Autumn in Venice: Ernest Hemingway and His Last Muse

Autumn in Venice: Ernest Hemingway and His Last Muse by Andrea di Robilant 368 pages

When I learned that PBS was airing a new documentary a new Ken Burns/Lynn Novick about Nobel Prize in Literature writer and all around man’s man, Ernest Hemingway, I pulled this book off my shelf, where it’s been sitting, patiently, since 2018.

I won’t say that I am a huge fan of Hemingway’s. I don’t enjoy his writing style. It’s too sparse and the action moves to slow…ironic for a man who constantly craved action. Well, there is the exception of The Old Man and The Sea. That I loved. I had hoped that the book would help me understand more about the man before the documentary aired…and it did.

It starts in the fall of 1948 when Papa and his fourth, and last, wife, Mary visit Venice for the first time. There the fifty-year-old Ernest meets Adriana Ivancich, an eighteen-year-old woman, girl really, who had just graduated from a convent school.  He fell head over heels in love. The documentary didn’t delve too far below the surface of their relationship, which was rather disturbing. He called her “Daughter,” and she called him “Papa.”

From what I’ve read, in this book and others, Hemingway loved to be in love. It stoked his creative juices, caused him to dig deeper to find the words that gave the world classics like A Farewell to Arms, The Sun Also Rises and many others.

Author di Robilant does a remarkable job in only 368 pages. He manages to give readers a full biography of the man while maintaining his focus on Adriana. The couple didn’t seem to have a physical relationship, but more of a visceral one. He craved her youth, her vitality, her beauty.

Before Ernest met Adriana, his career seemed washed over. He was not writing and publishing as he had in his younger days. I can’t help but wonder if she was his motivation for rising every morning to go to his writing room and write.

As the years rolled by, Adriana was always in his heart, soul and mind. Even as his life began to spiral out of control due to a family history of mental illness, several traumatic brain injuries/concussions and alcoholism, she seemed to be the one where his sight landed.

Autumn in Venice: Ernest Hemingway and His Last Muse is a wonderful read and really gives the reader insights into the man. I was sometimes lost in the first few chapters as Ernest and Mary traveled through Italy and France---I didn’t recognize any of the town names. Therefore, Autumn in Venice: Ernest Hemingway and His Last Muse receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.