At the time that Hemingway wrote this book the rather exotic art of bullfighting was fairly unknown to English audiences. Hemingway almost single-handedly drove many expatriate Americans and Europeans of the lost generation' to the corrida. Some of his novels and short stories also have the bullring as a backdrop. This book is an interesting combination of Hemingway's literary flair and a how to book on the art of bullfighting. The bullfight experience (watching, that is) became a mandatory exercise for later, mainly American, male writers and formed a rite of passage for manly writing. One thinks immediately of Norman Mailer but there were others.
Having watched a bullfight in Mexico I find it hard to see the interest that Hemingway and the others had in the sport. I do not care for prizefighting either. I will admit to having spent many a fruitless hour watching the 'bullpen' of the beloved home town Red Sox at Fenway Park blow a lead that would make any bull see red. On its own terms, Hemingway surely had more than an amateur interest in describing the ritual of the fight and grading the performances of man and beast. That part, in essence, the literary part is what held my interest. If one suspends a certain disbelief about the obvious surface brutality of the event and rather delves into the man against nature' and dancing with death' aspects that is where you will find Hemingway. Ole
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