We read about three Hemingway novels in AP Lang, and now our summer assignment for AP Lit is to read a few more. What fascination do English teachers/whoever plans these curricula have with Ernest Hemingway? I know it’s a personal opinion but I’ve never liked anything by Hemingway. I know simple prose is a component of literary modernism and everything but it makes every Hemingway novel so boring, and the macho bullfighting-fishing-drunkenness activities that occur in these novels, along with the persistent sexism, don’t exactly help to make them interesting to teenage girls. I’ve read plenty of novels that concern subject matter that wouldn’t typically interest a modern teenager, but what makes them so accessible are universal themes and strong prose, and Hemingway just doesn’t have those things, at least in my eyes, and the sum of all of my high school required reading material has thus far been about 50% Hemingway. Sure, I can suffer through a couple Hemingway novel but I don’t see how forcing kids to read every word Hemingway’s ever written could possibly the most beneficial way to conduct English classes when there are so. many. other. authors out there. Okay, my rant’s over now :)) Do other high schools overload on Hemingway too, or is it just mine? And what benefits could reading this much Hemingway possibly have? I just don’t understand this at all.
In my experience, it’s partly because his economical prose has clearly influenced a lot of 20th century fiction. He’s a big fan of the “theory of omission” (iceberg theory) which explains that an excellent writer can tell a story with as few words as possible. So even though his themes and ideas are hard to spot without searching, just know that it was his complete intention. 
He’s also had an interesting life, which makes it more fun to study him (four wives and various affairs, ambulance driving, safari travels, plane crashes, money/health issues, etc.).
However, I think your teachers just like Hemingway a great deal. Mine has a lot of different works.
My AP Lit class doesn’t include any novels by Ernest Hemingway, but I have read The Old Man and the Sea. I can see why some people wouldn’t like the book (or any works by Hemingway, for that matter) for its simplicity and conciseness, but I thought it was a nice read. It sucks that you’re forced to read 50% of books by him; I’d be pretty irritated if my English class’s curriculum contained 50% of books by any one author! I guess why Hemingway is so well liked is because his works have a lot of historical background to them, such as the Spanish Civil War and modernism, so readers can draw parallels and supply the text with context.
My school persistently liked to throw Medieval and Early Modern era books at us in the honors English program. Shakespeare is boring (mostly because all of his plot twists and famous moments are already well known by the average joe) and Dante is no fun to read. I never had any idea what was going on in in the Divine Comedy and Shakespeare may as well be writing gibberish with some words thrown in.
But according to my school those were the only writers that ever existed. The teachers were very critical of anyone who refused to praise Chairman Shakespeare and General Admiral Dante.
Ugh I’m reading A Farewell to Arms right now (required) and I am not enjoying it at all. I’m a huge Fitzgerald fan, and Hemingway’s lack of poetic beauty doesn’t appeal to me. I think how he crafted his stories is impressive, but it is the opposite of my literary tastes.
I do agree about his life being interesting though! Same with most Modernists, I think.
Hemingway is actually one of the first hugely acclaimed authors that I do not like or find it hard to appreciate. I loved what I read from Dickens, and Orwell was certainly interesting. Chaucer was pretty amusing, and as I stated, I love Fitzgerald. But that’s just my taste! Most kids in my class despised Dickens and couldn’t get through the book.
Anyways, just my 2 cents!