Death in the Afternoon

Death in the Afternoon by Ernest Hemingway, 218 pages

Death in the Afternoon is Hemingway's book-length non-fiction essay on the art of Spanish bullfighting.  It is, Hemingway insists, an art rather than a sport, since it is by its nature an unequal contest with a foreordained conclusion.  The question is not whether the bull will die, but how, and the apparent contest is actually the tragic drama of the death of the bull.  In this drama, there are many characters, each of whom will be tested and proven in the arena.

The book is itself Hemingway's proof, an experiment in style that would shape his later writing, an attempt to find new ways to convert experience into prose.  As such, it has its successes and its failures.  The author's long imagined dialogue with an obliging older American woman wears out its welcome long before it is abandoned (a fact which Hemingway acknowledges in the text).  At the same time, there are passages which will make the sympathetic soul yearn to share in the romance of not-quite-modern Spain.  Doubtless, at times Hemingway's own vicarious desire for machismo colors his commentary and judgement.  He seems almost entirely blind, for example, to the obvious ways in which the bullfight symbolically reenacts the triumph of human reason over the brute power of nature.  Yet Hemingway is quite forthcoming about his own inadequacies in the arena, and his analysis of the toreros of the past and present is remarkable in its refusal to accept either the myth of progress or the myth of the golden age.

Death in the Afternoon is, perhaps, a better introduction to Hemingway than it is to bullfighting.  That's not necessarily a bad thing - most readers are probably more interested in the author than the subject anyway.

Hemingway’s Saint Louis: How St. Louisans Shaped His Life and Legacy

Hemingway’s Saint Louis: How St. Louisans Shaped His Life and Legacy by Andrew J. Theising 158 pages

Readers and scholars are aware of Ernest Hemingway’s connection to St. Louis. He was great friend with the Smiths, a high-profile St. Louis family and three of his four wives hailed from the Gateway City. This book is not about St. Louis’ connection to the writer but about those people who influenced him. If anyone is looking for a guide to visit Hemingway attractions, well, there aren’t any.

I lied. There is probably one: The house at 4748 Westminster Place. That was the home of Laura Charles, the woman who raised Katy Smith, Hadley Richardson’s friend, who introduced the two. There’s nothing to see except the house’s exterior.

The chapter on the Smith Family is confusing and seems to be all over the place. I kept having to reread paragraphs to really know who author Theising was discussing.

The rest of the book was a little better. Each chapter focused on an important St. Louis family who touched Hemingway in some remote way. However, this scholarly work is written in the style that I don’t like about reading some biographies---it’s a list of what happened when, and sometimes not in chronological order. I was never able to get to know these people. They are abstract versions of anyone, anywhere.

The most interesting part of the book is the list of “Untimely Ends.”  I knew that Ernest’s father had committed suicide, but I was unaware that his brother and sister also met the same fate. In addition, there were many (12 in all) people in Ernest’s wide circle who died before the age of 70. That could make an interesting book, how all those young deaths attributed to his suicide.

I learned of this book when the author did a segment of KETC’s “Living St. Louis” show.  It was much more fascinating hearing Andrew Theising talk about the Hemingway’s St. Louis connection than it was to read the book. Therefore, “Hemingway’s Saint Louis: How St. Louisans Shaped His Life and Legacy,” receives 2 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

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. 

 

Love and Ruin

Love and Ruin by Paula McLain   400 pages

Paula McLain burst onto the literary scene with “The Paris Wife,” and if you haven’t had the pleasure of reading that novel, grab a copy as soon as you can. In that novel, McLain wrote about famed author Ernest Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley. 

After that book, she thought she was done with Hemingway. However, in a conversation at St. Louis County Library, she told the packed house that she had had a dream about him, after which she felt compelled to tackle the adventurous writer once again.

By this point in his life, Hemingway has had moderate success as a writer, but he had yet to write “A Farwell to Arms,” which catapulted him to superstardom.  It’s 1936. Tensions are starting to run high across Europe as Hitler comes to power. The world is afraid another war is imminent. The Spanish Civil War, however, is in its infant stages

Hemingway loved adventure, and so did Martha (Marty) Gelhorn. A St. Louis-girl, she bucked the conventions of her upper social status. A writer herself, Marty published her first book, “The Trouble I’ve Seen” to rave reviews.

As 1936 turns to 1937, Marty and her mother take a trip to Key West, where she meets Hemingway.  Although they were attracted to each other, Ernest was still married to his second wife, Pauline.

As the war in Spain heated up, Marty talked the editor of “Collier’s” to assign her to cover the conflict as a special correspondent.  She also runs into Hemingway again, and their passion ignites. McLain follows the couple around the world, through their ups and downs, through 1944.

Much like “The Paris Wife” and Melanie Benjamin’s story of the Charles and Anne Morrow  Lindbergh  in “The Aviator’s Wife., I felt like a fly on the wall as I watched two authors try to write under one roof, two people with an adventurous nature coursing through their and two  lovers love and fight.

The only downfall upon reaching the conclusion of “Love and Ruin,” is that readers have to wait for the next Paula McLain novel. Sure hope it’s soon.  “Love and Ruin” receives 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.