway, it did not create an enduring or particularly valuable work and it's his most forgotten novel. Mostly it seems silly, though if the reader's sense of humor inclines that way it may be hilarious. Every sentence in The Torrents of Spring seems to need to be edited, either because it's badly written or because it's nonsensical: "The single moment of spiritual communion that they had had, had been dissipated. They had never really had it. But they might have. It was no use now." This is the parody, but how long can one play a single note. A parody can go on too long and if the original is unknown or not worth parodying, it's the parody that fails, not the original. Here the parody includes references to tired old Europe and vibrant young America, and to many literary figures, though its not always clear what point he's making about them. The episodic plot, such as it is, only serves as a vehicle for the humor and satire. More pointedly, even if meant to be a parody of Sherwood Anderson, it's also reminiscent of Hemingway's own style: "He went out into the night.It seemed the only thing to do. He did it." While The Torrents of Spring is not a book to be avoided, there is little to be missed by not reading it except for the most loyal Hemingway readers who want to scrutinize every facet of his work.  [2½★]