Reading Hemingway with George Saunders Part 1
The beginning of Cat in the Rain by Ernest Hemingway
I’m working through George Saunders Story Club “bit at a time” short story readings, this post is on my initial notes on reading the beginning of the story below, see original post from George here.
CAT IN THE RAIN (Part 1)
There were only two Americans stopping at the hotel. They did not know any of the people they passed on the stairs on their way to and from their room. Their room was on the second floor facing the sea. It also faced the public garden and the war monument. There were big palms and green benches in the public garden. In the good weather there was always an artist with his easel. Artists liked the way the palms grew and the bright colors of the hotels facing the gardens and the sea. Italians came from a long way off to look up at the war monument. It was made of bronze and glistened in the rain. It was raining. The rain dripped from the palm trees. Water stood in pools on the gravel paths. The sea broke in a long line in the rain and slipped back down the beach to come up and break again in a long line in the rain. The motor cars were gone from the square by the war monument. Across the square in the doorway of the cafe a waiter stood looking out at the empty square.
Reader questions to consider:
1. Where am I right now? Where has the writer just put me?
2. How has my sense of the story just changed? How has my evolving understanding of the story just been altered?
3. What do I expect to happen?
4. What’s at stake?
5. What do I understand the story to be about?
We’re in Italy, at a hotel with only two American’s. The two American’s are strangers to the other people at the hotel, and their room is on the second floor facing the sea, public square, and war monument. When the weather is nice artists paint the palms and colorful hotels and Italians came from far away to look at the war monument. It’s currently raining, making the war monument shine, the palms drip, and the sea breaks on the shore over and over again. The people are gone, the square is empty, and a waiter is looking out from their restaurant.
At the beginning the story feels like its about two Americans in a foreign country, which later implied is Italy. It uses their coming and going to introduce their hotel room which faces the public square and ocean. At this point the story becomes about the square itself, what it contains, how its used and by whom when the weather is nice. But its not nice, its raining, so the story shifts again to a new character, a waiter in a restaurant doorway across from the hotel and square.
It’s early in the story, but I’m expecting the two American’s and the waiter to come together somehow. I also expect the story to come back to the square in nice weather at some point, either to introduce a painter or characters visiting the war memorial, and they are tied in some way to the two Americans and the waiter. There doesn’t seem to be much at stake yet, but there is a foreboding given the square is usually bustling during nice weather, but its actually raining and the square is empty.
I don’t really have an understanding at this point what the story is about, possibly about the American’s time in Italy, possibly about the public square and war memorial, at least as a setting for some event or storyline. But it could also be about the waiter, what they see and experience working in a restaurant on the square with the war memorial.