Death in the Afternoon (1932)

I am not certain where Death in the Afternoon ranks today in the Hemingway canon. It was his first non-fiction piece apart from his journalistic production and, at the time of its publication in 1932, it was not particularly well received. Many found the topic of Spanish bullfighting overly parochial if not repugnant. And there was criticism of Hemingway’s strong judgmental tendencies that covered a gambit of writers and bullfighters. Kenneth Lynn, one of Hemingway’s biographers, wrote in his 1987 Hemingway: “While the side remarks he makes about the art of writing are indispensable to any reader interested in modern literature, his tauromachian erudition is a bore, his tough-guy posturing an embarrassment, and his cutting comments about fellow writers by and large unamusing.”

Those are severe remarks about the book as late as 1987 from a serious student of Hemingway. But for my part, I am not a serious student of his life and works. I’m just a reader. And Death in the Afternoon was for me largely enjoyable.

I must admit to some familiarity with bullfighting. While certainly not an aficionado, I have seen and reflected on a corrida or two during my several extended stays in Spain. I found much of Hemingway’s discourse instructive and entertaining and certainly accessible to even someone unfamiliar with the art.

[As a note, Hemingway defines an aficionado: “The aficionado, or lover of the bullfight, may be said, broadly, then, to be one who has this sense of tragedy and ritual of the fight so that the minor aspects are not important except as they relate to the whole. Either you have this or you have not, just as, without implying any comparisons, you have or have not an ear for music.”]

The fiesta nacional is an aspect of Spain woven into its fabric. That is not to say that it is significantly definitional. The sport of soccer is certainly far more popular today than the art of bullfighting and is probably the true fiesta nacional. But bullfighting does have its adherents and it has worked its way into the language and culture. There are moments when matadors dominate the public consciousness. During the 1960’s, for example, Manuel Benítez Pérez (El Cordobés) was much discussed. And today, figures like Francisco Rivera Ordóñez and his brother, Cayetano Rivera Ordóñez, are capturing journalistic ink and female hearts.

What is the value of Death in the Afternoon? Hemingway’s work on bullfighting was unique at the time of its publication: there was nothing as complete and entertaining in English to describe one thread of the Spanish fabric. As far as I know, nothing in English has replaced it. There are several works in Spanish but only Hemingway for an English speaking audience. And it is not only the text that remains informative but the extensive photos and the equally extensive glossary.

For me the study is more than a mere treatise on bullfighting, however. Weaving through the tome is a reflection on death, a theme that Hemingway himself will pick up with growing intensity in his future writings. But he begins it here. One focal point is his “Natural History of the Dead”, a diversion that he inserts in Chapter 12 beginning on page 133. Yet bullfighting itself is an ongoing dance with death and the reader soon sees its linkage with the confrontations between bull and man, hence the book’s title.

It is in this book also where Hemingway defines aspects of writing—both that of others and his own: “erectile writing” (p. 53); mysticism in writing (p. 54); .his “iceberg theory” of writing (p. 192); the connections between writing and painting (p.203). If nothing else, Hemingway holds back no punches whether “unamusing” or not.
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Go to Seville see a bullfight though it will surely be disappointing after watching "The moment of Truth" filmed by Francesco Rossi.

I wasn't really sure what to expect when I picked this up, but I thought if I were to read about bullfighting, Hemingway might be a good choice as a guide. I had no idea it would be so detailed.

I feel like I came away from it understanding the structure of a bullfight, the environment, the emotion. I was fascinated by his descriptions of proper killing, the work of the picadores and banderilleros (who I didn't even know existed before), and all the moves that a matador may perform, properly or improperly. Perhaps the most interesting part was Hemingway's recurring theme of the bravery of the bull. It's easy for an outsider to think of the matador as brave (or crazy), but one rarely considers the idea of a brave bull and how that bravery can raise the level of a bullfight to sheer brilliance if properly used by the matador.

Also, you get a glimpse of Spain and its people through his writing, which I also enjoyed immensely. And finally, some of it was quite funny, as my boyfriend can attest because I kept reading passages out loud to him. ( )

You may like bullfighting or you may hate it and the same can be said about Ernest Hemingway ... and I happen to like both and 'Death in the Afternoon' is a tribute to the men who fight and the man who writes about them :) A very good read indeed! ( )

This was a rather remarkable book , a view into a history and culture about which I had known next to nothing. It is, of course, about bullfighting and it's extraordinary intricacies and ethos, but also a meditation on courage in its various forms. ( )