We've got your back. With the Tough-O-Meter, you'll know whether to bring extra layers or Swiss army knives as you summit the literary mountain. (10 = Toughest)
(3) Base Camp
Trust us: this story does not earn a 3 because of its language, its length, or the complexity of its storyline. "Well, what else is there?" you're probably be asking. Though it may appear simple on pretty much every level, "Indian Camp," like most Hemingway stories, is deceptively dense. It just goes to show that you shouldn't judge a book by its… um… language? Length? Things you usually use to judge books?
What seems on the surface to be about a childbirth lesson gone horribly wrong actually touches on some pretty deep and complicated issues (see our "Themes" section to see what we mean)—and these aren't issues that get neatly resolved in five pages. We're not trying to scare you; on the contrary, we want you to read all the more closely, because otherwise it's easy to overlook what makes this story great.