I want to defend him. Yes, he could be an arsehole and often was, behaved appallingly at times. But lots of credible people, people who knew him well, people who only met him once, acquaintances, say he could also be kind, generous, gentle, funny, and everything the opposite of arsehole. Some people say they never saw him behave badly, never saw him rude or arrogant or arseholey. Others say they never saw any good side of him. Others say they experienced both.
I think he was a lot more contradictory than the mythology allows for. And no one’s going to go with the idea that ‘Hemingway was no more an arsehole than a lot of other people and probably not a complete and utter 100% arsehole because who really is?’
Indeed. I read Paris Wife and enjoyed it, but nested within my own amateur scholarship (ie reading heaps of Hem bios).
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This is one of the most succinct book reviews and comments I’ve read in ages. You summed up my feelings after reading this book precisely!!
Don’t read A Moveable Feast or you may be moved to use even stronger language 🙂
My copy has the woman’s legs. What is it with those covers? We have a woman’s legs, often running away from camera; back of head, back of neck. (My cover doesn’t have any of these and between you and me: so happy about it!)
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Looking forward to seeing your cover – when’s the big reveal?
I don’t know when I can show it, Kate. The powers that be will tell me. It’s not completed yet, still some small bits to adjust but the artwork is done!
Recently read ToBury The Dead by Ignacio Martinez de Pison – reached exactly same conclusion!
Yup.
I want to defend him. Yes, he could be an arsehole and often was, behaved appallingly at times. But lots of credible people, people who knew him well, people who only met him once, acquaintances, say he could also be kind, generous, gentle, funny, and everything the opposite of arsehole. Some people say they never saw him behave badly, never saw him rude or arrogant or arseholey. Others say they never saw any good side of him. Others say they experienced both.
I think he was a lot more contradictory than the mythology allows for. And no one’s going to go with the idea that ‘Hemingway was no more an arsehole than a lot of other people and probably not a complete and utter 100% arsehole because who really is?’
It’s always the problem with historical fiction… ‘subjective fact’! I felt the same way after finishing Z and also Loving Frank.
Indeed. I read Paris Wife and enjoyed it, but nested within my own amateur scholarship (ie reading heaps of Hem bios).
This is one of the most succinct book reviews and comments I’ve read in ages. You summed up my feelings after reading this book precisely!!
Don’t read A Moveable Feast or you may be moved to use even stronger language 🙂
Loving the cover as to what Ernest Hemingway was or wasn’t – I couldn’t possibly comment.
The more popular cover was a photograph of a woman’s legs – I prefer this water-colour one.
My copy has the woman’s legs. What is it with those covers? We have a woman’s legs, often running away from camera; back of head, back of neck. (My cover doesn’t have any of these and between you and me: so happy about it!)
Looking forward to seeing your cover – when’s the big reveal?
I loved that book!!!
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I don’t know when I can show it, Kate. The powers that be will tell me. It’s not completed yet, still some small bits to adjust but the artwork is done!
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