jzelman's review
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
rvandenboomgaard's review against another edition
5.0
Hemingway Hemingway, oh my dear Hemingway!
I feel like I’m beginning to discover the unique, individual, particular value and contribution of Hemingway in the literary canon. After all, somebody does not receive both a Pulitzer Prize and a Nobel Prize without reason — or at least one should be safe to assume.
Next time I read something of Hemingway’s, I should have finished 5 to 10 books of prose — preferably novels, rather than novellas — before delving into his again. I figure that would be the amount of ‘standard’ beautifully written prose I need to digest to have a solid contrast with the ugly prose of Hemingway. Because that’s what it is, ugly.
Nevertheless, the ugliness conveys the beauty of not truth, but authenticity. Naturally, I am aware that his style is “deceptively simple”, but actually more thought out than one would expect. Whatever the truth to that may be, his writing can be positioned on a very interesting middle ground between stream of consciousness and prose.
It is rather close to stream of consciousness, but it has been polished with minor grammar and structure — therein also bordering not so much poetry, as a poetical prose. This results in a reading that lulls you, soothes you, encapsulates you in the mind of Hemingway, without having to consciously do that work yourself. You’re basically hypnotised in a fatherly way befitting his famous nickname; Papa Hemingway.
I’m much more personal in this review than I am in others, too. I believe that also says something about the experience.
I feel like I’m beginning to discover the unique, individual, particular value and contribution of Hemingway in the literary canon. After all, somebody does not receive both a Pulitzer Prize and a Nobel Prize without reason — or at least one should be safe to assume.
Next time I read something of Hemingway’s, I should have finished 5 to 10 books of prose — preferably novels, rather than novellas — before delving into his again. I figure that would be the amount of ‘standard’ beautifully written prose I need to digest to have a solid contrast with the ugly prose of Hemingway. Because that’s what it is, ugly.
Nevertheless, the ugliness conveys the beauty of not truth, but authenticity. Naturally, I am aware that his style is “deceptively simple”, but actually more thought out than one would expect. Whatever the truth to that may be, his writing can be positioned on a very interesting middle ground between stream of consciousness and prose.
It is rather close to stream of consciousness, but it has been polished with minor grammar and structure — therein also bordering not so much poetry, as a poetical prose. This results in a reading that lulls you, soothes you, encapsulates you in the mind of Hemingway, without having to consciously do that work yourself. You’re basically hypnotised in a fatherly way befitting his famous nickname; Papa Hemingway.
I’m much more personal in this review than I am in others, too. I believe that also says something about the experience.
nadyaduck's review
3.0
I love Hemingway's writing. It says a lot that I ended up enjoying this book despite some of the unpleasant motivations. In the end I understood and sympathised with Mary's desire to kill the lion, on her own merits. I didn't understand Papa's goings on with Debba, and it made me a bit anxious. Hemingway's love for Africa, hunting, animals and the men he was surrounded with was clear. Reading about his happiness during the Kenyan nights makes this book well worth picking up.
davidwright's review
3.0
Two works bracketing Hemingway’s life were both published after his death: A Moveable Feast, which chronicles his youthful days in Paris at that time of creative fervor, and this ‘fictional memoir’ culled by his son Patrick from a massive draft that the author gave up on after the two plane crashes that cut into his vigor and may well have been the beginning of the end for Hemingway. The story tells of the Hemingway’s last safari in Africa on the eve of Kenyan independence. First there is the star power of this remarkable couple living the adventure, Mary intent upon bagging a large rogue lion before Christmas, and her selection of a ‘Christmas tree’ with hallucinogenic properties; Papa playing the last of the great white hunters, acting as high priest and shaman to his crew, enjoying the beguiling insolence of his Kamba mistress, and steering through some rough passages during the Mau Mau uprising. Even Hepburn and Tracy would have a hard time pulling this off. There is a great understated melancholy underneath it all, a tragic sense of what might be mid-life for most, but was too near the end for Hemingway. It is a time of waning light, of seasoned pleasures, when what is true of the hunt, of the prey, of the hunter, and of love – that they all must end – seems inescapable. ‘No hay remedio,’ as Papa says in one of a handful of polyglot saws that make the rounds – ‘Nothing to be done.’ It may owe to the author’s never got a second pass at these words, but I think the writing here may be a nice surprise for readers who find Hemingway’s style mannered or stilted; there is a great grace and simplicity here. Mary bags here lion, and Hemingway bags one last lingering story of the autumn of his years.
tallyn's review
adventurous
reflective
relaxing
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
emmakorf's review
1.0
Very boring in my honest opinion. This was my first Hemingway and I had high hopes were let down by 180 pages of how people try to kill animals. I have not finished because I simply don’t feel anything pulling me to read the rest…
jayme's review against another edition
1.0
This book didn't make me think much of Hemingway as a man. I disliked just about every part of this story, although it was beautifully written. The most irritating part was his courting of a young woman from the village. I think I would have been driven mad if I were stuck in a foreign country while my husband flitted about with another girl. Even so, the book didn't really make me sympathetic with his wife, Mary though. She comes off as a little dim in my opinion, completely obsessed with killing a lion, but without any real hunting skill, to the point where it puts others in danger. Yet nobody seems willing to say anything to her, they simply play along.
This book is supposed to be half memoir and half fiction. I don't know which parts of it were true, but no matter which parts were, they all make Hemingway look like a jerk.
This book is supposed to be half memoir and half fiction. I don't know which parts of it were true, but no matter which parts were, they all make Hemingway look like a jerk.
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