Book Review: Cross Country Snow by Ernest Hemingway

Cross Country Snow by Ernest Hemingway is a short story featured in Our Time collection. It is about friendship, jovial days and finally accepting the burdens of life. It is rather a contrasting story of two friends who wish to linger in Switzerland for maximum time to do skiing but some duties and obligations pull them back and part them.

Nick and George are in Switzerland for some time and they are enjoying their time skiing down the hill. Nick is going uphill in a funicular and sees George skiing up and down like a tide of a sea. When Nick begins skiing, after covering some distance he tumbles down on a soft snow mound like a shot rabbit. Soon, George comes to lift him and they both go over the fence and start walking on a narrow road in the forest. They reach a bar where the waitress is singing a German Opera song; next she serves them Sion wine.

They both notice the swelling belly of the woman. She is pregnant but signs of being married aren’t there. Thus, Nick says that it is a custom here that a woman doesn’t go for marriage until she is knocked down. Apart from gossiping about women and frivolities, the pregnancy of the woman reminds Nick that his wife Helen is pregnant too and they both need to go back home that is in the United States. On the other hand, George has to resume his studies hence he will be going back home too.

They both discuss the possibilities of skiing together in the USA but feel that is not possible because of shallow geography. They leave the bar and move down skiing till home, if they cannot have skiing fun forever. It is a beautifully story written with a message that the best friends are destined to part away, no matter what they do. The urge to enjoy life and running away from responsibilities is something like two sides of the coin and it seems unavoidable.

Comments

Poem Summary: Where The Mind Is Without Fear by Rabindranath Tagore

Poem by Rabindranath Tagore: Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. Short Summary: This poem is written by Rabindranath Tagore during pre-independence days, when India was a colony of the British. The underlying theme of the poem is absolute freedom; the poet wants the citizens of his country to be living in a free state. According to the poem, we see that the poet is expressing his views there should be a country, like where people live without any sort of fear and with pure dignity…they should

Book Review: The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond

Among all Ruskin Bond books, The Blue Umbrella has, so far, gathered immense applaud from readers and critics alike. This is a short novel, but the kind of moral lessons it teaches to us are simply overwhelming. This is a story of Binya, a poor little girl living with her mother and an elder brother, Bijju, in a small hilly village of Garhwal. One day while herding her two cows back home, she stumbles upon some city people enjoying the picnic in the valley. She is enthralled to see them well-groomed and rich. She craves to be one like them and among many other things of their, a blue frilly umbrella catches her attention. She begins craving for it. On the other hand, the city people get attracted by her innocent beauty and the pendant in her neck. The pendant consists of leopard’s claw – which is considered a mascot widely in the hills. Binya trades her pendant off with the blue umbrella. The blue umbrella is so much beautiful that soon it becomes a topic of conversation fo

Poem Summary: Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Ozymandias is a short poem of fourteen lines written by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The concurrent theme of the poem is that nothing remains intact and same forever in this world. Even the brightest of metal, one day decays with passage of time. The throne name of Egyptian King Ramesses is Ozymandias. It was his dearest desire to preserve himself forever by building a huge statue that he thought would never tumble down. Stanza 1: I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; Summary: The poet narrates the poem through the eyes of a traveler who seems to have come back from a remote and far-away land, referring to Egypt. The traveler r

Kevein Books and Reviews

Search This Blog