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)
(5) Tree line
Hemingway's stories may be short, but honey, they sure ain't sweet—and they certainly aren't simple. At a grand total of three pages, "Cat in the Rain," is one of the shortest full prose pieces that Hemingway wrote, but the concentration of it also means that there's a lot that goes unsaid (and, thus, all the more for you to figure out yourself).
Who are these Americans? Why are they there in this Italian town? How long have they been there? How long have they been married? What do they feel and think about each other? Hemingway offers no definitive answers to any of these basic questions. He has no interest in "explaining" the situation at all, actually. This, if you care, is for you to imagine and figure out for yourself.
At the same time, context is a lot easier to focus on than the meaning. So if you're as good a reader as Hemingway is a writer, then you'll do away with those questions of who and where, too, and spend more time on what is there: a wife, her reading husband, a cat in the rain, and some very strong but uncertain feelings for something completely different. It's this combination of simplicity, intensity, and ambiguity that earns "Cat in the Rain" a solid score of 5.