The Torrents of Spring by Ernest Hemingway 

The book is The Torrents of Spring by Ernest Hemingway. It was originally published in 1926. I read the 2022 paperback Read & Co. Classics Edition 

I read it in July 2024.  

The title refers to the looming Spring time that is just around the corner in the story.  

This is a strange story. It’s winter in Michigan and two men are looking to fall in love with a woman. Scripps O’Neill and Yogi Johnson. They are very different men. Scripps is a pretentious reader academic type but the’s impulsive and an asshole. Yogi is more down to Earth blue collar guy but he’s depressed and impotent.  

I read this little book because I want to read all of Hemingway’s books. Apparently this was his first published novella. It’s not much of a story. It’s very short and with Hemingway’s economical writing it was difficult to really sink into it.  

I don’t know what Hemingway was trying to say with this story. It’s about two sad men who are looking for love in all the mundane places. It doesn’t read like a story, more like a diary of stuff that happens.  

I feel most sympathetic towards Diana. Scripps proposes to her and they get married. But Scripps doesn’t actually love her. She’s significantly older than him and she sees this relationship as her last chance at companionship. She’s afraid that he will leave her but I don’t know if she actually even loves Scripps. She just doesn’t want to be alone. Which is the feeling I get from all of the characters.  

My main takeaway is to not be anything like these men. Usually I can pick out some aspects of Hemingway characters that I like. But these guys are total dick wads.  

I guess one takeaway is to not kill yourself if things get hard. Spring is always coming.  

There are no heroes to emulate. I don’t want to be anything like these men. They’re not even interesting to read about. I can’t tell if the story was longer if that would make it better. I would hope so.  

Scripps isn’t quite a villain but I don’t want to be anything like him. I relate more with Yogi and he’s the one that wants to kill himself. What does that say?  

I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone even though it’s a quick read, it’s not worth the time. Just skip to Hemingway’s second published book The Sun Also Rises.  

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Notable Quotables 

“”””” 

Could she hold him? If she couldn’t hold him, would he leave her his bird? She had felt lately that she couldn’t hold him. In the nights, now, when she touched Scripps he rolled away, not toward her. It was a little sign, but life was made up of little signs. (p57) 

“””” 

He was a white man, but he knew when he had enough. After all, the white race might not always be supreme. This Moslem revolt. Unrest in the East. Trouble in the West. Things looked black in the South. Now this condition of things in the North. Where was it taking him? Where did it all lead? Would it help him to want a woman? Would spring ever come? Was it worthwhile after all? He wondered. (p84) 

“”””” 

He knew now. What a botch he might have made of life. Killing himself. Let spring come now. Let it come. It couldn’t come fast enough. Let spring come. He was ready for it. (p90)