第一次是他父亲去世的晚上，也是达林顿勋爵主持重要政治会议的晚上，在亲情和职守，个人和国家之间，史蒂文斯选择了后者，而错过了看他父亲最后一眼，这个抉择正是他的信念所要求的，也就是书中多次讨论到的管家的尊严：“‘dignity’ has to do crucially with a butler’s ability not to abandon the professional being he inhabits.” 管家的尊严在于无时无刻不放弃自己的职守，为此可以牺牲一切。那个晚上是对伟大的管家的压力测试，史蒂文斯以他强大而近乎残酷的意志压抑住他对父亲的悲哀和爱意，取而代之的是自豪感和胜利感，这个抉择是清晰的，史蒂文斯无条件全身心地把自己交给了他的职业。
“For all its sad associations, whenever I recall that evening today, I find I do so with a large sense of triumph.”
“A ‘great’ butler can only be, surely, one who can point to his years of service and say that he has applied his talents to serving a great gentleman – and through the latter, to serving humanity.”
“All those years I served him, I trusted I was doing something worthwhile. I can’t even say I made my own mistakes. Really – one has to ask oneself – what dignity is there in that?”
If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a movable feast.
第一是他的用词。读这本回忆录的第一感觉就是：它的英文很浅显。就像他的其他作品一样，他挑选的词汇都是再平常不过了。比如我们来读这一句：“It was easier to think if I was walking and doing something or seeing people doing something that they understood.” 或者是这一句：“The meals were simple and excellent and the dining room and the wood-planked public bar were well heated and friendly.” 他选用的了easy、excellent、friendly和simple这样simple的形容词，而动词的选择是do、 understand和think这样寻常的词汇。要不是我告诉你这是海明威的作品，你是不是都不敢相信它出于大文豪之手？惊讶之后是不是觉得有一点清新的感觉？所以即使你的词汇量不大，也是可以写出好文章的。
其次是在句式上，海明威大量地采用简单句式而不用从句，这个也是有点不可思议。英文语法的一大特色就是从句，也是我们学习英文时最头痛的地方，一句话可以有数十行，从句叠从句，是无数英语考试的法宝。海明威摒弃了从句，并不意味他写的都是短句。他喜欢用and作为连接词，将并列句（并列句不是从句）连起来。我们来看一个例子：“She loved to swim and was a beautiful diver and she was happy with that life and would want him to work and everything would be disciplined.” 一般来说，英文并列句在连接词（比如and）之前会放一个逗号，可是海明威省掉了逗号，这样让他的句子读起来有一种特别的紧凑感──这是他的一个招牌特色。我们再来读一句：“Scott told me about the Riviera and how my wife and I must come there the next summer and how we would go there and how he would find a place for us that was not expensive and we would both work hard every day and swim and lie on the beach and be brown and only have a single apéritif before lunch and one before dinner.”感受到那种紧迫感了吗？
海明威不仅在用词用句上精炼，他在小说的内容上也推崇精简。他有一个著名的“冰山理论”或叫“省略理论”，在《流动的盛宴》里就有阐述：“This was omitted on my new theory that you could omit anything if you knew that you omitted and the omitted part would strengthen the story and make people feel something more than they understood.” 他说，如果你是有意识地省略一些你知道的内容，这反而会加强你的故事；相反，如果你并不了解你省略的内容，那么这种省略是毫无意义的（“If you leave or skip something because you do not know it, the story will be worthless.”）。他在另一本书中总结到：“冰山的尊严在于它浮在水面上的仅有的八分之一。”（“The dignity of movement of an ice-berg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water.”）
海明威的写作遵守严格的作息纪律。他每天写作不告一段落不停笔，停笔的时候必定已经想好了下面会发生什么。这样的话，第二天就一定能够继续。收工之后海明威就再也不去想他的写作，而是把注意力放在观察生活和阅读上，同时让他的潜意识在不知不觉中接着工作（“That way my subconscious would be working on it”）。在书中《迷惘的一代》一文中，他用井水来解释这种有节制的创作。他说，永远不要（在一天内）用尽你创作的源泉，在井的深处还有东西的时候就停下来，在夜晚的时候让灵感的泉水重新将它注满。
当海明威遇到写作的瓶颈的时候，他会对自己说：“别担心，你一直能写的，现在也可以。你要做的就是写一个真实可信的句子。写你所知道的最真实的句子。”（“All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.”）所以说，千里之行始于足下，一部优秀的小说开始于一个真实的句子。当他写得顺利的时候，他会进入一种境界，就仿佛故事在写自己，而他却都要跟不上了。（“The story was writing itself and I was having a hard time keeping up with it.”）
读《流动的盛宴》，你不仅可以学到简洁紧凑的英文写作，你还将随着作者走进他在巴黎的日子，那个被伍迪艾伦誉为“黄金时代”的巴黎。海明威和当时在巴黎的其他文化名人一样，尚未成名，还在努力，许多轶事在他笔下娓娓道来，清新，谐趣。这是一段贫穷而快乐的日子，就像他说的：“But this is how Paris was in the early days when we were very poor and very happy.”
Writing Is Leading 