in our time, chapter 17: "They hanged Sam Cardinella"

Welcome to the seventeenth of our eighteen shows celebrating the centenary of the Paris edition of Hemingway’s book of vignettes, in our time.

Hemingway captures a scene out of the American newspapers, the execution by hanging of an Italian-American mobster, Sam Cardinella. We discuss Hemingway’s career-long treatment of executions and the behavior of those facing death, along with the detached behavior of those administering punishment. We parse out the discrepancy of a vocabulary word, and we also analyze the eventual placement of this episode into the dreamscape of a young Nick Adams. The power of this chapter represents one of the great achievements of this book.

Join us as we explore in our time before it became In Our Time!